No, 99% are not scams. You simply haven’t been taught how to do the search without being placed on their email list or having your email sold or used by “partners.” (And for others, your teen either applied to the wrong scholarships or didn’t know how to win them.)

There are 1.8 million scholarships totaling 23 billion dollars given away each year.

There are a few that are “sweepstakes drawings”. They are not scams as they are actually giving away $1000 per month. But because they only require name and email (and maybe a one sentence “essay”) the only way they can give away that much $ is to sell the list of applicant emails. It’s in the small print. I don’t recommend these.

The largest scholarship in one bucket is from the college your teen chooses to attend.

Private scholarships are literally everywhere-grocery stores, libraries, banks, fast food restaurants, hardware stores, electric coops, athletic shoe stores,...

Your Teen has a Brand: Social Media Can Kill Your Teen’s Career & Future!

To parents of teens & college students, & those that teach & counsel them. If you haven’t had this discussion, & if you have, remind them again & again.

Every employer, scholarship agency & college is monitoring perspective student/intern's social media content. This before they hire you, and during employment as an adult! Creepy, I know. But hear me out.

Companies don’t want to be seen in a negative light. On your own time, you are still an employee: What you do, who you are, reflects on them.

Potential illegal activity should go without saying. But the following can and has been cause for dismissal.

Alcohol, holding a glass of wine, being drunk, get tagged in a post or photo you’re NOT EVEN IN, but now you are associated with the behavior.

Personal Faith
Racism
LGBT
Abortion
Gun rights

When your faith is strong, it’s likely you’ll post or...

Scholarships are free money for every age, income, and GPA
Forget what you've been told. Anyone can win scholarships.

You may be thinking, 'No Way!' because that's what we've been told. Even high school counselors have been perpetuating these myths for decades. But the bottom line is that the majority of the 1.7 million scholarship opportunities don't ask for GPA or income level. So yes, your family can be making 6 or 7 figures and your teen can still apply to and win scholarships for college. 

This week I posted 2 scholarships to my Facebook group: Parents Talk College and Scholarships, one for a high school senior and one for a current college student. (Yes, there are scholarship opportunities for students from kindergarten through doctoral/professional school. Never stop looking for free money until the last parchment is in hand!) 

IF your students are NOT high school seniors or current college students today, keep these in your scholarship spreadsheet for...

There are many paths to a debt-free college education even without using parents' money. Here are a few keys talked about in this video.:

1-Talk with your kids early, in or before freshman year, about the financial expectation of college. 

2-Have a strategy

3-Living at home saves tens of thousands of dollars

4-Working and saving for college from an early age. Working during college.  

5-Winning scholarships begets more scholarships. Both college admissions and scholarship committees like 'winners'. Having won even one scholarship is 'proof of concept' not only to you, that you can do it and it's worth your time but committees tend to look with more enthusiasm when you already have a win on your resume.

(Image credit: pexels-buro-millennial-1438072)

Yes, I know your kids need downtime, but they should take a little time to do these few things that will ensure their success!

After watching the video be sure to check this list before sending in any scholarship applications!
 https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/12-Winning-Scholarship-Hacks-Opt-In-Download 

Your 'EFC' is your Expected Family Contribution. It's a number that represents just how much the federal government thinks your family can contribute toward your teen's college expenses...every year! It is not only used by the federal government to determine if your family qualifies for need-based aid (the Pell Grant, for example) but colleges also use the EFC in determining need-based aid (and sometimes scholarships). However, most private colleges also use another set of calculations, called the CSS Profile. 
But here it is. How the government calculates your EFC. 

https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/2021EFCFormulaGuide.pdf

What is Raise.Me and How does it REALLY work…

Raise.me is not a scholarship program in the sense that most people think of scholarships.

#1 Raise.me partnered with about 200 of the nearly 5000 colleges and universities in the US. That’s a very small percentage.

#2 These particular schools partner with raise.me to guarantee a ‘small’ scholarship amount (see #3 for how the money is earned) to the student who applies and is accepted to that one school.

#3 Students ‘earn’ scholarship money by getting good grades, participating in sports and extracurricular activities. The value of each depends on the college.

But here’s the rub…

The scholarship amount is the MINIMUM that the student will receive, and is NOT in addition to entering freshmen scholarships the school may offer. It is called a ‘micro-scholarship’ because it will be less than the school would generally offer an entering freshmen with decent stats.

It is intended to...

For the high school freshmen thru college student. Don't stop looking for money.

Many ways of finding money for college

During our travels over the last 4 years, we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying the talents of many street musicians. I always contribute a little to show my appreciation. But what goes through my mind is the real possibility that this young person could very well be paying off student loan debt. 

The average college student graduates with $30,000 in college debt.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Decisions made as a family as well as by the student are made LONG before college which either lead to school debt or freedom from debt. 

I agree that the sticker price of higher education is huge in many cases. The same state school I attended more than tripled over the 30 years between when I left and when my children began. 

As I was growing up, the conversation never began, ‘If you go to college’ it was always, ‘When you go to college.’ And all 4 of us kids graduated from either...