Need Tuition Money for College?

Are you a graduating senior in high school this May? Are you thinking about going to college but do not know if you can afford to go?

There are many different ways in which you can help yourself to get your education paid for. One of those ways is to go to the College Foundation of North Carolina otherwise known as CFNC.org
This is a great website set up for residents of North Carolina to "Help you Plan, Apply and Pay for College." You will create an account to go in and setup your profile information and identify which colleges that you would like to apply to. Then you will enter in additional financial information with the help of your parents to identify your needs. If you then are awarded any amounts you are notified and offered the amount in which you will accept or decline according you the amounts and what your needs are.

One thing that is beneficial to residents of North Carolina is that on February 19, 2011 CFNC is having a statewide FAFSA Day. CFNC will have areas setup around the state that will help you fill out and answer questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid(FAFSA) for those who are planning to attend a College or University during the 2011-2012 academic year.
There are 9 locations in Forsyth Co. from Kernersville to Clemmons that will be set up to answer your questions and help you fill out the form. If you do not live in Forsyth County but still live in North Carolina you can follow this link to an interactive map to find locations in your county.

If you are planning on attending college it wouldn't it be great to see if you are able to get a little help with paying for your tuition. Check out the site, look for local locations and if you can visit one of them to help you get the forms filled out and submitted.

Getting Ready for College

Are you getting ready for college, or are you still deciding? Trying to figure out where to go and what it will be like can be a daunting task.

Would it be a better thing if you could get a sample of what life is like prior to actually showing up on move in day? I know some of you are saying "..but I went to orientation." What about those who were not able to go to orientation or have just now decided on which school to attend.

Do not worry you can now go to YouTube EDU to check out what campus life is like. The site contains a lot of free video clips from colleges and university's that have been pulled from their regular YouTube channel. You can easily search for your college by using the Directory or you can check out the Most Viewed or Most Subscribed tabs. They have more than just interviews with students there are also information about classes as well as recently added materials like commencement speeches and clips from Oprah Winfrey.

image provided by YouTube.com

You're looking at Colleges, now how are you going to pay for it?

Did your parents ever tell you that it pays to have good grades? Have you told that to your own children the same thing? In this case it does. How, you ask?

Take a look at GradeFund, which was developed by two brothers from Harvard and Princeton, which actually pays students for the good grades they get.

Michael and Matthew Kopko have really taken helping students pay for college to a new level and with this site they have launched it can make that dream happen for so many students out there that are struggling with wanting to go to college but may not know how they are going to pay for it.

How does it work?

Well the first thing is that the site is doing is matching up students, who have determined their own achievement level in a specific class, with sponsors that have determined what level of contribution for a certain grade. The sponsors of the students watch the grades that the students upload onto the site and award them with the amount per grade.

The student will create an account and determine themselves what their goals are for each subject, let's say an "A" in Math. Their sponsor, which could be a relative, a friend, a company or a complete stranger, verifies the grades made against the students transcript and then will either pay the student directly or the amount will go to the University for the student.

This site also offers additional help and support for students to help them with finding jobs and with internships that can also help pay for their higher education.

What is the appeal for Sponsors in this site, I think that it is a way to not only get family and friends involved in student achievement it is also a chance for corporations to get involved in academics. We see it in the news everyday about companies giving money for scholarships to universities, colleges and tech schools. That money then goes into a fund that is then spread out across all eligible students. Would it not be better for a company to award money for specific academic goals. A Bio-tech company, Law Firm, Bank, Hospital, etc. could sponsor students who were in a specific career path in school as a way to recruit new employees.

Take a look for yourself and read all about the GradeFund site and make up your own mind.

Need help finding a College? pt. 2

So again I say, it is that time to start looking for colleges. Students don't know what to do, parents are looking for ways to pay for it and teachers and faculty members are trying their best to help you bridge the gap.

Take a look at College.gov a site launched by the Department of Education in collaboration with students. Yes I said, well they said, students.

When you go to the site, it looks fairly plain at first with what looks like a pencil drawing of a highway with a large billboard off the road

What this site does give to the students is the Why, What and How of colleges. Why go? you will see some student driven videos on the importance of going to college along with additional information. What to do? takes you through the process of getting yourself ready to apply. Lastly, and most important to both students and parents today, How to pay? this link gives you information on how to pay for college, where and how to look for financial aid and how to get the forms filled out correctly to submit.

There are also additional links for parents/families and teachers/counselors to help them better prepare students for moving on and up with any post secondary institutions.

Need to find a College to go to?

I know for me it was tough, sitting there with all those college catalogs spread out across the kitchen table. Then it was in-state versus out-of-state and what degree program to go into. With all of those decisions that not only our students, children, or ourselves face would it not be better to go to a one stop shop to find out what we need?

Take a look at Campus Explorer

This is your one stop shop to finding a college to attend. You have the ability to search based on three criteria areas. (1) You can search by 4 yr, 2 yr and Career Education types of institutions, (2) you can search by geographical location and (3) search by major discipline.

Once you are within each criteria area you can then filter down even more to narrow your parameters to find the institution you want to attend. You are given links to the schools as well as the average per year cost of tuition and even provides you an Admissions Calculator so that you can enter in your SAT, ACT scores, GPA and class rank to see your chances of admissions.

Hey if they had this when I was going to college the first time around I would have had a much easier time making my choice.

Hey don't take my word for it, it's that time of year now that High School students are looking at colleges to attend in the fall. Go to Campus Explorer and see how easy it is to get as much info before you make that decision.