Caryn Mladen

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016

If you’re looking for free money to help pay for college, you need to know what forms you need to fill out and what types of aid are available — and you need to be prepared to fill out any number of applications. And, you’re never to young to be aware that some people are in the college-aid business to take money from you and make money for themselves, so develop some savvy about when it’s okay to share personal information and when it’s not.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The U.S. Department of Education gives out a substantial amount of money to help students and their families afford the costs of higher education. Student financial aid from the federal government requires that you need to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Federal Pell Grants: Pell grants are designed for undergraduate students who haven’t yet earned a bachelor’s or professional degree. These grants, which are given to students based on need, are especially great because they don’t have to be repaid — but the most you can get is $4,050 per year. Need is defined as the difference between what a student (and her parents or guardians) can pay and the actual cost of her education. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant: The FSEOG is a program designed for undergraduate students with “exceptional financial need.” In plain English, these students have to have a very low expected family contribution (EFC) because of obvious poverty or immense financial drain on their parents (such as supporting a lot of other kids in college or caring for elderly parents). Like the Pell Grant, FSEOG monies don’t have to be paid back. If you qualify, you can get between $100 and $4,000 a year, depending on when you apply, your financial need, and the funding offered at the school you’re attending. Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Credits: Two of the best tax incentives aimed at middle-class parents of college students are the Hope Scholarship Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. Both of these programs offer tax credits to partially compensate parents (or other tuition payers) for paying their dependent students’ college tuition. Independent students can also qualify for these credits. With these credits, you can deduct a certain amount of your education costs from your annual income to get a break on your taxes.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Confusion in terminology comes when discussing the forms of financial aid known as tuition discounts and waivers. Some people consider these to be strictly the financial aid offered based on eligibility. Others define tuition discounts as including anything offered by the college that reduces the amount a student is required to pay for tuition. In this article, both eligibility-based discounts and other forms of tuition reductions are discussed. When you're offered a tuition discount, the college quotes you its full sticker price and then offers to reduce the amount for you. The reduction may be a specific dollar amount of money or a percentage of the total. You never get to see or hold the money when you receive a tuition discount. Your college bill is simply reduced by the discount amount so that you only have to pay the net amount. Tuition discounts, by definition, only cover tuition. Some colleges may extend the discount to other required fees, such as lab fees, but this is rare and must be confirmed in advance. For instance, if you've budgeted $30,000 per year to attend a particular college, including tuition, residence, meal plan, books, and other costs, and you get a "30 percent tuition discount," don't expect to get $9,000 off the top. If $15,000 of the total cost is for tuition, a 30 percent tuition discount reduces your cost by $4,500. You'll still have to cover the remaining $10,500 in tuition plus the entire $15,000 for other expenses each year. You may be wondering why colleges would even offer you a discount. Well, here are the two main reasons: You're eligible due to family, employment, religious, or other association, and everyone who's eligible gets offered a tuition discount. The college admissions officers want to give you a specific incentive to attend their college because they consider you to be special, valuable, and worth spending a little more money to win over. The money the college offers you may be called a tuition discount, an entrance award, or a specific college-based grant, but the effect is the same: The amount you have to pay is less than the quoted sticker price. There are no instances of state colleges offering the second type of tuition discount because tuition is kept relatively low for students residing in that state. State taxes subsidize state colleges, so prices are much lower for those living there, and state colleges rarely need to beef up enrollment numbers through incentives. In contrast, certain higher-priced private colleges frequently offer tuition discounts to the students they want. Interestingly, Ivy League colleges have a set policy that all financial aid they offer is need-based (that is, available only to people who can't otherwise afford college). Eligibility-based tuition discounts Colleges often offer to reduce tuition as part of a benefits package or as part of their general policy. For this sort of tuition discount, you can't negotiate for a better deal, and eligibility tends to be strictly defined. You either qualify or you don't. Here are a few examples: College employees often get tuition discounts. If you're the spouse, child, or (rarely) grandchild of a faculty or staff member, you're often entitled to a tuition discount or a tuition exemption. Some colleges also offer discounts to alumni and their dependents. Colleges often do this as a way of keeping a tradition alive or rewarding return business. Stanford University, for example, offers a 20 percent tuition discount to alumni returning for Continuing Education courses. Eligibility may be based on age. Some colleges offer discounts to seniors. Tulane University, for example, offers a 50 percent discount for students aged 60 years and older. Discounts may be offered to students with siblings attending the college. Seton Hall University, for example, offers a 10 percent discount to students whose brother or sister attends SHU. Tuition discounts are often tied