1 Slide 1 Honors Presentation How to Get Scholarship Money: 10 Tips Survival Handout Michael Turner Sponsored by the Honors Program at Tennessee State University February 6, 2015 Slide 2 • I want to share with you resources that will help you find money to pay for a college education. The goal is to maximize your scholarship money and minimize your college debt. • This is the “more is less” edition. I will be presenting what I think are the most reliable sites and methods to find scholarships and internships.
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Honors Presentation · Honors Presentation How to Get Scholarship Money: 10 Tips Survival Handout Michael Turner Sponsored by the Honors Program at Tennessee State University February
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Slide 1
Honors Presentation
How to Get Scholarship Money:
10 Tips Survival Handout
Michael Turner
Sponsored by the Honors Program at
Tennessee State University
February 6, 2015
Slide 2
• I want to share with you resources that will
help you find money to pay for a college
education. The goal is to maximize your
scholarship money and minimize your
college debt.
• This is the “more is less” edition. I will be
presenting what I think are the most reliable
sites and methods to find scholarships and
internships.
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Slide 3
Tip #1
•Use Reliable Resources
to Help You Fill
Out the FAFSA &
College Goal Sunday
Government Websites and Publications
1. http://www.FAFSA.ed.gov
Students can go to Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) online
and apply. If you apply online, the process is faster.
Also, students and parents can receive assistance in completing the FAFSA online by calling 1-800-801-0576.
Since this is a government website, .gov will be in the web address. Any
.com in the web address will charge you money and is a rip-off, and that
.com is not associated with the federal government.
2. https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa
Here you can find resources on filling out the FAFSA, including
If you are a TSU student, you can receive a free Nashville Public Library
card by going to a public library and showing your TSU Student ID and Driver’s License.
Many of these books are available at the Nashville Public Library.
Books by People who Created a System that got them $90,000 or more in Financial Aid
I have listed these books in order of preference.
Ragins, Marianne. Winning Scholarships for College, 4th Edition: An Insider’s
Guide, Holt, 2013. ISBN # 978-0-8050-9947-8. Ragins received more than $400,000 in aid. http://www.scholarshipworkshop.com/
Tanabe, Gen & Kelly. The Ultimate Scholarship Book 2015: Billions of Dollars in
Scholarships, Grants and Prizes. Supercollege,2014. ISBN # 1617600458. Gen and Kelly Tanabe both received over $100,000 in funds to go to
Harvard. http://www.supercollege.com/index.cfm
Ellis, Kristina. Confessions of a Scholarship Winner: The Secrets That Helped Me Win $500,000 in Free Money for College- How You Can Too!, Worthy Publishing, 2013. ISBN # 1617951579. Ellis received $500,000 in aid and
went to Vanderbilt University for undergraduate and Belmont University for graduate school. She tells in her book that she got about $9,000 a semester
for additional expenses from the aid she received. http://thecollegeninja.com/
Hewitt, Doug and Robin Hewitt. Free College Resource Book. Prufrock Press,
2010. ISBN# 1-59363-381-5. Written by parents who put five children through college without debt.
Kaplan, Ben. How to Go to College Almost For Free", 2nd ed. Collins,
2001. ISBN #0-06-093765-3. You want the 2nd edition of this book. Kaplan received more than $90,000 to go to Harvard.
I have included the websites for some of these authors. You might discover
other scholarship information and other resources you find helpful.
Many of these people have workshops. Some are more reasonable than others.
Some of these websites have scholarships and have scholarship search
engines.
Before I put my money down on anything, I consider how much I actually have to spend and whether I’m ready to put that information to use. If I am
going to spend $100 on a program, for example, I would first consider, “Can
I afford it?” and “Will I put this information to use in the next 4 weeks?”
Other Books You Might Find Informative
Bissonnette, Zac. Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents. Portfolio Penguin,
2010. ISBN # 978-1-59184-298-9. I like this book. The introduction is titled, “The Four People You Meet when You Apply to College, and the Lies they Tell
You.” Kantrowitz, Mark. FastWeb College Gold: The Step-by-Step Guide to Paying
for College. Collins, 2006. ISBN#: 978-0061129582.
