Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Money is Running Out

Cory has finished his first two years of college.  So far we've been able to help him out so that he's only had to accept the subsidized federal loans - the ones he doesn't have to start paying back until after he graduates - figuring it will be better for him in the long run to pay us back than to pay some loan with interest.  (or maybe we could collect the interest?)  Fortunately Jeffrey has a job, and he makes enough to support us.  Unfortunately, that means Cory does not qualify for any of that free money 'less fortunate' students get.  When he gets out of school, he's going to be paying.  Yes, I know, that's true for a lot of young people, and he'll survive...

As his mom I would love to see him put some effort into finding scholarships to pay for at least some of his remaining school.  I would have loved to see him actively seeking those scholarships all along, but there's just so much you can do when your kids grow up.  While there are things you would love to see them do, you can't do it for them.  When he graduates and starts having to pay back those loans - and we'll probably work with our bank on some kind of home equity line of credit to pay for the rest, because the interest rate will be better than anything they offer through financial aid - he may wish he'd listened to me, but I can't make him do it.

All I can do is keep sending him links to sites like Scholarships Online where he can search through scholarships and grants and hopefully find some he might qualify for.  I used to send him links to specific scholarships I thought he'd be interested in or would qualify for, but they just didn't grab his attention, so I must've been picking wrong - so he's just going to have to do the searching.  Scholarships Online lists nearly every scholarship and educational grant available in the U.S. - so if he can't find it there, maybe it doesn't exist.

I don't know what's available, but they have a large database and the site is designed to make it as easy as possible for students to find relevant scholarships.  Every one is real, and many are sponsored by organizations you are probably already familiar with.  If you've got a high school student who's planning to go to college, or a college student who could use a little help paying for college, you'll want to check it out - or send the link so your student can start looking.  He'll thank you later when his college loans come due!