to employment. George Washington University in Virginia operates liaison programs with various corporations, offering a 10 percent tuition reimbursement to employees who complete a course of study with them. Like many similar programs, the reimbursement amount is capped at a set figure. In GWU's case, the maximum that can be claimed is $1,000 per year per student. Some employee tuition discount programs also apply to the rest of the family. The State of Tennessee offers employees of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government a fee waiver for one course per semester, and tuition discounts of 25 percent on all college courses taken by their dependents. Specific restrictions apply — generally the dependant must be under 24 — but they're easy to follow. Programs for state employees and their dependents exist in most states, so definitely investigate this possibility if your parent, or even your grandparent, works for (or used to work for) the state. While you're at it, don't forget to check on discounts available if your parent works for the city in which a college is located. Some programs are tied to religious institutions or organizations. At Rosedale Bible College, active ministers and their dependents are offered a 75 percent tuition discount if they're members of the Conservative Mennonite Conference. Ministers outside the Conference receive only a 25 percent discount, and the rate for their dependents falls to 15 percent. Also, several other religious institutions offer discounts to groups. Some tuition discount programs may not be for college tuition. Instead, discounts for a private school, a daycare, or other similar institution may be offered to the children of those attending or working at a particular college. For example, Children's World Learning Centers offers Johns Hopkins University employees a 10 percent tuition discount on published tuition rates at any of the Children's World Centers. Some discounts are offered for non-peak school times. Pennsylvania College of Technology has initiated an Early Start program, offering students a 25 percent tuition discount on specific courses if they take them in the summer term, which typically has lower enrollment than the rest of the year. Incentive-based tuition discounts Some colleges use these incentives to meet their enrollment objectives of increasing the quality or diversity of students, or to ensure that they acquire a sufficient number of students for the year. The effect for you, the student, is that the college offers you a discount to register with it. In effect, the college waives all or a portion of your fee because it believes that you'll make a significant contribution to the college environment. The college itself funds this amount through internal budgets, endowment funds, and income. Generally, a certain amount is set aside in the college admissions budget for these incentives. You can try to negotiate for a better financial aid package or ask for the financial aid officer to work with you to obtain extra financing through other sources. To make the terminology even more confusing, sometimes this discount is also known as an entrance scholarship. If you receive one, take special note of whether or not the award is recurring or renewable. Many entrance scholarships only apply to your first year. Then, after you're a registered student, happy at the college with friends and enjoying an established relationship with your professors, the amount you must pay in subsequent years effectively rises dramatically.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Winning free college money is rather like earning money for writing. You have to work at it, and you only get paid if you do it right. But, unlike being a professional writer, pretty much anyone can win free money for college as long as that person educates himself about the process, completes the applications properly, and follows up on a timely basis. Perhaps you're asking yourself, "Why would I get free money?" That's not the question to ask. The real question to ask is, "Why wouldn't I get free money?" It's available, so why not try to get some of it? What's Rule #1 in the free money process? Apply! If you don't ask, you won't get. Applying for scholarships and grants doesn't cost you anything except the price of postage and a few hours of work. So, as long as you meet the qualifications, you have no good reason not to apply for as many scholarships and grants as you can possibly manage. Understanding the concept of free money To get free money, you need to understand how the awards system works, who gives away the money, and what these people want in return. Then you need to get organized, focus on and prioritize the best awards for you, do a great job on as many applications as you can handle, and send them out on time. It sounds like a lot of work, but after you get the hang of it, it's really pretty easy. First, you have to know what you're applying for exactly. Free money is generally divided into the following categories: Scholarships: If you're awarded a scholarship, a person or organization gives you money for something you've done or can do, such as getting top grades, being a basketball star, or showing exceptional leadership in the community. Grants: You can get this money for just being who you are — the African-American daughter of a firefighter from Indiana who has the marks to get into college but only half the money to pay for it, for example. Low-interest or interest-free loans: You have to pay back the loan, but you get to use the money while you're going to school, so the money is free for now. Other stuff: Sometimes, you don't win money; rather, you get free books, housing, or other necessities of college life. The words scholarships and grants are often used interchangeably, but they do have a slightly different meaning. Scholarships are usually based on merit, and grants are usually based on need or other circumstances. The generic term award is often used and can mean either a scholarship or a grant. Some awards are called prizes and other, mostly international, awards may be called bursaries. If an organization wants to give you money, it can pretty much call it whatever it wants. Two other important financial aid terms are merit-based and need-based. Read on to find out what they mean. Merit-based awards Awards that are merit-based are given to whichever applicant