How to Find Grants and Scholarships for College Online

You want to go to college, but like most prospective college students, you're not sure how to pay for it. College tuition has soared over the past twenty years, as it strips inflation and increases at a rate that is breathtaking. In the 1960s, the average college student coul pay for a year of state-school tuition with about ten weeks of part-time earnings at a minimum-wage job. In the 1980s, the same student needed to work fifty weeks out of the year, part-time at minimum wage, to accomplish the same thing.

Nowadays, the same student needs to work forty hours per week, fifty weeks per year, at minimum wage to afford tuition at the average state college. The situation has become extreme, and most students turn to loan programs to get through college.

That carries risk as well: what happens if you graduate and can't get a job right away? What if you want to work for a few years and then become a stay-at-home-parent: can you afford the loan payments while not earning an income? Prospective college students need to consider all of these issues before taking the plunge.

One resource that all students must consider is private grants and scholarships. The internet is a powerful tool for finding these programs. Until ten years ago, most scholarships and grants were listed in thick, bulky books in the reference section of libraries. Prospective students researching grant and scholarship programs needed to sift through thousands of pages of information, write self addressed stamped envelopes to each scholarship or grant program, wait for the applications, fill them out, and wait.

The Internet changed everything.

To find scholarships and grants that meet your needs, take the following steps:

1. Look at existing scholarship sites, like Fast Web, one of the best programs on the Internet for tracking scholarships, learning about essay contests, and finding programs that help you pay for college.

2. If you or a parent is or was a member of the Armed Forces, go into a search engine and type "military scholarships." Hundreds of links will appear; find the programs that you qualify for, and apply.

3. If you or a parent--or grandparent--are of Native American or First Nations ancestry, go into a search engine and type "Indian scholarship" or "native american scholarship." For these programs, you need to be a minimum of one-sixteenth or one-thirty-second Native American, and you must have documentation (tribal records, birth certificates, etc.) proving your heritage.

4. Consider buying a Grant Guide. While some grant guides on the Internet are scams, do your research to see if there is one targeting students and scholaship programs. Most information found in Internet eBooks can be found with hours of search engine hunting, while Grant Guides and SCholarship Guides cost $19.95 on up. Weight ht eoptions: is your time worth more than your money? Is the eBook a rip-off? Only you can decide for yourself with option is best.

5. Go into a search engine and type "[your chosen major] scholarship". There are scholarships for teachers, engineers, history majors, science majors, music majors, and so on. Find the programs that are a good fit for you, and apply.

6. Consider contests! Go into a search engine and type "scholarship contest" and see what comes up! Calgon soaps offers essay contest scholarships, as does the women's clothing company Talbot's. For a few hours of your time writing an essay, you could win $1,000 or more.

7. And, finally, search for topics that are unique to you. Were you a foster child? Special program exist for foster children, so search under "foster child scholarship." Are you a single parent? Search for programs for single parents. Whatever makes you unique could be an opportunity for funding.

All of these approaches can yield good, solid scholarship and grant information to help you finance your college education. Understanding how to find funding for school is a cruucial step in earning your degree and improving your life.