You are probably already aware of the very high costs of sending your son or daughter to college, whether you have been researching it in preparation for them going, or whether you already have a child in college. And it is probably no news to you that despite your extensive and detailed planning and budgeting, your best guess is likely going to fall far short of the real costs.
Hopefully you have not encouraged your son or daughter to not consider college. A college education is a necessity in todays cruel hard world, and not having a college education almost guarantees a struggle through life. Life is hard enough as it is, why complicate matters? For economic reasons, you may have encouraged your son or daughter to seriously consider a local community college instead of the brand-name state university. But I would urge you to reconsider that suggestion, since you of course want to be able to give your son or daughter every possible advantage that they could have, and the education that they get at the four-year state university or brand name college is almost certainly going to better than the local community college. You are saying fine, but how can I afford it?
But most importantly, college does not need to be expensive because there are a ton of scholarships available for your son or daughter. Some scholarships might just provide a few hundred dollars, others might just provide textbooks for classes that are in the industry of the scholarship provider, and other scholarships can provide a full ride. There is no limit to the number of scholarships that a student can be awarded, and looking at the total cost of college, they all add up. Remember that the difference between a college scholarship or college grant and a college student loan is that a loan needs to be paid back, whereas a scholarship or grant does not.
Like anything else, you need to be fully aware of where you are researching college scholarships, especially online. Do not pay any money to see if you qualify while a few of these types of sites can be legitimate, the vast majority of legitimate sites do not require any kind of pre-payment to see if you have qualified for a college scholarship. Contrary to what has become popular belief over the years, scholarships are not only awarded to the football superstars or musical geniuses, nor are they awarded based solely on financial need. Yes, financial need still plays a part in the overall scope of things, but it is not nearly the sole determining factor that it was years ago.
The truth is that there are millions of dollars worth of scholarships that are not awarded each year simply because nobody applied for them! No, you do not need to be the top football jock or the outstanding musician of the year in order to get a scholarship. In the majority of cases, you simply need to apply. Remember, these scholarships are tax deductions for corporations, and if the scholarship is not awarded, then the corporation does not get to take that tax deduction. Therefore, the requirements for being eligible for that scholarship are less and less, including a financial need basis, but the single requirement that exists for all of them is that you need to fill out the application!
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I am doing a school project in which I must choose a location and create the overall start-up plan for a bar/restaurant. I have chosen a location in New Orleans. I would appreciate any help or input someone mught be able to give regarding special options for financing or grants in Hurricane Katrina areas such as New Orleans. The place that I have chosen as my hypothetical site has everything included; all I would have to do is to devise a menu. I know that loans are generally not given for restaurant or bar businesses. Thanks for any help you can give.
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