State offers $1 million in aid to low-income students
By:Philip Haldiman, Dec 3, 2008
(see J.D.’s comments at the end of this article.)
Low-income college and university students just received another financial-aid opportunity from the state.
Gov. Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that $1 million in new financial-aid funding from the U.S. Department of Education will be available to continuing students who demonstrate financial need, said Shilo Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the governor.
“It’s another option for students who want to pursue higher education,” Mitchell said. “It could ensure that students who may not have the opportunity get that opportunity.”
Students must have completed at least one year of higher education and meet other eligibility requirements to apply.
Applicants could receive up to a $2,000 grant per year for two years. Students may apply for grants from the Arizona College Access Aid Program online at azgrants.gov.
“A good education — and higher education in particular — will be necessary to compete in Arizona’s 21st century economy,” Napolitano said in a press release. “In these tough economic times, this grant will open the door for Arizona students to continue pursuing college degrees, who may not have been able to otherwise.”
ASU’s financial-aid office did not provide comment on the grant program by press time.
The grants to low-income students are funded by a $2.7 million award the state of Arizona received through the U.S. Department of Education’s College Access Challenge Grant, which helps low-income students prepare for and attend college.
The $1.7 million that’s not distributed directly to students will be used to provide competitive grants to college access programs. These programs help low-income students and families prepare for higher education, Mitchell said.
The purpose of the federal grant program is to foster partnerships among federal, state, and local governments and philanthropic organizations through matching challenge grants that are aimed at increasing the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
J.D.’s comments:
Okay that is all well and good for underprivileged families. But what about the backbone of America? The middleclass family, those that make $40,000 to $180,000.
I am all for helping those in need. The reality of it is middleclass families need help to.
The key (here I am on my soapbox again) is research and positioning. Did you know that there are colleges out there that would love to see your B average student and are willing to throw money at them? Even affluent families have captured these dollars.
Parents have been drilled in the head “you make to much to qualify for aid.” In the words of Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge “Baa-humbug! ”
Finding the right schools or coined “best fit” college is paramount.
What is best fit you say? Well, best fit is demographics. No, I am not talking about ethnicity or male-female ratios. It’s where does your student fall in the GPA and standardized test score demographics, top third, middle third or bottom third.
Some professionals say that your student should apply to 3 types of colleges. Safety schools, good match schools and reach schools.
I disagree. Here’s why. Sure you can apply to your reach schools and your student may get it. However, your student may be at the bottom of the grade scale and will most likely not be offered much or nothing at all in the form of scholarships or grants, because this type of student is not highly desirable by that particular institution.
Your student may want to apply to 1 or 2 (leaning more towards 1) reach school and the bulk of the other schools in good match with 2 safety schools to fall back on.
AZ College Planning recommends applying to 8 colleges, 1 reach (maybe) 5 good fit schools, and 2-3 safety colleges.
Also research what schools have money to give out.
Affluent or middleclass, you can position your student to be a highly desirable college candidate with a bit of research.
The foul hands that caused the economic meltdown are far reaching. Now reaching into our children’s future. It was once thought a privilege to attend college. Only the elite and wealthy were well educated.
No longer is this the fact. College is attainable by any who have the desire to attend. It is just a matter of knowing how and where to be able to qualify for financial aid. Harvard and Stanford (and most of the Ivy league colleges) are making it easier for families who earn $50,000 or less to attend their school with generous open handed scholarships and grants. (Yes, your student does have to get good grades to be admitted.)
So it would seem that the lower class has the Read the rest of this article »
Hi this is J.D. Wyczalek (why-zall-ick) the College Guy.
I am really excited about a new project I am working on called CollegeTV.
Here is how it works. Submit a question to me regarding anything to related to college. It could be questions like: which is the best college for my student, how do I research colleges that would be best for my student or what is financial aid and how do Read the rest of this article »
Dude, where’s my financial aid? By: Chris Damitio 11/24/08
What do you mean my financial aid has been cut $5,000? That’s what went through my head at the beginning of this, my final semester, at UH.
As a kid, my family ate government cheese, and now as an adult without a degree, I’ve found mostly minimum-wage jobs, making barely enough to keep me hovering at, or just above, the national poverty line.
After a hellish four years in the Marine Corps, I used my GI Bill to Read the rest of this article »
Is your student thinking of going to a California State University college like San Jose State, San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach or Fullerton.
Traditionally it has been more difficult to be admitted to the UC schools such as UCLA, UC Berkley and UC Sand Diego. Now it may be more dificult for your student to get in to the CSU schools as well. Budget crunches are on the top of their lists.
What is the difference between a UC and a CSU college?
UCs programs are more research and theory-oriented. Students study how and why things happen. For example Read the rest of this article »
Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction. Here is another wacky college statistic.
Believe it or not, a recent survey showed Americans with a college education can expect to live 7 years longer than those who only finish high school. Of course, the study was done by Harvard University, so there may be some bias there. On the other hand, Harvard doesn’t exactly hurt for people wanting to go there, so who knows?
Anyway, the life expectancy for those with a higher education is 82 years old, versus Read the rest of this article »
1.) Missppelling and Grammadical Arrors
Not poof-reading, or rushing threw he application can leed to small mistakes that can make a huge unfavorable impression. Fill out the traditional application and let yer friends, parents and counselor review it. If you want to go to college and you’re using their, there, and they’re incorrectly- well now we have a problem. Read the rest of this article »
Like a magician, now you have it. Now you don’t.
The University of Buffalo made a big mistake, and now more than 100 students may not be able to afford to go to school. U.B. accidentally gave too much financial aid this year to 134 students, maybe more, and now those students will have to pay back anywhere from $90 to $12,000.
This is a total huge bummer. One minute you are jumping in the streets doing cartwheels because you landed a huge scholarship only to have Read the rest of this article »
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you. It is because of brave men and women like you that we have such a great country. Read the rest of this article »
By J.D. Wyczalek Nov 7 2008
Thank God the election is finally over. If there is one more political TV commercial I just might pop. Now we can go back to viewing our regular TV commercials indoctrinated with drug ad pharmaceuticals.
There really should be a pharmaceutical product that cures peniaphobia (the fear of going broke) especially with all of the college expenses coming up. (Side affects may cause Read the rest of this article »
