College Scholarships for College Sophomores: Investing in Your Future

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College Scholarships

When you are heading off to college there is a lot of things you need to do before you can even start the process. First off you have to make sure you have the education in high school that you need, the grade point average, extracurricular activities, and of course the SAT scores. You will also need to choose the college you want to attend. This often involves applying to more than just two colleges to make sure you are accepted some where. Once you have chosen the colleges you will need to search for college scholarships. These college scholarships help you afford the college you want to attend.

Some colleges are going to offer a scholarship through them for football, other sports, or just a yearly college scholarship that they have. You will always want to try for these college scholarships. However you will also want to try for other college scholarships. There are several foundations that raise money each year to give to college students. You have to research online, in books, magazines, and talk with the financial aid officers at your institution, but they should be able to help you find college scholarships. It is important that you start this search at least a year before you will be attending college if not earlier.

Remember you can research the college scholarships you wish to apply for before you are actually able to apply. This will give you an idea on the deadlines for the college scholarships, which ones exist that you can apply for, and some of the guidelines that are required. Once you have this information and the year's college scholarship information is released for the year you will begin to attend college you can apply. There are college scholarships for left handed people, African Americans, Native Americans, Medical fields, Biology, writer's scholarships, and thousands more. The choice is really going to be how many college scholarships you can fill out that apply to you in the amount of time you have.

This is why researching a year before filling out the actual college scholarship information is important. If you have an idea of what will be required, when the deadline will role around, and of course when the new year's information is going to be released you will have a better chance to fill out more. You will also be able to plan a little regarding the deadlines. You will also find out the requirements for the scholarships. You will know if it is worth your time trying to apply for the scholarship based on the previous year's information. Some college scholarships are very specific in requirements that they ask for. This can make it difficult to find college scholarships.

Online resources are one of the best places to find college scholarships. The next best place is at your high school or talking with the colleges your are hoping to attend. They will be able to show you the year's college scholarships that they have access to and give you a general direction. The library is also going to have a book for college scholarships in their reference section. The books may be a year behind, but remember this information can direct you to the website you need.

For more information about college scholarships please visit http://www.studentaides.com for more information. This blog has everything you need for finding the perfect student loan or college scholarship.

College Scholarships for College Sophomores

To all the college sophomores, one year down and sadly still three to fours years to go before you have completed your first Bachelors degree. Congrats in getting through your first year but have you stopped to think how you are going to get through the next three to four years? Wow, what is a college student suppose to do!

College Tuition Continues to Skyrocket

Tuition prices continue to skyrocket and this next year they might even increase by double figures. What is a college student suppose to do? Will your scholarships, federal grants and financial aid cover the cost? The average college student is graduating college with at least $20,000 to $40,000 dollars in loans and some with $60,000 to $100,000.

The last depressing fact is half of college students are thinking about moving back in with their parents because they can't find a job after graduation. If you are a college freshman or junior, college scholarships for college sophomores will still benefit you. College sophomore students are at an advantage because they have completed their first year of college, about to declare their major and have time to apply for internships and assistant ship.

Won't federal financial aid be enough to pay for college? Not anymore.

The federal government is cutting its budget in education leading to a smaller budget for colleges and universities and less financial aid for students. We all ready see it happening all around us with tuition prices increasing to students in college relying on loans to get them through each year.

How are you supposed to pay for college with as little of loans as possible?

Scholarships, internships and assistantships have increased over 200% over the past five years and college students need to take advantage. Companies and businesses are offering to cover tuition, hand out scholarships and even supply a job after graduation if the student gets an internship or assistantship. That's everything a college student should want, right?

So many students want a college experience but the TRUE purpose of college is to get an education for a career field.

College Sophomores Steps for Success

If you're a college sophomores or freshmen here are three things you need to do before next year:

First, focus on your classes to learn the basic skills you will need in your career field and explore through a diversity of college classes to discover what career field truly interest you. The first two years of college is to prove yourself through grades, explore different career fields and discover the career path that most interest you to pursue. Stop partying so much and take the first step advancing your life towards the career field of your dreams.

Second, after filing your FAFSA for federal financial aid put your focus in apply for college scholarships and scholarship programs. Many scholarships are offered by the universities, community and companies that share your career field of interest. While finding a summer job is important, scholarships can pay so much more than working long hours for minimum wage. Start your scholarship search today to avoid loans at all cost.

Third, search for internships and assistantships with companies and organizations in your career field of interest. So many companies have tuition reimbursement or will pay for your tuition through an internship. One of the largest providers is USA Funds and is a great place to begin your search. Search the community your in to see if there are any opportunities for internships or assistantships. College is so much sweeter when it is paid for.

Final Word

Don't be a statistic in unemployment or moving back with your parents. Take control of your future and your college education because college tuition prices are not coming down any time soon. While college can be all fun and games, you are at college to get an education and prepare yourself for a future in your desired career. Finally, continue to read my articles on college scholarships for college sophomores to cruise through college without any loans or debt.

By Jared Wash

Thanks for reading my article on College Scholarships for College Sophomores. To learn more please visit my website collegescholarshipfreeloaders.com and get college paid for without loans.

Sports Scholarships - One Way to Reduce the College Tuition Bill For the Future College Athlete!

How Much Spare Change Will You Need?

The average cost of college tuition today with room and board is about $25,000 annually at an in-state public university and around $40,000 annually at a private school not including the purchases of books, fees, and spending money, let alone airfare if your student athlete is out of state.The price tag for a college education increased 53% for public schools and 47% for private above inflation between 1994 and 2004. This college tuition cost is not going to get less! Are college sports scholarships something to think about for your future college athlete? Might these scholarships provide a little spare education change?

