How to Talk To Your Daughter about College Funding and Responsibility

June 22, 2017 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

How to Talk To Your Daughter about College Funding and Responsibility

Your daughter will see her dad as the provider and head of the household, so she might not think that she has anything that she needs to do besides tell you where she wants to enroll. Next, you may not be on the same page when it comes to applying for scholarships and grants or exploring student loans. Ultimately, it will be your daughter’s actions that decide whether she will qualify for an academic scholarship or has what it takes to maintain an athletic scholarship during college. Lastly, there is the financial aid portion of planning for college that many teenage girls overlook. Whether she is eager to earn her bachelor of science in diagnostic medical sonography from ADU Online or really wants to become a teacher, financial aid is an important step that you will need to work together to complete. Here’s how to plan a great future for your precious daughter.

Talking Openly about College Expenses

You’ve lived together and shared a lot, but dads trying to sit down and come up with a sensible plan for college with their daughters have many challenges to contend with. Not all parents believe that they should outright pay their children’s college expenses, especially if their kids haven’t shown an adequate level of responsibility. You may need to talk to your daughter about her getting a part-time job as she works on her bachelor of medical sonography degree to help offset costs. Then there’s the fact that both you and your daughter might need to take out student loans to help get through college. If your daughter doesn’t have established credit, you will need to co-sign on all of her loans so that they get approved.

Discussing Responsibilities and Expectations

Perhaps the deal that you made with your daughter consists of her maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA for you to foot the bill. Other fathers require their daughters to check-in with them consistently, especially if they are going to college in a different state. Whatever your rules are, make sure you explain them adequately. Realize that your child is going to be quite busy and distracted with school, so she will appreciate knowing what her responsibilities are upfront rather than having a detailed discussion in the middle of spring semester.

Coming Up With Alternative College Plans

Remember that getting into college has a lot to do with grades, but luck also plays a part. Let your daughter know that she is not guaranteed to be accepted to her dream college and help her to make up alternative plans just in case. You might also face challenges when you start calculating college expenses, so see if there are any creative ways that you can your daughter can come up with to help fund her higher education.

If you can’t wait to watch your little girl graduate with her class and throw her cap in the air, make sure that you have an honest discussion about planning for college. You may not want to disappoint her on any level, but being upfront about expenses and responsibilities will actually help you to gain more respect. Remember that college is a new experience for young adults, so be understanding about her concerns and you will be able to enjoy an even stronger relationship with your daughter.

6 life hacks to help college students earn money next semester

November 16, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Whether you are a student or a parent, chances are you have lost sleep over the cost of higher education.

Whether you are a college student or a parent, chances are you have lost sleep over the cost of higher education. With college costing the average student more than $30,000 per year, students are actively seeking any monetary help possible to ensure they are not haunted by a mountain of debt after graduation. And with the expensive holiday season upon us, families generally find household budgets tighter than ever. With that in mind, we put together a list of life hacks that will help families earn a little extra money toward the Spring semester.

Scholarship Sweepstakes from ScholarshipOwl

ScholarshipOwl, the only scholarship platform that applies students to hundreds of scholarships with ONE application form, just launched their first scholarship sweepstakes, which will award one lucky student $1,000 to be used towards their future education. For a company that only launched a few months ago, they are already putting their money where their mouth is, and giving back to the higher education community.

Saving for college with Gradvisor

The idea of paying for college can be overwhelming, especially when you are an unemployed recent graduate. After dealing with mountains of student debt, most people will do their best to make sure their offspring never have to deal with that burden. This is where Gradvisor comes in. Gradvisor works with companies to help their employees save money for their children’s college savings. It sets up a direct deposit so employees can start saving immediately.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Many changes are in the works to refine this 100 page document that is so grueling and time consuming that most families are deterred from filling it out. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have been fighting to cut the FAFSA down to one page consisting of only two questions, and once these changes take effect, this process of getting financial aid for college should be relatively painless.

Federal Work-Study Program

The FWS Program provides part time employment to undergraduate and graduate students with financial needs, and allows them to earn money to help pay for educational expenses. This program is in place at approximately 3,400 participating postsecondary institutions, and provides at least minimum wage to employees.