is the best at the subject of the scholarship. One award may be for the highest overall grade point average (GPA) or highest marks in a particular class, such as chemistry. Another award may be based on one's ability to play softball, the flute, or do any number of things. For a merit-based scholarship, your wealth (or your family's wealth) and income are completely irrelevant. You don't have to explain whether or not you can afford to go to college without the scholarship because you get the award for what you've done. Bill Gates' daughter can get a merit-based scholarship if she gets the grades, and so can you. The moral of this story? Don't think that you shouldn't apply for scholarships because your family makes too much money. Need-based awards Awards that are need-based (primarily grants) are offered solely on the basis of financial need. You don't have to be the best student in the class, although you still have to get accepted at a college to qualify. Some need-based grants can require a qualifying grade level of, say 70 percent, but after you qualify, your grade is no longer taken into account. Then, the only thing that matters is your financial need. Don't assume that you have to be living below the poverty line to qualify for a need-based grant. Many factors are taken into account, from your family income, to the number of dependents your parents are supporting, to the cost of living in the city in which your college is located. The important thing to remember is that need-based money is granted because you need it, not because you have the highest marks. The moral of this story? Don't think that you shouldn't apply for grants because you didn't make stellar grades. Finding out who's giving it away Rule #2 is, "Put yourself in the shoes of the people giving out the money." After you know why they're handing out free money for college, you can shape your application so that the awarders want to give the money to you. So, why do people give out scholarships and grants? Well, the government does it as part of a larger education policy. Influencing the decisions of these people is tough because they base their decisions on numbers instead of individual people. That's okay; the process is pretty cut and dried. After you send in the correct (and complete) information, you're pretty much done. Colleges, foundations, and institutions are another story altogether. These organizations give out a lot of need-based money, but they generally have other criteria to make sure that the individuals receiving their money are also meritorious. Colleges Colleges give money to superior students to advance the reputation of their institutions. Colleges are more attractive to top professors and students if they have a long list of distinguished alumni, and popular wisdom dictates that distinguished alumni are most likely going to come from the top students. Distinguished alumni are also likely to have more money to donate to the college, and the college itself is more likely to generate larger corporate donations if successful students maintain the school's high reputation. In general, college-based scholarships and other awards are intended to generate money for the college in the long term. The best strategy, therefore, is to impress upon the college scholarship committee members that you have a brilliant future, or that you can otherwise enhance the reputation of the school in the years to come. Foundations, institutions, and individuals These groups also have particular motives for giving away free money. Their intentions are partially humanitarian, and you can't ignore that fact when you craft your application. Thus, it's in your own best interest to explicitly mention how generous these groups are to give away money for college students. The other motive is promotional. These groups want to promote a particular field of study (scholarships for the top marks in economics, for example), a particular attitude (contests for the best essay about patriotism), or particular behaviors (awards for individual contributions to civil liberties). To succeed in winning awards, you need to concentrate on whatever these organizations want to promote. You should not fake your attitudes; instead, you should concentrate on those awards (and organizations) that mesh with your personality and beliefs. Sometimes, hybrid awards are offered. They're given only to individuals of a particular background (such as descendants of Confederate soldiers) or individuals associated with particular groups (children or grandchildren of members of a specific trade union). However, within this group, the competition reverts to merit. The particulars of merit may be grades, essay writing, community service, or overall achievements, but the winner is the one who shines. Whenever criteria for an award combines a particular background, need and/or merit, it is considered hybrid.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

One of the best tax incentives aimed at middle class parents of college students is the Hope Scholarship Credit. Under this plan, the government offers up to $1,500 per year as a tax credit to partially compensate parents (or other tuition payers) for paying their dependent student's college tuition. Independent students can also qualify for the Hope Scholarship Credit for their own education. Hope Scholarship Credits don't refer to scholarships in the usual way. Instead of receiving a check to pay for school, you or your parents receive these "awards" in the form of tax credits. In other words, you get to deduct a certain amount of your education costs from your annual income to get a break on your taxes. In short, you get a tax credit for being or supporting a scholar, not for winning a scholarship. The Hope Scholarship Credit can only be claimed for the first two years of college attendance. After that, you can use other programs, such as Lifetime Learning Credits and Coverdell ESAs, to help with education expenses. The amount you can claim under the Hope Scholarship Credit program is directly affected by your income. Congress has mandated that Hope Scholarship Credits be fully available below a pre-set income threshold but not available at all if your income is above another (higher) income threshold. Between these two income levels, a phaseout calculation gradually reduces the amount available for the credit. In the 2003 tax year, for example, the amount