That is what we were facing five years ago with a high school senior who decided to play college basketball very late. But our daughter was not the elite athlete; in fact, her high school coach considered her a D-III athlete at best, possibly D-II if she stretched. We had not even thought about college sports scholarships because no coach was knocking on her door! And, in fact, today, universities and colleges have reduced the recruiting budgets for college coaches; they cannot personally recruit as many potential college athletes as before. If you are the parent of a student athlete who is not the top superstar, then it is likely you and your student athlete will have to search for sports scholarships yourselves. Your prospective college athlete will have to do his or her own recruiting to help reduce the high price of college tuition today.

Who Gets to Play?

In our research to figure out how we would find her a college sports scholarship and reduce that tuition bill, we found out that about 5% of high school athletes go on to play college sports. We also discovered there are sports scholarships beyond the "usual suspects" of football, basketball, baseball and volleyball, and not just in the NCAA! And, we learned that high school student athletes can find academic scholarships at great D-III schools that have highly competitive sports programs.

We did not want our daughter to be one of the student athletes in the 95% category that do not get to be a college athlete! She had the desire, the work ethic, and the talent. We developed a process to help her and she received a walk-on offer at a Big East D-I University in Chicago, two D-III academic scholarships, and, eventually, a D-I scholarship at a West Coast Conference school.

What we found in our research, online and personal ~ talking with college coaches, high school counselors, athletic directors and other parents ~ was that most of the emphasis is on the elite future college athlete, the one coaches actively recruit. There seems to be less effort put into those athletes who are talented, but are not maybe the superstars. These may be young athletes who are not the starters on their high school teams, suffered injuries or are late bloomers. We also saw other high school athletes whom we came across that either did not know how to begin their search for an athletic scholarship (D-I and D-II) or the academic scholarship at D-III. Or, their parents were really not knowledgeable about the world of college athletics.

College Athletics -- Play to Earn an Education!

And, what we found is that there was a lot of information about the athletic scholarships, but not much about how to find a solid academic program along with that athletic scholarship. Most college athletes do not go on to play in the pros, so the object of the athletic scholarship is to help the student athlete continue to play his or her sport while also earning a college education. And, we happen to think that is still very valuable. Universities and colleges are beginning to recognize the end game -- getting a good education to prepare for the "game" of life. Even the NCAA is increasingly looking at the student in the word student athlete.

I came across a recent article in a national magazine that basically was saying athletic scholarships are not all that they are cracked up to be. The author stated that the average college scholarship is about $10,000 and, if you extract the men's sports, that scholarship reduces to $8,000; the only full scholarships are for football, basketball and volleyball. The author also stated that there is no such thing as a four-year athletic scholarship and coaches can pull scholarships for a variety of factors. True enough; scholarships are given for only one year and most sports scholarships are partial, with colleges and parents piecing together the puzzle with loans and other financial aid packages. It was a rather doom and gloom article. We have a little different view. When our daughter received offers of two approximately $12,000 academic scholarships to two D-III schools where she would have played basketball, that was $12,000 off of a $33,000 tuition bill. I don't know about you, but I will take that any day!

Caveat Emptor! Like Anything Else -- Do Your Homework and Use Common Sense!

Although the world of college athletics is not for the faint of heart and there are certainly unscrupulous programs and coaches, if one uses common sense and goes into this college search process with eyes open and a realistic picture of the level of talent, the search for a college sports scholarship, given an effective plan and process, should produce some good results. We were neophytes when we started this effort on behalf of our daughter, but we have to say the coaches with whom we talked and met were straight shooters and gave us honest answers to all of our inquiries. And, yes, we know of student athletes who have not been treated very well, with scholarships yanked because coaches were changed or the school wanted to go in a different direction. But, we also know of student athletes who were able to stay all four years at a college and play for most of those years and gain a good solid education, something they might not have had if that athletic scholarship had not at least reduced some of the college bill.

We would encourage the student athletes out there or the parents of student athletes to take a look at college sports scholarships (or academic scholarships at D-III schools) as a way to pay part of that ever increasing college tuition bill. And, the college athletic search will take you beyond the NCAA, to the NAIA, NCCAA, NJCAA, or other community college associations and will provide a much greater choice of academic programs available. There are great colleges and universities out there of all shapes and sizes to fit the interests of the potential college athlete. The key is just to start and do not listen to all the naysayers. You just might be pleasantly surprised.

Keep Playing! Athletics Scholarship Search System grew out of our efforts to help our daughter, a high school basketball varsity player become a college athlete getting offers as a Walk-on at a D-I Big East School, 2 D-III Academic Scholarships, and finally a D-I Scholarship at a West Coast Conference School. While I knew the game of basketball, my wife and I knew little about the world of college athletic recruiting.

And, what we could see was that most of the effort on the Internet was focused on the elite, D-I athlete. There wasn't a great deal of information for students at the D-II level, or looking at D-III schools. We were also given a lot of poor information, such as don't ever call the coaches! Glad we didn't listen to that advice! And, we saw nothing that helped our daughter match her athletic interests with her academic interests. After all, the education is the point! Most college athletes don't go on to the pros. The goal with an athletic scholarship should be a solid educational foundation.

We have developed a clear, easy to use system to help the student athlete and the parents navigate the college athletic scholarship world. We also provide helpful resources, forms for collecting and tracking information, as well as a way for parents to help their student athletes get an objective assessment of their talent, and know how to support their strengths and work on their weaknesses. Keep Playing! Athletics Scholarship System is a six-step, effective turn-key process to find a solid college athletic program, a sports scholarship and a good academic program. This system will help you do your own college recruiting and find a college sports scholarship!

Keep Playing!

Al Musante
http://www.keepplayingathletics.com