Dec 112009
 

College Grants – Be Sure to Apply Early

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Image via Wikipedia

College grants are still available for college bound students.  Make sure to apply as early as possible because funds are always limited.  Never say never.  Always apply if there is a chance for you to receive a college grant.

Make sure to fill out the FAFSA and the College Board info right away because colleges distribute 10% of the funds in January and February. If your taxes aren’t done use this years information as a place holder and update your online forms when you get it.

Check out these articles for leads on College Grants:

FAFSA Form | Financial Aid Finder

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the way the government and your college or university determine how much financial assistance you are entitled to, from federal grants and student loans to federal work study. …

Gates Foundation Awards $12.9M in Community College Grants – Gearlog

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday awarded an additional $12.9 million intended to improve education and graduation rates at community colleges.

College Grants and Interest-free Loans for Kentucky, New York …

News stories this week reported that contributions from wealthy donors will result in new college grants and loans for students in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and.

Top News – Ed-tech grants target remedial college courses

Social networking soon could be used to help form a virtual community of campus educators charged with creating a national certification for teachers of remedial college courses, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced …

Grants and Free Money for College Online | Financial Aid …

Free money is available for online college students through grants from the government, colleges, and private sources.

Get A Job to Pay for College

Seasonal Jobs for College Students | Financial Aid Finder

5 Seasonal Jobs for College Students. Written by mara No Comments Last Updated:: December 7, 2009. With Thanksgiving break a distant memory and finals right around the corner, it’s almost time for winter break. …

Just for Fun

CORPORATE SHILLING – SMIRNOFF VODKA IS GIVING AWAY “PARTY GRANTS …

The best part of getting a research grant in college is blowing all the money on a big party for your friends the day the check clears. The best part of getting a “party grant” is the same thing minus having to come up with 20000 words …

Seriously, you probably wnat to pay for college with any college grants you receive.

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Oct 292008
 

On occasion, I am featuring a work from home parent on the Mom Pays for College Blog. Frederick Pohl helped me on my extreme sports video blog.  He made all new graphics for the site and moved it to a new location.   I found Frederick on http://topsoul.elance.com

If you ever need some kind of “e” work done, elance is a good resource.   I’m republishing a blog post from elance about Frederick here.  He’s got an inspiring story!  I do recommend Frederick for graphics or web work.  I’m sure he has other talents too, so check him out if you need some help.  Take a look at the http://extremesportsblog.com to see some of his work.  Here’s the post from elance:

 

Stay-At-Home Dad Dreams Big and Finds Success

Community Spotlight

Elance provider Frederick Pohl’s lifelong dream was to become a successful business owner and family man. His dream became a reality earlier this year when he launched his design business, Pohl Media, on Elance – giving him more time to spend at home with his new daughter.

How did Frederick do it? Here’s his story in his own words:

“After college, I spent ten years working for a number of small businesses while trying to build my design business, Pohl Media, in my spare time,” Frederick explained.

“In 2007, my wife and I were blessed with a baby girl and I decided to quit my job to stay at home with her and work on developing my business.”

“I joined Elance in May of this year and since then, my life has changed so much for the better,” Frederick said. “Because of Elance, I can successfully run my business from home and I don’t have to leave my daughter in day care all day.”

The flexible arrangement of working from home has enabled Frederick and his family to stay in their current location of Gainesville, Florida. “If not for Elance, I would have to move my family to a big city to get the same type of business and income I earn through Elance remotely,” said Frederick.

Almost more important than the earnings, Frederick says, is the quality of work he is finding through Elance. Since joining, Frederick has used almost every graphic design skill in his tool belt including design applications such as Flash, PHP and MySQL.

In fact, Frederick has found so much work on Elance, he is upgrading from an Individual membership to a Small Business membership, and hiring local designers to help him turn jobs around quicker and take on more projects.

“Before Elance, I tried everything to get work. I ran ads in the Yellow Pages, sent out e-mailers and postcards – I spent over $1,000 on local advertising just to get a few good clients,” Frederick said. “But thanks to Elance, Pohl Media is expanding fast and new projects keep coming in.”

Congratulations, Frederick!

 

If you are a work at home parent and would like to be featured on the Mom Pays for College blog, send me an email and we can see if it is a fit.    Lana


Oct 132008
 

PSAT – Practice SAT

Next week my oldest daughter takes the PSAT/NMSQT which is a practice test, except they use the score to place kids on the list for the National Merit Scholarship Award.  This award is worth about $1,000 for one year. I found this and other things out about the getting into college process last night at her school.  The college guidance counselors had a meeting for parents to fill them in on the process and answer questions.