of a Hope Scholarship Creditwas fully available if the taxpayers' modified adjusted gross income (usually shortened to MAGI) was $41,000 or less (or $83,000 or less, if filing jointly). Between $41,000 and $51,000 (or $83,000 and $103,000 for a joint return), credits were subjected to a phaseout that gradually eliminated any Hope Scholarship Credit benefit. Above the $51,000 MAGI level ($103,000 if filing jointly), these credits were completely phased out (eliminated). Limits change all the time, so check with the IRS to confirm this year's levels. Who can claim the Hope Scholarship Credit? If you "win" a Hope Scholarship Credit, you or your parents get a credit against taxes in the year paid. To receive this free money, however, you have to meet four criteria: You must have paid qualified tuition and related expenses of an "eligible institution of higher education." Claims can only be made for student tuition, and only for that portion that is not covered by other scholarships, grants, and federal loans. You must pay the tuition and related expenses for an eligible student. If your parents are footing the bills, they get the credit; if you pay the bills as an independent student, you can claim the benefit. The eligible student must be yourself, your spouse, or a dependent for which you claim an exemption on your tax return. If you're a dependent student, you can't claim this credit. If your grandparents pay for your college tuition and you aren't their legal dependent, they can't claim the tax credit. You have to complete IRS Form 8863 entitled, Education Credits (Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits) and attach it to IRS Form 1040 or IRS Form 1040A. In case you were wondering, the IRS defines an eligible institution of higher education as "any college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education. It includes virtually all accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately owned profit-making) postsecondary institutions." Okay, what's the catch? The IRS isn't out to get you, so you don't have to worry about obscure catches or loopholes that will prevent you from getting this credit. It really does want to help you. However, you do need to be aware of a few ways to disqualify yourself for Hope Scholarship Credit eligibility (and avoid them if you can help it): If your parents are married, they can't file their taxes separately if they want to claim the Hope Scholarship Credit. If you're an independent student and married, you must file jointly with your spouse to claim the Hope Credit. Divorced parents, on the other hand, can file separately. If you're a dependent student and listed as such on someone else's tax return, you can't file for a Hope Scholarship Credit. For this reason, parents file for the Hope Credit, not the dependent student. If your modified adjusted gross income (your MAGI) is $51,000 or more (or $103,000 or more, if you file jointly), your benefit is eliminated. If you (or your spouse) were classified as a nonresident alien for any part of the year for which you're filing and you did not elect to be treated as a resident for tax purposes, you can't file for a Hope Scholarship Credit. You must pay U.S. taxes to take advantage of the credit because the Hope Scholarship Credit is appliedagainst taxes payable. If you don't file your taxes here, you can't receive credit. If you claim the Lifetime Learning Credit for a student for a given year, you can't file for the Hope Credit for the same student. Which college expenses aren't covered? Some expenses aren't covered by the Hope Scholarship Credits. Although tuition and other required college fees (including lab fees, student government fees, and other fees levied by the school that must be paid to enroll) are covered by Hope Scholarship Credits (within the specified limits and limitations), some otherwise legitimate expenses aren't allowable. For example, even though just about every college across the United States requires students to have separate health insurance coverage to attend school, these insurance expenses don't qualify under the Hope Scholarship Credit program. Besides health insurance costs, other expenses specifically excluded from the Hope Scholarship Credits include the following: Medical expenses (including student health fees). The rationale behind this exclusion is that even if students weren't going to school, they would still pay for medical expenses in the normal course of life. Room and board. Although several federal loans programs include room and board as allowable expenses, the Hope Scholarship Credit does not. Transportation. Despite the fact that students might have to commute to college, Hope Scholarship Creditsdon't cover any travel expenses. Some students may find this exclusion particularly weird because they might have to stay home with their parents because college residence expenses are also not covered. Personal or family living expenses. These expenses are difficult to quantify and it's almost impossible to verify that students aren't "overpaying" their parents for room or board — so the government simply excludes the entire category. How can I calculate my Hope Scholarship Credit? You can calculate the base amount of the Hope Scholarship Credit by using this easy formula: 1. Take 100 percent of the first $1,000 of qualified tuition and related expenses paid by you or paid by your parents for you. 2. Add 50 percent of the next $1,000 of qualified tuition and related expenses your parents paid by you or paid by your parents for you. This number is your maximum allowable Hope Scholarship Credit. The maximum amount of Hope Scholarship Credit that could be claimed in 2003 was $1,500 per student, per year. The good news is that your parents (or you if you're an independent student) can claim the full $1,500 for each eligible student for whom they paid at least $2,000 in qualified tuition expenses. The bad news is that the credit may be reduced based on your parents' MAGI, or yours if you're an independent student. This reduced amount is called the allowable credit. The IRS uses the following formula to calculate the allowable Hope Scholarship Credit: Allowable Hope Scholarship Credit = Maximum Credit x (Phaseout limit – Payer's MAGI) / Phaseout Range Here's a quick explanation: Maximum Credit is 100 percent of the first $1,000, and 50 percent of the next $1,000; tuition expenses over $2,000 