Winning College Scholarships

One secret to winning college scholarships, especially if you aren't a straight-A student or a top athlete, is to excel outside the classroom. This video explains various ways to excel that impress scholarship judges, even if you are a B or C student. This video also highlights why scholarship winners are often students who help their communities, as well as passionate students who take the initiative with causes, issues and topics of importance to them.

Winning scholarships awarded on the basis of your personal background -- like your gender, race, hobbies or extracurricular activities -- can be an effective way to earn free money for college. This video describes numerous personal attributes that scholarship committees reward when granting money to deserving college students.

Your parents or grandparents' professional work, civic ties or community affiliations can all be instrumental in helping you to win scholarships and grants for college. This video explains how to tap into the organizations with which your family members have ties, so you can find and win more scholarship dollars.

Learn more: article - "16 Ways to Win Scholarships."

You can win scholarships in plenty of ways that go well beyond having good grades and high test scores. This article summarizes 16 ways to win college scholarships, with an emphasis on finding a special category of "hidden" scholarship funds.

Where are these "hidden" scholarships? You can find them based on your family members' affiliations with business, civic or community organizations. Use the download resource provided to apply what you've learned and find your own hidden scholarships from places you probably have not previously considered.

Learn more: article - "Crafting the perfect scholarship essay"

Here are some do's and don'ts for writing a winning scholarship essay.

If you're wondering whether you should spend most of your time applying for local scholarships that are typically smaller in size or national scholarships that usually offer larger awards, this video explains which strategy is best.

This video reveals the very BEST source of scholarships, which is the one that most often awards the largest amount of dollars to the largest number of students. This scholarship source even provides renewable scholarships to eligible recipients, which can reduce the amount of student loans that college students will require over a four-year education.

Learn more - article "5 Reasons Your College or University is Your Best Shot at Scholarships."

This article offers detailed insights into why you are far more likely to get scholarships from the schools to which you apply, rather than private scholarship providers. The article also includes step-by-step advice from the instructor on the exact method that she and her daughter used to help find and qualify for many large, institutional scholarships at colleges and universities all across America.

Don't stop at winning scholarships and grants. There are a lot of extra sources of assistance that colleges and universities can offer you. This video highlights several key sources of institutional aid you should consider and seek.

The Scoop on Getting College Tuition Waivers

By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach

Scholarships are just one financial resource that colleges and universities can offer students. But there are nearly 20 other benefits and perks that schools can provide -- and nearly all these perks save you money!

One huge perk that will slash your higher education bill is a tuition waiver.

Tuition waivers allow you to forgo paying college tuition, or to pay greatly reduced tuition rates.

Tuition waivers can offer an enormous savings for students savvy enough to track down and secure any waivers for which they qualify.

Waivers vary from college to college, often depending on whether you’re an in-state or out-of-state student.

But there are numerous types of waivers that are available either directly from public or private institutions, or based on benefits offered to state residents.

Among the most common categories of waivers offered by schools or states are waivers for veterans, teachers, or the dependents of higher education employees.

Waivers for Vets and Their Families

Contessa Dickson was grateful to learn of VA benefits when her daughter enrolled at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX a couple years ago. Dickson’s ex-husband had been in ROTC, and he was able to transfer his VA benefits to their daughter. She then used those military benefits to go to school at no cost.

“It paid for pretty much everything — tuition, fees, and books and supplies,” Dickson said of the VA-provided college aid. “I may have spent maybe $1,000 out of pocket. Room and board would have been covered too, but my daughter lives at home.”

“Some students even get VA stipends as well,” Dickson added.

Check your eligibility and apply for VA benefits at: http://www.ebenefits.va.gov. You can also go online to find out if you qualify for a number of VA educational benefits.

To know exactly what waivers or benefits a school might offer, visit its website or ask campus officials directly. Usually, the Office of the Registrar handles waivers. But in some instances, the admissions office or even the financial aid office processes waivers. So it doesn’t hurt to inquire at each unit.

College Tuition Waivers Offered By States

You can also look on a state website to see the breadth of waivers available at the state level.

A good example of this strategy can be seen in the more than two dozen types of waivers offered to students attending public schools in Texas.

Some of these waivers are very unique, such as an intriguing option for entrepreneurs. Did you know that if your family owns a business and is considering relocating or expanding its offices in Texas, you can get an Economic Development and Diversification waiver?

As I explained in College Secrets, this incentive lets employees and family members of the business pay the exact same tuition at Texas public schools that state residents pay. With this waiver, out of state students get that in-state rate even without first establishing residency, so long as the business meets certain requirements.

