Paying for College

Is your Child starting College or are you? Here is some information that will help you decide what course of action you can take to help pay the rather large expense. There are many types of financial aids offer to college and university students. While a few are gifted aids and do not need to be paid back; others are provided as a loan and need to be paid back after the completion of the education program.

Fellowships & Scholarships

What are the differences between these financial aids? Many people confuse especially on grant, fellowship and scholarship. Let's take a brief look on these financial aids. Grant, Fellowship & Scholarship A grant is a gifted financial aid for a student that does not have to be paid back. Fellowship is a fund awarded to a graduate student in a college or university. And scholarship is a financial aid usually awarded based on merit or academic achievement. Both fellowship and scholarship are grant. Practically, these terms very little in different and in fact, these terms are used interchangeably in representing fund gifted to students to support their college or university study.

Other student financial aids are grouped categories:

* Grants
* Workstudy
* Waivers
* Loans

First lets start with Grants. Grants are usually government funds for education, research and community needs. This is money that recipient doesn't pay back. Each type has different guide lines. And depending on whether or not you meet those guide lines, determines whether or not you can receive funding.

A study loan is a financial aid offers to students and these money need to be repaid after the completion of the study program. Although there are loans offered with zero interest rate by charities, associations or religions organization, most of loan programs have repayment provisions and repayment interest rate applied. Most loans are payable up to 6 months after graduation meaning you don't make your first payment until after guraduation.

Work Study is a program that help provide a jobs that enable students to earn a portion of school costs through employment at the institution. Many colleges and universities offer job to students where they can earn their school fee and part of their living expenses.

Under certain circumstances, a waiver is where a college or university may allow a student to attend the courses without paying tuition or other costs. A certain eligibility requirements need to be met in order for eligible for the waiver.

Reguardless of what you choose. There are alternitives you don't have to worry about paying tuition on your own there are programs that are designed to help. With having said that I would like to tell you some of the scam out there.

The scholarship is guaranteed or your money back
Beware of scholarship-finding services that guarantee you will win a scholarship or your money will be refunded. If it is a scam, you will find it extremely difficult to qualify for refund, because this refund guaranteed often have terms & condition attached. Get and review refund policies before you pay. First rule of thumb is if you have to pay its more then likely a SCAM. you shouldn't have to pay for any scholarship or grant.

You can't get this scholarship information from anywhere else
There are many scholarship lists available for public. A real scholarship is normally announced to public and you can get this information easily from college and the recognized financial aid agencies. Start your own researching from those locations before you pay for somebody to do the work for you. Here are a few web sites that have complete lists of available scholarships at no charge. www.freeweb.com, www.scholarship.com, and www.scholarshiphelp.org there are many more you can search and find the one that works best for you.

Ask for your credit card or bank account to hold the winning scholarship for you
If you receive phone call saying that you have won a scholarship and they need your credit card or bank account in order to hold the winning scholarship for you. Never! Never give out any credit card or bank account without getting information or confirmation in writing first. It might be a set-up for an unauthorized withdrawal from your account.

You won a scholarship prize!
The scam will inform you that you have won a college scholarship worth a few thousands of dollars but you will be asked to pay for a "redemption" fee or taxes before they can release your prize. If you receive this good news but you don't remember entering any scholarship contest, be suspicious. Even If you have entered the contest, check and get the winning confirmation letter first before any payment being made. There are scams use the real scholarship contest to cheat for money, they know many people are enrolled for the contest and by chance you are in the list.

A super low interest rate loan that need advance fee
This scam will offer you an unusual low interest rate loan but they will ask you to pay for a fee during the loan application submission. And when you pay for it, the promised loan never materializes. Be aware, real education loan usually deduce the fees from the disbursement check. It never required you to pay for a fee when you submit an application. If the loan is not issued by a bank or other recognized lender, it is probably a scam. Check the offer with your local bank's manager before you pay..

These are just some commons in scholarship scams. There are still many other scholarship scams around. The best protection is avoiding these type of scams is research. There are websites designed to help you in your scholarship choice the more you know the harder it will be for these people to scam you.