College Student Credit Card

With the ever-upward spiraling cost of higher education, a high school student with dreams of dreams of getting a Bachelor’s of Science degree – or a young technician looking to get Masters or more – seems to be getting grimmer and grimmer. Their academic/work records qualify for the top schools, but the costs leave a lot to be desired. Federal/state financing just isn’t enough, even when tapping into such sources as Pell grants.

The fact is the country is in the middle of a shortage of engineers of many, many stripes. As the measure of a nation to sustain itself is largely based on the number of technical people it can support, a number of agencies have come in to help the colleges, both online and on campus, produce more Bachelors of Science, engineers being a major part of the equation. If you need more information about college grants and scholarships, look on the internet.

Financial aid candidates looking for grants and scholarships should start by sitting down with a college’s financial aid officer. Whether it’s an online college or on campus, every school has a small army of them. It’s part of his/her job is to stay abreast of all these new programs. Not that it doesn’t hurt to also do one’s own research. A quick scan of Google or any other search engine will show there are a number of sources they might never have heard of. These sources include:

(1) Pell Grant: Sure, this is obvious, but should not be ignored. At the moment, this federal grant is capable of supplying up to $5,350 towards going to college. As said before, it’s probably not all you need, but can take a chunk out. While you’re at it, don’t forget the state you reside in. The funds from most of their lotteries are supposed to go towards financing education. Make sure they do.

(2) S-STEM Scholarship: This program was created by the National Science Foundation and the Board of Education specifically to help students get anything from an Associate’s to a Masters of Science degree in a designated group of curriculum. It’s based on both academics and need. To find out more about this program, one should contact the Foundation and the Board of Education for more on it. There is an abundance of information about student loans on the web.

(3) Corporate Scholarships: Many technological and similar corporations find it in their best interest, both for tax reasons and as a source for recruiting, to set up scholarship funds. This includes companies such as Mobil Oil, where there is a very high demand need for petroleum engineers to Microsoft, which has its own scholarship/work-study program for computer engineers.

(4) Professional Organizations: Every profession comes with its own society or other form of professional organization. In turn, these organizations almost always have some sort of educational financial aid program. It’s a good way of maintaining the ranks. As it happens, engineering has virtually dozens of them. Some of them include the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers, which even has a few web pages on continuing online education, or as they call it, “distance learning”.

From the well known scholarshiops, to the lesser known private corporation sponsors, searching for free scholarships and grants online proves a little research can go a long way in this area.