are not recognized for this award. Phaseout Limit is the maximum MAGI that will qualify for the Hope Scholarship Credit. Currently, this amount is $51,000 for single parents of dependent students (the same for single independent students) and $103,000 for two-parent families (or married independent students). Phaseout Range is the dollar amount over which the Hope Scholarship Credit is phased out. For single payers, this amount is currently $10,000 (because full credit is given to a single payer whose MAGI is $41,000 or less, and no credit is given to a single payer whose MAGI is $51,000 or more). Married payers have double the MAGI allowance and thus have double the phaseout range: $20,000. To understand how the phaseout works, here are college payment scenarios for two hypothetical families. Example #1: Payers under the phaseout limit Mark and Mary have a combined MAGI of $75,000, and they pay $2,000 in the fall semester sending their daughter Marisa to college. The amount of $2,000 represents qualified expenses above and beyond other scholarships, loans, grants, and other sources of free (or free-for-now) money that Marisa has been awarded for college. Because Mark and Mary file their IRS Tax Form 1040 together, and their MAGI is under the phaseout limit of $83,000, they're eligible to apply the entire $1,500 Hope Scholarship Credit to their tax return. (Remember that while the first $1,000 is 100 percent eligible, only 50 percent of the second $1,000 is eligible for credit.) Example #2: Payer near the upper range of the phaseout limit Widowed Julie, on the other hand, has a MAGI of $50,000 this year. Julie incurs an expense of $3,500 for sending one of her two sons, Jack, to college at a nice school. Alas, the Hope Scholarship Credit program only takes notice of the first $2,000, and then only the second $1,000 at 50 percent. Thus her allowable Hope Scholarship Credit is calculated as follows: Hope Scholarship Credit = $1,500 x ($51,000 - $50,000) / $10,000 Or $150 If Julie's MAGI was $1,000 more that year, her Hope Scholarship Credit would be completely zeroed out.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Always be extremely wary of any unsolicited scholarship offers, especially the ones that you've never heard about before. Think about it. Unless you have perfect SAT scores, you lettered in varsity track, basketball, and football, scored 100 percent in all your final high school courses, and were named state valedictorian, why would a scholarship foundation seek you out? The answer is: It wouldn't. Ah, but scam operators will. You, and thousands like you, are a potential source of revenue for scholarship scam operators! With the exception of government-based loans and grants, few third-party scholarship funds are regulated, and that means anyone can send you an envelope full of promises or make a phone call full of guarantees. Students who spend hard-earned money for the chance to win a scholarship, grant, or low-cost loan are tossing their money down the proverbial drain. One of the best ways you can tell that a scholarship offer is bogus is when it contains many promises. Legitimate organizations don't promise or guarantee anything, other than the honest, straightforward way that the award process works. Real organizations give you realistic deadlines, tell you whether or not they will respond to your application if you don't win, provide clear criteria for winning, and almost exclusively do not require an entry fee. No legitimate organization will promise you that you'll win — these organizations don't even make it clear that you're likely to win. If an organization is giving away free money, why would it have to go to the trouble to track down someone like you who is willing to receive it? Millions of students will track them down. Scholarship services can't guarantee results, either, because it would be illegal for them to have any influence over the awards process. If an organization doesn't choose its award recipients based solely on its stated criteria (such as high marks), it's guilty of fraud and can be indicted on criminal charges and sued privately. Legitimate organizations don't want to take those kinds of risks. Whether they contact you through mail, by telephone or via the Internet, scholarship scammers generally make one or more of these false promises: "Our results are guaranteed." In fact, no one can guarantee that you'll get a scholarship. Nobody. Be especially wary when a third-party, such as a scholarship service, says that it can guarantee the actions of another (usually real) philanthropic organization. "Our offer is exclusive, and awarded to you because you're in the top five percentile (or whatever) of all students statewide." Do some soul-searching. Despite what your proud grandparents may think, ask yourself whether you're really so special that you warrant the attention of people you've never heard about before? And, for that matter, how could they possibly have heard about you unless your grades or achievements are the subject of major press coverage? "Our service will reduce the costs of getting scholarships." Scholarships don't cost anything, except, of course, the thousands of hours it takes you to develop the academic, artistic, athletic, or public-speaking skills for which real scholarships are awarded. If a scholarship (or another unsolicited offer) costs you money, it's most likely a scam. "We do all the work for you." Scholarships are work, but most real scholarship applications consist of a form, plus some supporting material, such as an essay (writing that award-winning essay for you would be fraud by the third party), a performance video (is the third party going to play the piano or score that winning touchdown for you?), or other impressive accomplishment (that must be accomplished by you). "We're making you this time-limited offer over the phone." Legitimate scholarships are pretty much always offered through the mail; you may receive telephone notification that an offer is on the way, especially when you interact personally with the awards committee, but you always receive follow-up correspondence by mail. Besides, you always have a reasonable amount of time to accept an offer — sometimes months. If you're pressured in any way, hang up the phone. When it comes to scholarships, here's a simple rule that you can follow to avoid getting burned: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Free