aunties pics, College Grants and Scholarships - True Or False

College Grants and Scholarships - True Or False

College grants and scholarships are only for smart or poor students.

False - There's an award every type of student you can imagine.

The U.S. Department of Education will let you know if you qualify for scholarship or grant money.

False - They will only let you know if you qualify for a national program like Pell grants.

You should not have to pay anything to receive a grant or scholarship.

True - Grant and scholarship money is free money.

A student may not receive more than one grant or scholarship per year.

False - You can combine many different sources of financial aid.

Scholarships can be used for online colleges.

True - Awards may be used for any accredited school.

College grants and scholarships offer students the opportunity to reduce or eliminate college costs. They can use them to avoid the crippling debt that most graduates experience. But they need to explore these opportunities and be willing to take action. Most students are not even aware of the fact that they qualify to apply for multiple awards. Student qualifications can be anything from their geographic location to the color of their hair. Also, students who are used to national deadlines and dates for things like FAFSA and SAT exams, do not realize that scholarship and grant deadlines can occur on any date the sponsor chooses.

Unfortunately many of these programs are not well-publicized and require research. And, there is no one, definitive source that contains all the information about every grant and scholarship opportunity. Guidance counselors and state education departments can and do point students towards some of the better-known programs, but many of the pamphlets handed out to students and their families simply tell them to check for more college money "on the internet" (oh, and to beware of "scholarship scams").

It is no wonder that students who are trying to keep their grades up, studying for national exams and researching and applying to colleges, give up on spending the time and effort it takes to locate college grants and scholarships. Finding and sifting through thousands of programs to look for ones that you qualify for, is sheer drudgery. However, there are ways to minimize this time and effort. You can register your profile on a scholarship site that has a national database. You can bookmark programs that are a good fit for you. You can set up a calender with deadline dates for different programs marked on it. You can set up email alerts to remind yourself of these dates.

Or, you can find a free service that does all of that for you. There are a few legitimate operations--they won't steal your identity or sell your personal information and they will not charge you anything. So for a half hour's work filling out the form, you can let the college grants and scholarships find you instead of vice versa.