As the parent of a High School Senior, my access to the Internet has offered some unique opportunities.
Most college catalogs can be found on-line, giving great insight to college courses, admission requirements and campus life.
Many scholarship applications require estimated college costs and catalogs normally list fees, tuition, and housing costs.
A tremendous guide to colleges and their costs can be found through The Money Online College Guide 97. Not only can you look at Texas colleges (costs are for out of state applicants), but also at colleges around the nation.
Current topics on the Money Online page include:
I haven't found a more comprehensive source of information either on-line or in print. Since the Guide discusses everything from investments to scholarships, this is something any parent should read.
The Internet offers another valuable service. Services like FinAid (The Financial Aid Information Page) provides a free, comprehensive, independent, and objective guide to student financial aid.
FinAid also has lists of links (connections to other pages) that provide similar or related services.
Topics on this page include: Navigation, Sources of Aid, Scholarships/Fellowships, Grants & Contests, Special Interest, Sports/Athletics and many more.
FinAid offers information and links to both Scholarship Search Services and free college scholarship databases.
Scholarship Search Services are firms that charge a fee and sell lists of possible scholarship sources. Some good information on the Scholarship Search Services, how they get their numbers and their success rates is available as well.
The Financial Aid Information Page provides free access to the fastWEB, SRN Express, ExPAN Scholarship Search, and CollegeNET MACH25. These services charge no fees are databases of private sector scholarships, fellowships, grants, and loans.
College and high school students are able to enter personal information and obtain lists of available scholarships based on that information.
Results include the name of the scholarship, current address, some basic requirement information, and deadlines.
When my daughter entered her personal information into fastWEB she received about 25 possible scholarships. She then wrote each award source using a form letter and included a SASE. After receiving about 20 replies, she then separated out those scholarships which were appropriate to her degree goals and submitted those applications.
On a second search through ExPAN, only 20 possible scholarships were matched to the personal information. However, on further review 10 of those shown were not on the fastWEB list and those were the ones primarily based on the parental information (employer, union, military service, etc.).
Obviously each list has its strengths and since these services are free, I would recommend that each college bound student check with as many as possible.
Some services even provide updates by e-mail if an appropriate scholarship is offered at a later date. Accounts are accessed by name and passcode to protect private information.
Looking back on the work, planning and scholarship deadlines, each student should be seriously looking at scholarships and college applications in their Junior year. Many colleges give preferential treatment to early applicants and funds for financial aid applicants submitted late may not be available.
Money Online: http://pathfinder.com/@@lY6SiAQAinIeTKHk/money/colleges/index.htm
http://www.finaid.org/finaid.html
http://www.collegeboard.org/fundfinder/bin/fundfind01.pl
Susan Wehe
swehe@ix.netcom.com
http://www.netcom.com/~swehe/family.html
Susan Wehe is a member of the Seguin Internet Club
and a regular contributor of this column. She is a member of
the Marion ISD Technology Task Force.
This article and the 31 articles previously published
in this column are available in the Internet in the web site of
the Seguin Internet Club, which is hosted by Seguin Web Design,
at the following address: http://lonestar.texas.net/~weersjt/club/home.html.
This Saturday February 8, the Seguin Internet Club
will hold its February meeting at the Century 21 D&D Real
State office, (intersection of 123 Bypass and HWY 90A), at 10
am. The meetings are open to Internet users of all levels, and
membership in the Club is free. Information to share and post
is expected. If able to attend, bring information to share and
post for everyone to see, as the meetings are occasions for members
to exchange information. For more details, contact Jerry Weers,
weersjt@texas.net;
Gloria Rivera, 303-4764, riverag@connecti.com;
or Alton Hierholzer, 372-4808, altonh@connecti.com..
If interested in writing a public service article
sharing with the community of your experience, tips or interesting
web sites, contact column coordinator Gloria Rivera. This column
is now published once monthly on the Sunday preceding the monthly
club meeting (held on the second Saturday of the month).