Free Money For College

Finding free money for college has never been more crucial than in today’s economy. It is never too late or too early to begin preparing. Even if you are already attending college, you will find much of this information essential, and if you are a parent of a newborn, you will find still much of this information very beneficial.

All of us know people who are still paying for college well into the thirties and beyond putting a strain on their finances and family. However, with a little preparation that I will be sharing with you today, that can be easier than you think to correct.

(Link) Upromise is the smart way to save for college! Upromise is a one-stop college service provider that helps families earn, save and pay for higher education. With Upromise, families can automatically save money for college while making everyday purchases at grocery and drug stores, gas stations, restaurants, retail stores and online shopping sites. Upromise partners include ExxonMobil Corporation, JCPenney.com, LandsEnd.com, Sears.com, and hundreds of others.

My youngest daughter made sure to enroll me and other relatives in this program, and we too begin saving for Koty’s future college. It was very easy, and makes shopping even more fun to know I am contributing to my grandson’s and granddaughters futures.

(Note: it is free to sign up…just be sure to register your existing credit cards so you can begin receiving money from them ) Parents, grandparents, college students, friends and relatives join now and start contributing to your loved ones college enrollment!

One of the most common and costly mistake is to take the wrong courses in high school. If one is college bound, it is highly important to carefully (Link) map out your high school courses. Doing so not only makes one more eligible for scholarships and grants, it also prevents having to pay for courses that could have been taken for free in high school.

We were surprised that our high school guidance counselor was unaware of this information, and we were well rewarded in doing some of our own research in this matter which we provide for you free at this link.

Link: Save up to 70% on textbooks when you rent through Cengage Brain!. CengageBrain rents textbooks, sells new print textbooks, eBooks, eChapters (individual digital chapters) plus print and digital study tools. Students are provided choice and savings when they shop at CengageBrain. EBooks are priced 50% off list price of a regular print textbook while eChapters start as low as $1.99 each. This program can save college students considerably.

Grants and Scholarships

(Link) Need money for college? Use FastWeb’s free scholarship search to find information on more than 600,000 scholarships! When applying for grants and scholarships we found it more daunting and time consuming than the information given above. However FastWeb, the Internet’s leading scholarship search, helps people find valuable scholarship money to pay for college or an advanced degree. Recommended by more than 18,000 guidance counselors and financial aid officers, FastWeb is the most trusted education resource online. I wish this program had been available when we were searching for our children.

Note: (1) When applying for our daughter’s grants and scholarships, we learned that most people ignore the smaller ones, and apply only for the larger payouts which makes the latter more competitive, and harder to obtain. We applied for several of the smaller ones, and a few of the larger ones. As a result, DeeDee received enough small grants to pay for text books, college courses, and a little left over which she was allowed to buy clothes with. So don’t ignore the small grants and scholarships.

(2) We recommend applying as early as the junior year of high school for grants and scholarships.

Electronic Needs

We have personally been very pleased with the service and choices at Best Buy for our computers, and services such as Geek Squad. We discovered we can often save by buying online. (Link) Buy online at Best Buy, choose store pickup