Student sponsorships

Sponsorship programs are most popular in Europe, but are starting to catch on in the United States. A private investor sponsors a student, and puts them through school. Then when the student graduates, they are typically entitled to a certain percentage of their income for a fixed number of years. So if you are destined for great things, but lack monetary resources, this could be a road to explore.

CashCourse “My Story” Scholarship Essay Contest

Have you encountered a personal finance situation that you think others could learn from? Share your story with CashCourse.org and you could win a scholarship of up to $1,500! Submit an essay that describes the situation, problem, or decision as well as how you worked through the process and what lesson(s) you learned.

ScholarshipOwl Launches To Streamline Applications, Help Students Uncover Cash

October 17, 2015 by dadofdivas 1 Comment

Most of you know that I have worked in the college admissions field for 20+ years. I even wrote a book called The Ultimate College Preparation Handbook to help people like you and your kids to maneuver through the college search process. While I have worked in the field for 20+ years I also know there are a ton of resources that are coming out all of the time to help parents and kids in new ways and as a father and as a professional I am always excited to find out about these and to be able to share them with all of you.

Today I learned about a great new online service that offers a membership site that helps students find undergraduate and graduate scholarships all in one place and best of all, it’s free.

ScholarshipOwl, is a free online membership service that matches students to U.S. college and graduate-school scholarships and then automates the application process, has opened the beta version of its service to all users. During a closed part of the beta process, the site attracted more than 25,000 members.

I was drawn to this because I know first-hand how expensive college can be. With college costing an average student more than $30,000 per year, scholarships are more important than ever, so getting a scholarship remains a complicated and time-consuming process and having a place to go that walks you through the steps is even better.

ScholarshipOwl was founded by veteran tech entrepreneur Kenny Sandorffy, who believes passionately in the need to transform the application process, so students can get the aid they need to pay for their education. Sandorffy became frustrated after completing a single aid application took longer than applying to his college. Most students are eligible for dozens, even hundreds of scholarships, but seldom have the time to find and win that aid, missing the opportunity to get much of their education paid for, Sandorffy said.

“Finding which scholarships you’re eligible for, and then applying for them one by one, is so slow and painful, but so important,” said Sandorffy, ScholarshipOwl’s Head of Marketing and Optimization. “We wanted to fix this tedious process and make it easy for students and their families to find all the scholarships they deserve, and to win those scholarships. Our goal is to make sure everyone’s college is paid for with scholarship aid.”

Signup takes as little as two minutes. Basic information turns a visitor into a member, and generates the first matches from more than 3.5 million scholarships. More information provides more matches, which can be viewed and prioritized easily and quickly. If an essay or other additional information is needed, the program details what’s needed and makes it easy to add. With a few clicks, a completed application is then submitted to a scholarship provider.

Every member can use ScholarshipOwl to find and send automated scholarship matches. All members are given a ScholarshipOwl email address for each member protects their privacy and consolidates their application correspondence in one place for easy follow-up.

Even after the first applications go out, ScholarshipOwl continues to monitor its database for more matches, notifying members of approaching deadlines, new opportunities and more, throughout their college experience, as long as they remain members. The company’s goal is to help all students fund their college education completely through scholarships.

As you can see, this is a great benefit to all college students and being free, what do you have to lose by trying it out for yourself and seeing what happens? Check out ScholarshipOwl today, you will not be disappointed!

About ScholarshipOwl

ScholarshipOwl is the one-stop online service for students trying to win more college and graduate-school scholarships. The company was founded by Kenny Sandorffy, who believes passionately in the need to transform the tedious and time-consuming process of applying for college scholarships. ScholarshipOwl provides a wealth of free services that quickly match members to eligible scholarships, improve their applications, and automate their submissions. Premium services provide even more power for students seeking the most scholarships to finance their education. For more information, visit www.scholarshipowl.com or call (302) 266–2831. Follow ScholarshipOwl on Twitter @ScholarshipOwl