Scholarships
Time to Take Charge!
July 29, 2011Parents and students need to stop blindly going through K-12 education without doing the necessary research to identify the most appropriate colleges and careers. Whether or not students attend good high schools with well-informed counselors, the information is only a mouse click away:
- The U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center serves as a valuable resource to compare tuition costs and the net prices of college
- The U.S. Department of Education College Navigator provides detailed information on all U.S. colleges and universities (including admissions, costs, graduation rates, and student demographics)
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook provides information on hundreds of types of jobs and the job markets in each State
- The Federal Student Aid website provides links to a broad range of websites to assist students in preparing for their education
Get connected and get informed!
Scholarships for Asian and Pacific Islander students
July 22, 2011Washington, D.C., July 14, 2011-The Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), the nation’s largest nonprofit organization devoted solely to providing college scholarships for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), is awarding for the first-time ever $1.2 million in scholarships to more than 500 outstanding AAPI students for the 2011-12 academic school year. APIASF’s scholarships-ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 individually-are given to well deserving high school and college students with which many of whom are the first in their family to attend college.
APIASF manages two scholarship programs: The general APIASF Scholarship Program and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program/Asian Pacific Islander Americans funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. APIASF’s general scholarship is funded by many corporate, foundation, nonprofit, and individual supporters including the Coca-Cola Foundation, Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, Sodexo Foundation, United Health Foundation, USA Funds, Walmart Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation.
For details about APIASF’s scholarship programs or for more information about the 2011 APIASF College Completion Forum: Strengthening Institutions that Serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, visit APIASF’s Web site at www.apiasf.org. Also, follow APIASF on Facebook (www.facebook.com/apiasf) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/apiasf).
The financial risks of choosing the wrong college
July 22, 2011Choosing the right college goes far beyond college rankings, identifying the right major, or even choosing the right college town. Many parents and students are unaware of the types of colleges identified as non-profit or for-profit. Unfortunately, not knowing the difference has left many students thousands of dollars in debt and no degree to show for it. The Education Trust report, “Subprime Opportunity: The Unfulfilled Promise of For-Profit Colleges and Universities” is highly critical of for-profit colleges with such findings as:
- For-profit colleges provide high-cost degree programs that have little chance to leading to high-paying careers
- Students graduate with heavy debt
- For-profit colleges aggressively recruit low-income students and students of color, with such students making up 50 and 37 percent of the student population at for-profit colleges
- 25 percent of Black, Hispanic, and low-income students begin college at for-profit colleges while only 10 percent of White students do so
- Only 22 percent of students graduate from such schools within 6 years
The report also reports the following six-year graduation rates at the following for-profit schools:
- 9 percent, University of Phoenix
- 15 percent, Sullivan University
- 16 percent, International Academy of Design and Technology
- 27 percent, Westwood College
- 31 percent, DeVry University
- 35 percent, Berkeley College
- 41 percent, The Art Institute
- 44 percent, The Illinois Institute of Art
- 66 percent, ITT Technical Institute
- 67 percent, School of Visual Arts
The report also noted a significant difference in the amount of debt that students are left with based on the type of school attended:
- $7,960 at public colleges and universities
- $17,040 at private, non-profit colleges and universities
- $31,190 at for-profit colleges and universities
For those students choosing to enroll into a non-profit college or university, the debt can still be daunting. The report by the Institute of College Access and Success,“Student Debt and the Class of 2009” estimates that college seniors who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt. The unemployment rate for 2009 college graduates rose to 8.7 percent, the highest annual rate on record.
The amount of student debt varies widely by state. The highest debt state is the District of Columbia at $30,033 and the lowest state is Utah at $12,860. Research the amount of debt by state for specific colleges. Interestingly, some of the highest debt colleges have the most liberal admission policies (Alabama State, Fort Valley State, and Wheelock College), while some of the lowest debt colleges have the most highly competitive admission policies (Cal Tech, Princeton, and Williams College). Thus, students should not only develop a plan for getting accepted into the right college, but ensuring that earning their college degree does not require that they mortgage their future.
NBMBBA Atlanta Scholarship Program
July 21, 2011The National Black MBA Atlanta Chapter Scholarship Program has been in existence since 1982. The Scholarship Program promotes the NBMBAA mission of increasing the number of successful
African-Americans in the community by providing scholarships to outstanding deserving minority students within the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Scholarships are available at the following levels:
- High School (Leaders of Tomorrow)
- Undergraduate MBA
- PhD
Scholarship application deadline is August 19, 2011.
Program information and applications are available on NBMBAA Atlanta website at www.atlbmba.org. Look under the “Student Affairs” main tab.
Please contact scholarships@atlbmba.org with questions.
Note that applicants are responsible for submitting all required information. Only completed applications will be considered.
Does an Athletic Scholarship Cover Everything?
July 15, 2011The answer is no. The article in Higher Ed provides insight into the scholarship gap, or the gap in what an athletic scholarship covers and the actual costs of attending college. The NCAA specifies, under 15.02.5, that a full grant-in-aid is financial aid that consists of tuition and fees, room and board, and required course-related books. However, colleges themselves provide a COA (Cost of Attendance) for prospective students that is a higher number, sometimes much higher depending on where a student is from, estimating the real costs of attending college (transportation, living expenses, etc.). Subsequently, a college-bound student athlete who accepts a full athletic scholarship to a school within his or her home state may have a substantially lower COA than a student who accepts an athletic scholarship to a college or university across the country.
Tuition costs outpacing financial aid
July 10, 2011Now, as much as ever, students must have a college plan that will assist them in paying the huge cost of college tuition. Earning a scholarship, getting admitted into a highly selective college that offers needs-based financial aid can make all of the difference. However, the students who will find it most difficult to afford college are also the students who are among the least likely students to have the appropriate plan.
According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education June 2011 Policy Alert:
- College tuition at both 2-year and 4-year colleges is outpacing family income
- Students’ financial-aid packages are not keeping pace with tuition costs
- 44 percent of low-income students attend community college while only 15 percent of high-income students do
- Community Colleges account for approximately 40 percent of all postsecondary enrollment
- Graduation rates at community colleges are among the lowest
The most likely students to attend community college are:
- Students from low-income families
- First in their family to attend college
- From underrepresented racial or ethnic group
- 38 percent of students whose parents did not graduate from college attend community college while only 20 percent of students whose parents graduated from college attend community college
- 50 percent of Hispanic students; 31 percent of Black students; and 28 percent of White students attend community college
- In Arizona, California, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Texas, over 50 percent of Black and Hispanic students attend community college
- None of these states graduate as many as half of its community college students