You can a free practice SAT – a PSAT if you like at Princeton Review online.

My kid goes to a college prep school, Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, MI, and they have a great “get into college” support team for the kids. I’ll share what I learn with you along the way in case your out of the loop on that process. Or in case you kid doesn’t tell you.

One piece of advice for the SAT and ACT test reporting is not to send them out automatically when the test results are processed.  Yes. You can save a few dollars and perhaps some time this way but if your kid wants to retake a test or perhaps doesn’t want to send a particular test score to a certain college then you are safe.  You can make the decision after you find out the scores.

Taking the practice tests will not improve your intelligence but it will help to figure out how much time to spend on each section; figure out how to skip a question and go back later without messing up the order of the answers, and see where you need to improve the test taking process in general.

I’ll share more as I find out. Hope this helps. Practice your SAT with a PSAT.

 


Oct 022008
 

Practice Your ACTs and SATs with the Princeton Review

princeton reviewIf your 11th grader is thinking about college, you need to know that the Princeton Review gives your kid the chance to take a free SAT or ACT college prep exam about 2 – 3 times per year. All you need to to is call their toll free number and set up the test date in a location near you.

There is also an option to get a test sent to your house to take at home. This might be OK if you have the discipline to time the test and provide a location with no distractions. However, it’s probably better practice to take the test at a location away from home to better mimic the actual testing environment.

Once you get your results back, you’ll be able to see where your study efforts are best spent. No sense studying for math if you got them all right.

I’ve also read that kids who over study or study too close to the test date do worse than kids who just take it in stride. So don’t overdo it or the results could backfire.

Princeton Review Offers Coaching

The Princeton Review also coaches kids in particular areas or they can take a course to prepare for either the SAT or the ACT. You can find local professionals and teachers at your school that can help coach your kids through the process.

It’s a good thing to try and do well on these tests since better scores may help your child get scholarships or get into their preferred college.

They also have an option to take online tests. Check them out at Princeton Review  http://PrincetonReview.com


Sep 202008
 

You can work at home to pay for college.

I have been writing about college, scholarships, grants and so forth for a while now and I will continue to share items of interest about college occasionally. But as of now my focus is to give specific information on how you can pay for college, either for yourself or your kids, by working at your own business, primarily home based.

Anyone can get a job working for someone else. Most people do and it’s perfectly good.  However, as a busy single mom, you need more time an more money than a trade dollars for hours job can provide.

If you’re interested in keeping your current job and making extra income by working at home, great.  If you need to get a day job for a while, then by all means take care of yourself.  Hopefully soon you’ll become so successful that you won’t have to keep the regular job if you don’t want to.  Then you can do whatever it is you want, travel with your kids and stay in nice places and not have to worry about the expenses, pay for college, whatever.

Working for yourself to pay for college can be a huge struggle.

If you’ve found something that has really made you successful financially overnight, I want to know about it. So send me an email.  I have found that any reward is going to take effort.  But the great thing about having a leveraged business is that the rewards can be larger than your input over time if you plan well. And you get to keep them.

Looking forward to sharing what I learn about how to pay for college in the hopes in will benefit you too.


Sep 042008
 

Paying for College Education

As a single parent or even if you live in a two parent household, paying for your kid’s college education is a difficult thing to do. There are several ways in which not only you but your student can pay for college cheaper and faster. Your kid’s college education is important and you need to be on top of what will get him or her through the four years, or maybe even twelve years, the cheapest or fastest way possible. Knowing a few easy steps will be beneficial for both your financial obligations and their career after college.

One thing you can encourage your student to do is to take courses from the local community college. They complete their first two years at a community college and save thousands of dollars then move on to a traditional college. Make sure that all the credits they take transfer to a four year college or university and then they can finish out their last two years as a junior and senior at a college of their choice.

By going to community college the classes are smaller and your child will have more help than in a traditional four-year college where the classes can be upwards of 400 students large. They will have a chance to work on their GPA and other academic endeavors so that they may earn more scholarships and grants for completing the last two years of college.

Good Applications for College Education

Another way to save money is find the right courses for your student. Help them fill out their applications and put in as many applications as possible. Sometimes when a recruiter at a college cannot fill the quota they will reduce the tuition price or offer a grant to get your son or daughter into the college.

Your kid’s college education will depend on them as far as their work ethic and their ability to achieve. But if they have a good work ethic in high school and have the qualifications a college wants, the college will give them incentives for entering their ranks of academia.

