Get organized - and keep track of your scholarship and grant applications

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Today I got some great organizational advice from three different sites.

#1: How to Organize the Scholarship Process - this is from the Scholarships4School site. Some of the methods mentioned here include keeping your original data (like recommendations and test scores) separate from the rest of your paperwork. Also, notes of any telephone conversations should also be kept on file in the same place you are keeping everything.

(from me) I used to use a Teacher File Folder that had a handy lock and carrying handle. These can be gotten at Wal-Mart for a good price. These are easy to use, and have a bar that supports a regular handing file folder. If you are not using a file cabinet, these kind of holders are very useful.

#2. The College Answer Guy site has some other suggestions for your scholarship or grant search. He suggests both a wall and pocket calendar to help you keep track of deadlines. He also agrees with the file folder approach, and suggests you label everything carefully.

#3. Finally, The College Data site suggests that you make a check-off list for each scholarship requirement. Also, a list of your accomplishments and a list of people who can write recommendation letters can help you answer these kinds of questions on your application. Also, they suggest having a good headshot photo in case it is needed.

You can find out more by clicking on the links - above or below here.

The College Data site
https://www.collegedata.com/

The College Answer Guy
http://www.collegeanswerguy.com/

Scholarship Help
http://www.scholarshiphelp.org/

Good luck on your scholarship or grant applications!

-Betsyanne


Find great scholarships and grants links here:
http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html


My Squidoo pages - and Join Squidoo with my referral: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/lizziebeth

Harvard University's Scholarship links

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 Link of the Day:
Harvard University's Outside Award Link Page

This page also has links to Harvard's Financial Aid Tools and a Contact Us link.

And here is their Financial Aid (main) page.
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861&pageid=icb.page227820

Why Harvard? It's a great school!
If you can get into Harvard, you can make great freinds, and learn from the best of teachers.

This photo is from Alcinoe at Morguefile.

Page URL:	http://mrg.bz/Ixs23v
Image URL:	http://mrg.bz/lBhMut

-Betsyanne

My Squidoo pages - and Join Squidoo with my referral: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/lizziebeth

New Online Scholarship and Grant information at .org sites!

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The neat thing about .org sites are that they are public service sites. They do not charge for their services.

I found several today while searching for scholarship information, so I want to share them with you here.

#1 Scholarship Help - this site has a 2005 copyright, and has some useful information, but some of it is dated, and at least one link is also . But they have an interesting Internet Guide page: http://www.scholarshiphelp.org/helpful_links.htm. This has some sites I am not familiar with.

#2  School Scholarships - this school seems to only offer links to online schools, but offered some articles and a link to the next site, Grants.gov.  http://schoolscholarships.org/

#3 Grants.gov - this site helps people apply for Federal grants. It has a nice search page here: http://grants.gov/applicants/find_grant_opportunities.jsp

#4 Apply Texas: this is a Texas admission page for every Texas Public University, "plus some private and two-year schools." What a great idea - and you can find out what is offered as far as scholarships with your application here: https://www.applytexas.org/adappc/gen/c_start.WBX

Another site I liked was the sdfoundation links page here (from the San Diego Foundation): http://www.sdfoundation.org/scholarships/websites.shtml.

All for now,
Betsyanne

My Squidoo pages - and Join Squidoo with my referral:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/lizziebeth

Get ready for summer.... when you can search for scholarships!

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More great information from the Financial Aid News site

I ran across a great article today from the Financial Aid News site. The article is called Using Your Summer Break to Search for Scholarships.

This is a great idea. The author gives three main points: 1. Set aside some time every day [for researching and applications], 2. Submit only high-quality applications [be confident about how well you have done each application], and 3. Use your community resources [and make local connections].

Find out more by checking out this article:
http://www.financialaidnews.com/headline/using-your-summer-break-to-search-for-scholarships/

The Financial Aid News has a monthly newsletter here: http://www.studentloannetwork.com/newsletter/ that is free. All you need to do is sign up.

A backlog of podcasts by Christopher S. Penn are available here:
http://www.financialaidnews.com/category/podcast/

He left the site in January (I just found out) but has done many financial aid podcasts that are very helpful.

The introduction video to the site is here:
http://www.financialaidnews.com/home/

All for now,
-Betsyanne

You can find more great scholarship links at the Nontrad site Scholarship pages
http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html and
http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships_page2.html

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR SCHOLARSHIP SEARCH!

FYI: The photo on this posting is from the great Microsoft clip art site, for owners of Microsoft Word software.

101 College Grants you Never Heard Of - from CollegeScholarships.org

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I love this page from CollegeScholarships.org.