There are other waivers too, however – such as those specifically provided as out-of-state tuition waivers to excellent students or those who’ve recently relocated.

Get an Out-Of-State or Non-Resident Tuition Waiver

A non-resident tuition waiver grants you a special exemption from paying out of state tuition rates. With this waiver, a student who isn’t a legal resident of the state nonetheless pays in-state tuition.

In certain cases, when a non-resident waiver is granted, schools require non-residents to pay resident tuition cost, plus a small surcharge. But that surcharge is always a fraction of what you’d normally pay in out-of-state tuition expenses.

One example of an institution that offers the latter type of program is Clark College, which provides non-resident waivers to U.S. citizens, permanent residents and refugees who have recently moved to the state of Washington. Clark is quite generous in allowing non-residents to readily qualify for its tuition reduction program.

According to the school’s website, an in-state resident is a person who meets the qualifications of citizenship mentioned above and who has been domiciled in the state of Washington for a minimum of 12 months prior to the beginning of the quarter.

However, those who meet the qualifications of citizenship listed above, but have been domiciled in the state of Washington for less than 12 months prior to the beginning of the quarter can still receive the non-resident tuition waiver.

In fact, you could live in Washington for less than a week and still qualify for this amazing tuition break.

Clark College states that “students who do not meet the legal definition of a Washington resident will qualify for this waiver as long as they are domiciled in the state of Washington by the first day [my emphasis added] of the term they plan to enroll. This waiver is available to U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens, or eligible non-immigrant aliens with visa classifications A, E, G, I or K.”

To prove that you have moved to Washington and established domicile, you need only fill out Clark’s application for non-resident waiver, and supply at least one of the following pieces of evidence showing your new residency in the state of Washington:

• a rental or lease agreement

• a closing statement of a home purchase

• a Washington driver’s license

• a vehicle registration

• a voter’s identification card

Furthermore, after students have established Washington residency for at least 12 months, they can submit a Residency Reclassification application and appropriate documentation in order to be considered for in-state tuition rates at Clark College.

Clark certainly isn’t alone.

Colleges and universities of all kinds offer these tuition waivers. A quick online search of the phrase “non-resident tuition waiver” or “non-resident waiver,” along with the name of your desired school, will let you know what might be available.

Even if you don’t see anything on the school’s website, you can still research whether the state in which the college or university is located has any special laws affording tuition waivers to specific types of students.

Out-Of-State Tuition Waiver and Scholarship Save Our Family $160,000

When my first-born daughter was accepted into the Business Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin, a $10,000 annual merit-based scholarship she received also made her eligible for an out-of-state tuition waiver. We were thrilled when she did, in fact, receive an out-of-state tuition waiver from UT Austin.

That waiver, combined with her scholarship, will save our family about $160,000 in tuition and fees over her four-year undergraduate education.

As you can see, tuition waivers are a great money-saver. Anyone on a budget trying to pay for college should inquire about various waivers at the school of their choice.

Copyright Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach; Author of College Secrets

Learn more: article - "4 fatal mistakes that will kill your scholarship application"

This article describes several key reasons students get rejected by scholarship committees.

Applying for scholarships can be a time-consuming process. So knowing how to use technology to your advantage is crucial. This video highlights several apps, websites and tech strategies that make finding and applying for scholarships easier and faster.

Learn more: article - "Easy ways to use technology and social media to win scholarships"

This article offers a quick look at how to use technology in the scholarship hunt, including raising scholarship money on three crowdfunding platforms that help students get free money for college. The article includes a dozen websites students can use to track down scholarships, raise scholarship funds, or more easily apply for scholarships.

This video reveals the two key documents you need to create - and use again and again - in order to quickly and seamlessly apply for scholarships. Having these documents makes the application process less burdensome, time-consuming and stressful because you won't have to spend as countless hours or days re-hashing information or trying to recall important data and activities that can boost your odds of winning scholarships.

Learn more: article - "Scholarship Power Tools: A Resume and Student Activities Worksheet."

This article walks students through the process of creating a professional resume, as well as a student activities worksheet that keeps track of academic, work-related or extra-curricular endeavors that can lead to scholarships. Both documents put all of your important information at your fingertips to ensure that you don't forget anything when applying for scholarships. These two important documents can also be given to teachers, counselors or others to help them write stronger recommendation letters on your behalf.

This video offers a recap of lessons learned, and a preview of the instructor's other Udemy courses that can save you money on pre-college expenses, as well as upfront college costs, including college tuition, fees, room and board, and more.