Exploring College Financial Aid Reveals Corporation And Industry Contributors!
May 8, 2010 by Natasha Bright
Filed under Online Colleges
College tuition has risen relentlessly over recent years. Cable news network MSNBC reports the average tuition was slightly over $7,000 for the 2009-10 academic year. CNN says the tuition for a four-year degree is nearly $27,000. Neither includes room, board and other sundry expenses, but both estimate costs could go up as much as 15% by 2010-11. The idea that the cost of earning a degree can be hard to handle is becoming one huge understatement. This isn’t even really taking into consideration traditional or online graduate school for advanced degrees.
This is forcing young college students to change their financial strategies. More students than ever are holding down jobs while going to online colleges so they can work the daylight hours then take their classes at home at night. Many corporations are even helping them. McDonald’s and Blockbuster will help pay for their employee’s education (even to covering the entire tuition) as long as the student works for them. The only kink in this strategy is finding such a job during the current recession.
True, many colleges have scholarships and grants to help cover the costs. President Obama has even pushed through increases on the Pell, ACG and SMART grants, as well as earmarking a number of tax credits as part of his Health reform bill. Yet there’s many times an incredible gap between what a university costs and the aid provided. If you need more information about online education, look on the internet.
Yet there’s still one resource many students (and their parents) have left fairly untapped. There are quite a number of other public corporations besides McDonald’s and Blockbuster out there that have financial aid available to the future workforce. There are a number of professional and social societies who will be glad to help out with scholarships and grants, too. Here are four very different examples of this academic generosity:
(1) The National Aeronautic and Space Agency (or NASA for all the budding rocket scientists) has a competition wherein students submit their ideas for the best approach to space exploration. NASA wants to engage more students in STEM disciplines, and they figure the scholarship prize will certainly help.
(2) The American Veterinary Medical Association. They created a college loan debt relief program for graduates who specialize in food animals such as sheep, cows and pigs. The Association believes they are losing many students because of out-of-control college loans and that this will help.
(3) The Scripps Howard Foundation awards several scholarships for not only achievements in the classroom, but on the job or for the community. Scripps Howard claims the grants are investments to bring out a young writers’ potential and keep them in the profession of communications.
(4) CVS Caremark. This pharmaceutical chain teamed up with several colleges for scholarship and internship programs. The concept is to bring in a more diverse range of personnel to pharmacology. There is an abundance of information about pell grants for college on the web.
These examples are just a few of the many out there. As said before, go on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing and do a little exploring. There are a number of companies willing to help you get an online degree.
Those willing to take the time to advance themselves through traditional or online college will discover resources for this also. Money for college is there, waiting for those who take just a bit of time to explore the possibilities.