Colby College to Replace Loans with Grants for Maine Residents

Are you a Maine resident looking for a college next year? Consider Colby College. Granted, you'll need strong credentials to get accepted, but financally it could pay off big time for you.

William D. Adams, president of Colby College announced recently that beginning in the fall of 2008, Colby would begin replacing the student loans in the financial aid packages of Maine residents with grants. So as long as a Maine student can meet the entrance requirements and qualifies for financial aid, they will be able to attend and graduate from Colby with no student loan debt.

Heck, they don't even charge an application fee for Maine students.

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College on a Budget - How to Keep Student Loans From Overwhelming You

As college tuitions continue to rise and scholarships and grants don't seem to be keeping pace, increased college loans have become the only way many students continue their studies. The problem is that you end up with $20-40,000 or even more in loans and you are starting off in a new job at the low end of the pay scale. Students graduating with an advanced degree may be as much as $100,000 in debt.

Do you want to have that kind of debt right out of school? If not, here are a couple of hints that can help you minimize the student loan debt. Where are you planing to go to school? Everybody wants to go to their first choice college and for many, that is a private, high-profile, high-cost college.

Collegeboard.com estimates the average cost of attending a private college during 2007-08 at over $23,000 per year. For a public college or university, the average cost is a bit over $6,000 and for a two year community college, just over $2,300.

Go to a local state college or university, especially for the first couple of years. Resident tuitions are usually much lower than that charged to out-of-state residents. Take your basic courses there and get great grades, then you will have a good chance of transferring to the name school and getting even better financial aid, since you have a proven track record. Of course, once you've been there for awhile, you may just decide that the state school really is pretty good and continue on to finish your studies there.

Cheaper still, go to your local community college first. Many courses will be transferable to a four year college, and the cost per course is far below that of the four year schools.

Consider joining the ROTC program, which can provide you with full tuition as well as a monthly living allowance. You'll need to commit at least four years to active duty in the Armed Forces as an officer. Some careers, such as Air Force pilot, may require a longer period of duty.

For more ideas on cutting down the loan debt load, go to College on a Budget

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Oregon Opportunity Grant Program to be Expanded in 2008-09

Funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant Program has been more than doubled for the next school year by the Oregon Legislature. To be eligible, you must be registered at least half time in school, you must be an Oregon resident, be financially needy and be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant.
For more information and requirements, go to the Oregon Student Assistance Commission website at http://www.getcollegefunds.org/ong.html.

Connecticut College Replaces Student Loans With Grants

Connecticut College announced that students from low and middle income families will benefit from a new policy that will decrease student loans and replace them with grants. The policy began last year when students from families with lower than $50,000 incomes and less than a $5,000 expected family contribution(EFC) had grants increased to cover what previously would have been loans.

This year the effort will be expanded to include families with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 and EFC's from $5,000 and $15,000. Qualifying students can expect their loans to fall between 50-100%.

Nice job Connecticut College!

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Talbots Women's Scholarship Fund

The Talbot's Women's Scholarship Fund is offering $100,000 in scholarships to women who graduated high school or received their GED more than ten years ago and have now returned to school to earn a college degree. If you are a woman who received her high school diploma or GED on or before September 1998, and are now attending school to get a college degree, you may be eligible for this scholarship.

Five women will each receive a $10,000 scholarship and 50 women will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

You will have to hurry because applications must be in by January 2, 2008, or until they have processed the first 1000 eligible applications. Visit http://www1.talbots.com/about/scholar/scholar.asp to download the application and get full eligibility requirements.


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Williams College Eliminates Loans From Financial Aid Packages

Williams College announced that beginning with the 2008-09 financial aid packages, all loans will be replaced with grants. This is an attempt to allow Williams students to graduate college and enter the workplace without the added burden of a high debt due to college loans.

In turn this may allow many to have a greater choice in the post-college career they decide to follow. In the past many had to forgo more fulfilling but lower paying jobs because of the high loan repayment costs.

The estimated cost of the loan elimination will be about $1.8 million.

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Wal-Mart Sam Walton Community Scholarships

The Wal-Mart Foundation is funding 7000 scholarships of $1,000 for 2008. All high school seniors maintaining at least a 2.5 GPA who are permanent residents of the United States are eligible for the Sam Walton Scholarship.

You can get an application at your local Wal-Mart store, Neighborhood Market or Sam's Club. Filing deadline for applications is January 14, 2008.

Wal-Mart also funds several other scholarships for associates and their dependents, including the Wal-Mart ASSOCIATE Scholarship, the Higher REACH Scholarship and the WALTON Family Foundation Scholarship.

For more information and an application, visit walmartfoundation.org.

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Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship Competition

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, through the Elks National Foundation, will be awarding 500 scholarships in it's 2008 scholarship program. The scholarships range in value from $1,000 to $15,000 per year and they are renewable for four years (over $2 million in total).

Two requirements are that you must be a high school senior and you must be a US citizen. You do not need to be related to an Elks member to apply.

Applications are available now. You can get them at your local Elks Lodge, online at http://www.elks.org/enf/scholars/mvs.cfm or by sending an SASE to

Elks National Foundation
Scholarship Office
2750 N. Lakeview Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614-2256

Applications for this year's scholarships must be submitted to your local Elks Lodge by January 11, 2008.

For more information on the Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarships, visit http://www.elks.org/enf/scholars/mvs.cfm.

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