Comments on: Three Tips for More Financial Aid

By: fathersez

fathersez — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:34:11 +0000

For my elder two girls, it was the Father and Mother scholarship, and it will end this April.

I did nothing in the way of searching for aid and have paid heavily for it.

My younger children are still some way off from college. But this time, I’ll be better prepared.

Thanks

By: PT

PT — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Wow. Thanks for sharing this, Flexo. I’m going to bookmark this one and send to my little sis.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:30:21 +0000

Must be good news then that some top private schools like Brown and Stanford are waiving tuition fees for low-income students. If only it happened sooner for me…. :/

By: susan

susan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:14:44 +0000

My sister got a $500 scholarship from a jewish women’s group (she was raised catholic). I seem to remember that she got quite a few small ones.

By: sele

sele — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:20:43 +0000

The most non-obvious scholarship I received was from Wal-Mart. I found out about it by plunking through one of those huge scholarship binders in the guidance counselor’s office (this was back in the 80’s). I had no association to the company, but for submitting the application and sitting through one interview with a small group of older women – who seemed to like that I worked at a children’s museum – I received $500 for 4 consecutive semesters.

So I was a little tiny speck of a write-off for Wal-Mart 20+ years ago. I still feel a bit guilty about that sometimes, since now I’m one of those who refuses to shop there.

By: fortworthcheapo

fortworthcheapo — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:55:49 +0000

And always always always, just ask for some. When I was in Graduate School at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, I went to the school’s main office one day literally thinking the end was near. My financial aid award (loan) had been paltry, I had burned through the meager savings I had, and I was getting to the end of my rope. I was hoping the office might have some leads on some part-time internships or what-have-you. I asked one the more tenure admins what I could do. She answered, “Don’t you have a need based scholarship?” I said no, and that I’d never even heard of that before – or that the school offered those. She said, “Here, let me cut you the voucher and you can go to the bursar’s office to pick it up.” Just for ASKING, I got myself $2500 to get through the semester. To this day I am still amazed at that turn of events. Here I thought my financial goose was cooked just because I hadn’t asked around enough.
There’s money to be found in many strange areas and offices, you just have to poke around. I found out too late about the “Texas Exes” Scholarships when I was in undergrad. UT students could get full-ride scholarships – I had no idea that the alumni association gave out so much money. It was just stupidity on my part not to know that!