Have your child look into work programs. Some corporations will pay for your student’s tuition given a promise to work for them for a couple years after they get out of college. These types of grants are usually for high school students that have a high ability and work ethic. You as a parent can help and instill a work ethic and develop academic ability in your child, while they are still in high school. This will give them a better chance to obtain these types of grants and be able to go to the college they want and have a future employer pay for it.

There are many ways to pay for your kid’s college education but look for the ways that are free first. Use only financial aid and student loans as a last resort. You don’t want your son or daughter’s day of graduation to include a field of worries about how they or you are going to pay back the student loans they got from their college education.

 


Aug 292008
 

You are a working mother, and you pay for kids education.

Maybe the kid is in a private school or the child is now a college age student and is attending a college or university.  You know that it’s a tough road to travel, trying to balance your finances, your life and trying to supplement the financial obligations to your child.  School tuition is not cheap and even well-off two-parent households have a hard time sending their children to private schools or to college.  It seems like an impossible task to provide for your child’s education when maybe you are even getting an education yourself at the same time.

pay for kids educationThere are ways to help with your money and your time when you’re trying to pay for your kid’s education.  You may already be working one or two jobs to pay for your own finances.  The best way to pay for your kid’s education is to pre-plan.  When the child is born, start a savings account or a pre-paid tuition account for them at a local college or university.  These types of programs will allow you to put a little money in each month so that when your child is ready to go to a private school or college you have the money ready for them.  This way you won’t have to take out any loans bearing a large interest rate or put yourself under financial stress trying to pay tuition.

Some states, such as Wyoming, offer single parents assistance when their own financial means cannot meet the tuition or book costs.  Check with your local department of family services or other child welfare service for more information.

There are also many online advice groups that can help you find out more information about paying for your kid’s education.  These networks of single mothers provide advice and information to other mothers that are facing similar hardships.  Online social networking of single mothers are a great way to make new friends and get great advice of how not only to pay for your kid’s education, but other trying matters such as balancing time, work, and a quality life for your child.

Tuition rates are going to go up.  Currently, in some universities the tuition rate has gone up 10 to 12% a year.  If your son or daughter has just been born, the tuition, which is already high, it’s going to be almost 180% higher than it is now when they are 18 years old.  It is time to start looking at your finances and putting away money now.

If you have low credit or bad credit scores, putting away money in a kid’s education fund is a great way to build your credit.  With a higher credit score, you can make large purchases like a home or car.  If the education fund that you have put in place does not pay for tuition completely, your higher credit score will allow you to get a lower interest rate loan to help pay for your child’s education.  Just because you’re a single mother is no excuse and your child can have a quality education they deserve when you can pay for kids education.

 


Aug 262008
 

College Grants for Single Mothers

When you are a single mother, you have plenty of things to worry about.  Besides the tuition for school, your books, and other expenses that go along with going to college.  One thing that will relieve the pressure, at least financially is a grant.  College grants for single mothers is money that is given to you by an institution or organization that will allow you to pay for educational tuition and extra expenses and you don’t have to pay the money back.

A grant is not considered a loan.  It is an amount of money that is given to you for specific purpose.  Once the tuition and your other expenses are paid, you can use the money for whatever you wish.

college grants for single mothers requires no paybackWhen you take out a student loan, you will have to pay the money back.  This means that through the end of your college career and you come upon the date of graduation, six months later, you’ll have to start paying bills towards the college education loan.

If you are single mother, this may not be a prudent thing for you to do.  Remember that college grants for single mothers do not have to be repaid but a loan does.

But by getting a college grant you may be able to transcend from an academic career to your real-life career without owing any money.

You need to fill out the FAFSA before getting any college grants for single mothers.

To apply for a grant, you can either go to your financial aid office or talk to a financial aid officer, or you can go online and find out what grants are available for you.  Your financial aid officer will talk to you about local grants that will help you pay for college.

You may have to have special admissions requirements for each grant.  Those which are federally sponsored require that you have a low income or that you do not have a job.  Fortunately, the grant will be adjusted for your economic need.

Other grants are given to you from the state in which you live and have to meet certain financial and academic guidelines.  You have to prove that you have a good grade point average and that you will finish school in a timely manner.

If you search for a grant online remember that any time a website asks for money upfront, it is probably a mistake to choose that company.  The purpose of a grant is to give you money not take your money.

The resources that they use to find grants on the Internet are the same resources that you can locate with the proper search words.  Don’t look at the first or second web pages listed on any grant our scholarship offer you see.  Rather go way past the popular hits and find the obscure grants that nobody has applied for.