money gets awarded to the students who are most attractive to people awarding the money. "Attractive" in this case doesn't mean the ability to win a beauty contest, so exposing yourself in a bikini is not a good idea for a video essay (despite its effect in the movie Legally Blonde). The most attractive students are the ones who are most likely to reflect positively on the college or the giving institution by doing well in school and becoming successful, famous, and wealthy — and, of course, giving back to the community. Being attractive to colleges Colleges want students who'll become distinguished alumni and give back to the college, either in reputation or with money. Attractive students are also those who'll have a positive impact during their educational years. So who are these people? Colleges can't positively know for sure, so they make educated guesses, favoring applicants with qualities or skills that have succeeded in the past. Having any (or many) of these qualities gives you leverage in negotiating with your college for free money. Overall, whatever helps you get accepted at a college also helps you negotiate a better financial package. Take a look at some categories of students that colleges want: The brilliant: Usually, the students with the top grade point averages (GPAs) and class rankings receive some of the best tuition discounts and other incentives. Colleges are, after all, institutions of higher learning, and grades count for a lot. The famous: Having written a book, been featured in a major article covering your Junior Achievement project, and even appearing on the local news as a student spokesperson for an environmental group will impress the college financial aid committee. They now have reason to believe that you'll bring renown to the school. This kind of recognition can be a big help in winning scholarships from independent foundations, as well — for leadership activities, activism, or business acumen. The athletic: For colleges with a serious focus on athletic competition, football and basketball are huge moneymaking ventures. Coaches may be paid better than tenured professors, and their scouting systems rival those of the professional leagues. Not only do the colleges benefit from ticket sales and television rights, they also enjoy endorsement contracts, finder's fees, and immense increases in alumni donations if the teams do well. Naturally, these colleges want the best of the best for their teams. In the past decade, some of the attention on sports has diversified. You can find sports scholarships offered for both men's and women's swimming, track, tennis, hockey, and a long list of other sports. You may not get the royal treatment for being a star archery champion, but you can certainly negotiate a better deal than can someone without your skills. If you specialize in a lesser-known sport, you should try to search out the schools with the best programs for your sport. The talented: Fine arts scholarships are also widely available. Many colleges pride themselves on having a top-notch symphony orchestra, jazz ensemble, or literary population. If you're likely to make a name for yourself as an opera star, painter, musician, television producer, poet, or any other sort of fine artist, colleges want you. They know that the name of the college will forever be associated with your accomplishments, and they'll be able to count you as one of their distinguished alumni. The diverse: Look through college brochures and you can recognize the qualities they value. Scholastics, athletics, talent . . . and diversity. Sometimes, being from, say, North Dakota can be a benefit if you're applying to an East Coast college bereft of North Dakotans. Colleges like to be able to advertise that they have a diverse student body representing a wide variety of states, ethnicities, ages, and backgrounds. If you're underrepresented on the campus of your favorite college, let them know. The special categories: One college (and maybe more) offers money just for being left-handed, but the categories referred to here are the following: • Women: Special grant and loan programs are available for women, especially those with dependents. However, some colleges wish to encourage women to join programs that are more heavily male-dominated, and are willing to give promising women a deal to study in a particular field, such as engineering. • Ethnic minorities: Native Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and many groups can apply for special grants and scholarships. • Physically challenged: Governments and many colleges have special grant and loan programs for the physically challenged, but you can also use your circumstances to leverage colleges that wish to promote their openness and diversity. • Mature students: A quarter of all college students in the United States are considered "mature" — that is, 26 or older. Colleges with a lower percentage may want to close the gap. You can also use your greater life experience to demonstrate a wider range of interests and abilities than may be held by your younger colleagues. Others who are likely to be able to negotiate a better deal are those students with a career direction that the college wishes to promote, such as genetics, special education, or whatever interests the school at the time. Ask around when you're applying — after all, you want to attend a college that values your field of study. Focusing on a particular field can also help you win institutional scholarships, usually from corporations, foundations, or individuals with the same background. When you can combine any of these categories, your negotiating leverage rises, as does your likelihood of finding scholarships or grants that are perfect for you. For example, a judo champion may get an athletic scholarship, but a Native American judo champion with a 4.0 GPA who recently promoted her book on Oprah will have offers pouring in from colleges all over the country. Being attractive to institutions Independent giving institutions also want the students who receive their awards to reflect positively on their organization. For this reason, they often ask for some personal information, such as a personal history or bio. They're looking to do good, which usually means giving less privileged students an opportunity to go to college. Some awards offered by independent institutions are strictly merit-based, but