Scheer, Marc. No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-Off, Common Courage Press, 2008. ISBN # 978-1567513783. Very good book that you can check out from the library.
Either these editions or later editions of these books are available from the
Of course, the IRS government web site has a section strictly for students of all ages, from elementary to higher education students. Recent information
about the American Opportunity Credit and the Lifetime Earning Credit can also be found here.
For more information about tax benefits and deductions that might help you
on your tax return, click on http://www.irs.gov/recovery While some of these credits may have expired, you might consider amending returns (if
you can) to take credits you didn’t take on past returns.
Nashville Public Library (Main), 615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219.
http://www.gtionline.fdncenter.org/
Foundation Grants to Individuals Online (access this at no cost by going to
the downtown library and asking them to assist you in accessing this
database—the Nashville Public Library in one of the Foundation Center’s libraries)
Tell a reference librarian that you are looking for scholarships and internships. Practice your elevator speech and let them lead you to the
special section of the library that has research books pertaining to your
particular situation.
The Nashville Public Library has several scholarship and internship books in
its reference section.
Also, a book found in the Grants section in the downtown library is the paper version of the online version above, Foundation Grants to Individuals. The
latest version of this book is the 21st edition, and you can ask your reference librarian where it is. I would also ask for help in how to use it.
Tennessee is one of the 16 states part of the Academic Common Market. They are “Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. (Note: Florida, North
Carolina, and Texas participate at the graduate level only.)”
North Carolina no longer participates in the Academic Common Market.
From website: “Is a degree program you'd like to pursue not available in
your state? Have you found a degree program at an out-of-state institution, but the higher tuition is a barrier?
Looking for options with lower tuition?
You're in the right place. For more than 35 years, the SREB Academic
Common Market has enabled students to pursue out-of-state college degrees at discounted tuition rates, through agreements among the
states and colleges and universities.
Search from more than 1,900 undergraduate and graduate degree programs available in the 16 SREB states. It's quick and easy.
Certain student loans can be forgiven, depending on the type of loan and/or the place where you work. I first wrote this in 2010, but I
have checked the links to make sure they work and are relevant today.
At the end, I have included other links to educate yourself on this
topic. Make sure you check the information below More 2013 Information to read the latest.
I must warn you that I haven’t fully studied all of this information, and it’s
very important to do due diligence in researching this topic. Verify, verify, verify, as financial columnist Zac Bissonette wrote in the
introduction, “The Four People You Meet When You Apply to College,
and the Lies They Tell,” to his book, Debt-Free U.
I have been reading Lynnette Khalfani’s Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom.
Ms. Khalfani writes this about the Federal Student Loan Repayment Plan:
“Under the Federal Student Loan Repayment Plan, the government allows any federal agency to repay your FFEL, direct, Perkins, or HEAL loans in
order to attract or retain highly qualified workers in the federal government. Interestingly, each agency sets its own definition of highly qualified.”
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She points out that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the best
source to learn about this program.
Here I provide you with a direct link to the Student Loan Repayment Program Fact Sheet: http://www.opm.gov/oca/pay/studentloan/index.asp
Office of Personnel Management: http://www.opm.gov/
Ms. Khalfani also tells where you can find a listing of “all federal departments
and agencies in America”: http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml
For a thorough discussion of this program and places that you can work,
including independent agencies--such as AmeriCorps, CIA, or Export-Import Bank of the United States (ExIm)—or quasifederal agencies—such as Legal
Services Corporation (LSC) or the Smithsonian Institution, I highly
recommend you read the section of Ms. Khalfani’s book, “Repayment Assistance Programs Nobody Told You About” in Chapter 9, Eliminate
Student Loans with Loopholes: Qualify for Loan Cancellation or Get Others to Pay.
This second Finaid.org article deals with the taxability of student loans if they are forgiven. (Many people do not know that if a debt is cancelled or
forgiven, you might receive a 1099 form that lists the debt forgiven as income. Be aware of this issue before you settle any debts, and if you do
make an agreement with anybody, then get that agreement in writing).