You can find specific grants for sexual orientation, ethnic background, or religious affiliations.  There are even some grants for political affiliations. You may find specific college grants for single mothers.

As a single mom, you will probably be given some leeway in the application process.  There are a lot of grants out there for single parents, and if you are single mom you even have an added bonus to the application process.  You are a female and the gender itself will allow you more accommodations for grants and scholarships.

You are a single parent and this alone will prove that you have financial need.  Apply for as many grants as you can, because if you are not accepted by one, you will have a backup source for other finances. Don’t limit yourself to college grants for single mothers as there are other types you can look for too.

 


Aug 182008
 

Just to let you know I’m performing my landlady duties on some of my student rental houses in Ann Arbor, MI and so not writing much.  I really like the kids who live in my houses. However, some of them can create entropy in a big way. For any non-engineering science types, entropy is disorder.

You should have seen this one house that 10 boys lived it. Disorder is kind.  The place was T-R-A-S-H-E-D.  When I opened the refrigerators, it smelled like dead things were in there.  Every food item had turned to a liquid goo. Disgusting.  And the stove had a one inch thick layer of never been cleaned food particles over the top surface. Nasty!

I sure hope you or your kids never treat any property that badly.  I’m sure you won’t. Well I hired the best cleaning service in Ann Arbor, Paula’s Cleaning. It took them two days but the place is livable. Will write soon!

 


Aug 142008
 

Guest Writer Tammy Greene shares her ideas about online management degrees.

 

Securing Jobs With Online Management Degrees
By Tammy Greene

An accredited management degree is a must-have if you want to build your career in the field of management. In case you do not have time to attend conventional classes on a regular basis, then you should consider acquiring an online management degree from one of the many online colleges & universities offering management programs and degrees. The best part about a degree earned through distance education is that employers all around the world treat this degree in par with a traditional management degree, especially if you attained it from an accredited online college.

Accredited Management Colleges and Universities

Finding an accredited online college or university is an absolute must if you want your online management degree to help you in securing jobs. Employers would never hire students who have acquired their management degree from a low-standard or unaccredited college or university. When you achieve your online management degree from an unaccredited college, there is always a doubt in the mind of employers with regard to your qualification. This is because of the simple reason that the objective of unaccredited institutions is to earn money rather than imparting knowledge to their students.

To check the accreditation of any online management college you just need to contact the Department of Education. You can also acquire the details of college accreditation in the prospectus form that you purchase at the time of taking admission. It is advisable that you talk with the students that are presently studying in the college as well as the alumni if possible before enrolling in an online degree program.

Course Structure:

Before opting for any online management degree program, make sure that you analyze the course structure of the program. Stay away from it if you believe that the program is not in line with the current industry standards. For example, if you are interested in getting a management degree in marketing, the course should include marketing methodologies that are currently being used by well-reputed organizations.

An online management degree program should include a project report at the completion of course. When you successfully complete a project report during the course of your online program, it gives a signal to the employers that you can handle projects on your own. At present, when competition is quite intense in the management field, how you have completed project report will decide whether you are going to get the job or not.

Benefits of Online Management Degree Programs:

Some of the benefits of online management degree programs are mentioned below:

1. You can study from the comfort of your home with the help of Internet.
2. The fee of online management degree programs is quite less as compared to the traditional management degree programs.
3. You can acquire management degree through distance education by studying at your own pace. This is not the case with traditional management degree programs where you are bound to finish your study in two years.
4. You do not need to prepare any notes or case studies in you program, as your online college or university will provide you with everything.
5. If you are facing a problem in understanding any topic, you can contact the faculty members immediately through live chat, discussion boards, email and phone. In a traditional management degree program, once you miss a classroom lecture you are not going to get another chance.

Online management degrees are the “in” thing these days. Individuals are turning to the internet to acquire their management degrees due to their already hectic lifestyles. Degrees should be acquired only from accredited online colleges and universities or else the degree would just be a waste of time, money and energy. The benefits of online management degrees are numerous, the best of them being the fact that they guarantee professional success.

Tammy Greene is an educationist with decades of teaching and learning experience. Currently, Tammy is working for OnlineEduBlog acting as their advisory member and helping students with online degrees and distance learning programs and finding accredited online colleges and universities

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tammy_Greene
http://EzineArticles.com/?Securing-Jobs-With-Online-Management-Degrees&id=1384140

What do you think about getting an online management degree?