most have a humanitarian sway. Not surprisingly, some of the categories that are favored by colleges are also favored by independent institutions. However, the attitude toward judging them is often somewhat different. The following list gives the main categories of students that are most attractive to independent institutions: The brilliant: Grades play a big role in institutional giving, but they often aren't the only factor in any particular award. Many awards require you to fulfill at least one of the other categories as well in order to qualify. Some of the other categories include community service, leadership potential, ethnic heritage, interest in a particular major, and achievement demonstrated by an essay. Then it comes down to marks. The meritorious: Merit is a big deal because a lot of the organizations giving away money are called service organizations. These groups, such as the Rotary Club, the Elks, and others, get together specifically to do service in the community. They raise money for underprivileged kids, support the local eldercare facilities, and give scholarships to deserving young men and women. The kind of merit they want to see is varied — a history of public service, leadership in the community, civic-mindedness, and other high-minded ideals. Here are a few examples of what you can do: work at the local shelters, hospices, or eldercare facilities; establish a hot lunch program at your school; and other works. The talented: Lots of scholarships and grants are offered for those in the fine arts. The categories aren't limited to music, painting, and drama, either. You can get awards for filmmaking, fashion design, accordion playing, authorship, dance, and so on. But you must submit a portfolio, a video, or perform live for judges. The focused: Lots of awards are offered to students entering a particular field of study. From mortuary science to tropical ornamental horticulture, there are awards for almost anything you can study. The ethnic: Some awards are limited to people of a particular ethnic heritage, and others require the applicant be enrolled in courses relating to that ethnicity. For example, the Welsh National Gymanfu Ganu Association offers a scholarship to students of any ethnic background as long as they're enrolled in "courses or projects, which preserve, develop, and promote the Welsh religious and cultural heritage." The familiar: People like to give to their own, so you're better off looking close to home for monetary awards. Often, awards are designated for the children, grandchildren, descendants, siblings, spouses, or other close relatives of the specific group around which the award is based. The main examples are: • Employment: Many trade unions and places of employment give scholarships to members and/or their relatives. Several scholarships are also available for the families of police officers, firefighters, and other emergency service workers. • Military: Veterans' Affairs and the American Legion are among the larger funding organizations, supporting veterans and their families. However, more defined scholarships are available, for example, to descendants of Confederate soldiers and dependents and spouses of soldiers who are missing in action, prisoners of war, or blinded veterans. • Religious: Churches, synagogues, temples, and all sorts of religious institutions routinely set up scholarships for their members. The likelihood of receiving money depends on the relative wealth of your local place of worship and your level of personal (or family) activity. However, don't forget to approach the larger organization — your local church may not have the money to offer you a scholarship but the regional, state, or federal organizations might be another story. • Personal contact: Many awards are limited to members of a particular organization. Some awards further limit the applicants to those pursuing a specific field of study or to those who've achieved outstanding work in a particular field, such as insect systematics (the Thomas Say Award). Others are more open about the field of study, but may require an entrance essay. The hybrid: The Penelope Hanshaw Scholarship awards women studying geosciences at colleges or universities in Delaware, DC, Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia. This scholarship is just one of many examples of the awards designated in very specific categories. Be encouraged — surely you'll be perfect for some of these awards! Be attractive to government programs The federal government gives out the most financial aid for education, and most of this aid is awarded based on need. However, a few merit-based programs are run by the governments (federal, state, and even local), and by law these awards must treat all applicants indiscriminately (that is, without discrimination). That means that they look at your grades and award you merit scholarships based on those factors alone. The people running government financial aid programs — merit-based or need-based — generally don't care about what community service you've done as long as you can get accepted to college. Sure, the awards do have some restrictions, such as never having been convicted of a drug-related crime, but, for the most part, government programs lump all applicants together and compare their statistics.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

As you fill out applications looking for free money for college, you may encounter some people and organizations trying to take money away from you rather than help you pay for your education. Following are a few tips that can help you reduce your chances of getting scammed by a fake scholarship companies: Never, ever give your personal information (such as date of birth, Social Security Number, address, credit-card info) until you have done extensive background checks on the company or organization. Just because an organization has a great looking Web site, for example, doesn’t mean that it isn’t operating out of a trailer somewhere. Always check the background of the company or organization extensively. An extensive check includes checking with the Federal Trade Commission, local police, local chamber of commerce, the state consumer business office, and the Better Business Bureau. Conduct a search for the organization on the Internet using a large search engine such as Google or AltaVista. If others have been scammed by a particular