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Scholarships.com: Financial Resources are just a Click AwayMar 28 '11 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Scholarships.com is a useful resource for finding scholarships and other financial aid. Going to college isn't cheap. Students and parents often struggle with financial matters and money, alone, can often be the deciding factor in university enrollment. Some parents and students alike may throw their hands in the air, convinced there is no possible way to cover the high cost of tuition, room, and board. Taking out loans is one way to pay for school and grants are certainly helpful. But one often overlooked area is scholarships and one good online resource for this purpose is aptly names Scholarships.com. Let's take a look at this useful service. Education Service Facts and Figures: Scholarships.com is a useful resource with features such as: Scholarship Search College Search General Resources Most students and parents will begin with the scholarship search function. It asks questions such as high school graduation year, grade point average, ethnic background, religious affiliation, disabilities (if any exist), college entrance exam scores, intended academic major, etc. The search function will then return with a list of potential scholarships matches, ranked in order of "fit" based on your personal criteria, along with the potential award amount and deadline to apply. Final Thoughts: Scholarships.com is a useful college resource that links students up with potential sources for free educational cash. This web resource asks you to provide some background about yourself or your student, then it returns with a list of possible places to apply for scholarships or other aid. Financial difficulties can often end an otherwise promising student career and can shatter many educational dreams. But what many students and parents do not realize is that there are literally thousands of scholarship resources. Some are offered based on student activities. Some are offered by specific employers to the children of employees. Some are offered to those of a specific religion. Other scholarships are offered to students of single parents. There are far more scholarships than most students and parents realize and Scholarships.com is ready to help link the student to these potential cash resources. Thinking about college costs takes me back to a very difficult time when I was a struggling student searching for ways to cover tuition, room, and board. I was fully aware that scholarships existed, but coming from a family in which no one had ever attended college, I had little or no guidance to help me track down these funds. I relied instead on grants and loans to pay for my schooling and while I was able to complete my educational goals, it sure would have been nice to have a little more loan- free money in the form of a scholarship. A web site like Scholarships.com would have come in very handy and from what I have seen with this site, there is much here to offer the aspiring student who needs a financial helping hand. Scholarships.com, as stated above, asks plenty of questions before it searches for scholarships and returns a list. There are a large number of questions to answer, but parents and students need to bear in mind that the questions are being asked for a reason. The more questions answered and the more affiliations one has, the more likely there will be a specific scholarship that matches the student's profile. Some of the questions are required, but some can be skipped. For example, you do not have to indicate any extracurricular activities if you choose not to. But you have to indicate your student's high school graduation year, select at least one college in which you intend to enroll, etc. The scholarships that this service recommends include ones from a broad spectrum and with different requirements. Not all of the scholarships are simply a matter of clicking a link and signing up. Free money isn't easy to come by and it isn't easy at scholarships.com. Some of the scholarships do, indeed, require simply clicking, signing up, and waiting to see if you are selected. Others are actually competitions. The student may be asked to submit an essay response to a question; create a video presentation; or partake in other activities. The list of awards even includes grants, work study, and other options. These are technically not scholarships, but they can aid in paying for school and it is helpful that scholarships.com points them out. Finding scholarship money is certainly the chief reason to visit scholarships.com, but there is more to this site than seeking out money. This web site is actually a full- service educational resource with advice on selecting a college (including a college matchmaker), SAT/ACT practice questions, campus life tips, college prep advice, and more. Scholarships.com wants your student experience to be the greatest it can possibly be, and it is ready to help the student every step of the way. Scholarships.com offers an effective means to locate financial resources for education and I like what this service offers. I admit that the application process is a little long and the questions are personal, but this is the price you must pay to find the most resources possible. Along the way, scholarships.com will try to get you to sign up for other services such as Upromise.com, Harris Poll, Myview.com, and so forth. The invitations get a bit annoying, but they are simple enough to bypass. A click of the "no" option is all it takes. And if spam e-mail is a concern, you can opt out of future mailings by clicking the appropriate box. Overall, scholarships.com is a very useful resource for both students and parents and it can help locate scholarships and other forms of financial aid that many students and parents likely never even knew existed. When I see how much a service like scholarships.com has to offer and how it helps find free cash for education, it makes me a little envious. Sure, scholarships existed in the past, but I went to school long before the days of the internet and had little knowledge or direction to help guide me to scholarship cash. With services like scholarships.com, these worries are laid to rest. Just answer the questions honestly and you may be well on your way to a financially secure educational experience.  |
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