For one thing, there area 101 College Grants described here. They include grants to study photography, ancient languages, music, religion, African studies, farming and lots more.

Just go here to the website:
http://www.collegescholarships.org/grants/101-grants.htm

and check out all the great links!

All for now,
-Betsyanne

My Squidoo pages - and Join Squidoo with my referral:
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The Online Education Database and Online School Accreditation

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I like this website, not only because it is an "org." (nonprofit) site, but because it has many good resources on it.

Definitely bookmark this site in your scholarship search. The page I went to today is one for Graduate Scholarships. It has links on it to ethnicity-based grants, specialty grants, subject grants and degree-based grants (see the left side of the website page).

The page is here:
http://oedb.org/grant/graduate-school

The Online Education Database has a new section on it now (2009) called Rankings. It tells if the college or university you are interested in is an accredited school. This is so important, especially because if you have to transfer and have gone to an un-accredited school, your credits might not transfer over to the accredited school. All that money you have spent could go to waste.

Also, it DOES matter what school you go to. Some are just better and more prestigious than others. Remember, the OED site ONLY is talking about ONLINE schools.

To find rankings on "regular" (not online schools) a good source is the U.S. News Report.
You don't have to buy the book on the site, just use the Quick Comparison area or the Search box.

Here is more information on accreditation:
http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/
http://www.collegedegreeguide.com/articles-fr/accredited-college-university.htm
http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/colleges/reg_accred.html

Universities that are NOT accredited (list)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_institutions_of_higher_learning

Find a school:
http://library.wichita.edu/undergrad/univweb.html

Good luck in your scholarship or grant search.

-Betsyanne

Some other sites:
The Nontraditional Student website and blog
Nontraditional students on Facebook

How to organize your scholarship search

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Okay, I'm not the best organizer ever. But when I was in school, I kept all my class notes scrupulously organized and divided.

Why? Because it saved me SO much time later on. When it was time to study for tests, I had everything together - my notes, my books, everything the teachers had given was all together. I know I saved SO much time by not having to look and look for my materials.

The same should also help scholarship and grant searchers. Here are some tips that may help you in your scholarship searches:

1. Document everything, every application, every essay. Double back up your copies and keep hard copies in a file drawer or dedicated folder.

2. Always include any correspondance, copies of emails, or letters that you send each school.

3. Copy and print out websites that you find helpful. Keep a separate folder on your desktop with all scholarship or grant information classified and organized, including web addresses and contact names.

3. Include deadlines and review these often.

Find out more about being organized:
Organize your financial aid documents (from Scholarships.com)
Sports Scholarship Pro's filing system explained
How to organize using an accordian file system
Make an application portfolio (from the Metropolitan State College of Denver)

Grants and links for Kentucky Education students

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Grants for Kentucky Education students - this posting at EHow.com looked interesting to me today. I have an initial Certification in English and Allied Arts in Teaching and am looking into going to get my Master's.

Here are some sites to help:

Grants for Kentucky Graduate Students - this article tells about Fulbright scholarships, a Master's grant offered through the American Inter-Continental University (for 10-20% of costs), and a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant, which "Provides funds generally not available through a university."

Environmental Education grants in Kentucky

And this looks interesting! GrantsAlert helps people from all over find grants for education and for "organizations, schools, districts, consortia and state education agencies." This definitely looks to be worth a look.


All for now,
-Betsyanne

Explore more:


Try the Nontrad Scholarships page for more scholarship and grant links. http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html

The Fulbright Program helps students study abroad

Some students may only have to pay back part of their loans under the new Bill

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More about the new Education Reform bill

I am really glad there are going to be new, better loans for students. I am guessing we will find out more soon. To me, the changes sound good. Mary Bevevino, PhD, a writer for the news site Examiner.com, explains that this new Direct Loan program includes some benefits for public service workers, such as teachers, law enforcement, and the military. Here is a quote from her article:


"The direct loan program provides a bonus for those college students majoring in public service careers such as teaching or nursing, as well as law enforcement and the military services.  If they pay their monthly payments regularly during the first 10 years after graduating, the rest of their 25-year loan will be forgiven (Erie Times-News, April 1, 2010, 6B)."

Other students will recieve money off of their student loans as well. Find out more at her article here:
 Financial Aid for College Students - Good News for Students Interested in Public Service Careers.
And thanks for @FafsaHelp on Twitter for a link to this really good article.


More articles:
(Yahoo) New law helps students pay for college
The Modesto Bee: law helps students
The bill only a first step - students need more (FastWeb)


-Betsyanne

 

Some good scholarship links: http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html
and http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships_page2.html.