organization, they may set up a Web site informing others about their experiences. Ask the organization how it found you. If the organization doesn’t have a reasonable answer, stop dealing with it. Even when the answer sounds reasonable, the organization may still be lying. Double-check with the original source: Did it forward your name to the scholarship organization in question? Why? Never deal with an organization unless it has a physical location. Even online colleges have physical offices. The picture of that huge building you see on an organization’s Web site may well be someone else’s building. Never send anyone money in any form, even as a guarantee to hold your place unless you’ve confirmed with the appropriate governing body that the organization in question is legitimate. Always ask yourself: If this organization claims it’ll give me money, then why does it need my money first? Assume it’s a scam and walk away or hang up the phone whenever the situation feels wrong or you feel pushed in any way. No legitimate scholarship requires you to respond immediately or risk losing out.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Getting free money to help pay for college is a worthy ambition and an achievable goal. Just bear in mind that you have to spend some time filling out scholarship applications. Keep the following tips in mind as you put pen — or keyboard — to application. Apply for as many scholarships and grants as you can reasonably handle. Nobody checks to find out if you’ve applied elsewhere, so for the price of postage you might win some cash. When preparing the applications, put yourself in the shoes of the people giving out the money. What would make a winning application for them? Be organized. You can reuse application essays and other materials over and over again, sometimes with only slight modifications, so keep everything where you can find it again easily. Never lie or mislead on your application; they usually check. Even if they don’t, it’s not the right thing to do. Be on time. You may be the most qualified applicant or demonstrate the most need, but if you apply after the deadline or after the money has run out, you’re not getting the cash.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you’re a soon-to-be college student looking for free money, you may want to familiarize yourself with the major categories of federal student aid. The following list describes the forms you fill out, the form you receive and some of the forms of aid available: FAFSA: Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the first step in getting financial aid. Not only is the FAFSA a requirement for all federal aid, but it is also mandatory for most state and college aid as well. The amount of your Pell Grant is calculated by the information you provide on your FAFSA. You typically submit an initial FAFSA at the beginning of your senior year (after January 1 and before June 30 in the year you plan to attend). Each school year thereafter, you send in a FAFSA renewal outlining your current financial condition. Unless you send in your renewal, you won’t be eligible for federal student aid (and, possibly state aid as well) for the particular year. The information you provide on the FAFSA is used to calculate your expected family contribution (EFC). In turn, your EFC determines your eligibility for numerous other need-based aid programs, including other federal programs, state-based programs, and college-based aid. You can complete the FAFSA online or use the paper version available from your high school counselor or the Department of Education. SAR: You’ll receive a form called the Student Aid Report (SAR) a few weeks after you submit your FAFSA. The SAR gives you a chance to correct, change, or fine-tune the answers you provided in your FAFSA. The SAR also notes your EFC. The lower your EFC, the better your chances for financial aid. Your Pell Grant amount is noted on your SAR. If your financial situation has materially changed since you originally applied — whether it has improved or worsened — you’re required to update your information and send it back to the government so that it can generate a new EFC and possibly adjust your Pell Grant amount. FSEOG: If you have extreme need (a particularly low EFC), you may be eligible for a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG). Unlike Pell Grants, which are guaranteed to be available to all eligible students by the U.S. government, FSEOG money is limited on a most-needed, first-come-first-served basis. Not all colleges participate in the FSEOG program. Whether it’s simply more administrative hassle for the college or the changeable nature of FSEOG funding (causing periodic crises), many schools don’t offer FSEOG-based funds. Find out well ahead of aid deadlines whether each college on your wish list offers FSEOG money. Consolidation loans: Like Stafford and PLUS Loans, federal consolidation loans are available in two different varieties: Direct Consolidation Loans and FFEL Consolidation Loans. Consolidation loans help students (and parents) streamline college loans by combining several types of loans — sometimes even if they have different re-payment schedules — into one, easy-to-understand, and (hopefully) easy-to-repay loan. Federal Perkins Loans: Campus-based, Federal Perkins Loans are low-interest loans that are available to both undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduates can borrow up to $4,000 for each year of undergraduate study, and graduate students can borrow up to $6,000 per year. Federal Work-Study: This campus-based program provides on-campus jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with demonstrated financial need. Ideally, your college tries to find you a job that’s related to your academic program. PLUS Loans: PLUS Loans are loans to parents, and these loans come in two varieties: Direct PLUS Loans and FFEL PLUS Loans. PLUS Loans let parents who have a good credit history borrow enough money to pay the education expenses of their dependent children. Stafford Loans: Stafford Loans (in the form of Direct Stafford Loans and FFEL Stafford Loans) are a major source of financial aid for students attending college. As you can probably guess from the word loan, Stafford Loans are supposed to be repaid — although, sometimes, repayment can be postponed or, in certain cases, the entire loan can be completely discharged or cancelled.