Scholarship America's Blog

Yahoo Finance and Kiplinger.com have put together their annual ranking of the Best Value Public Colleges in America; if you're out there looking for universities that will help you make the most out of your college funds, these are a great place to start. The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill tops the list, and there are public universities in the top ten that will fit plenty of geographic and size requirements.

According to Kiplinger, "Our definition of value begins with academics: No school is a bargain if it skimps on quality. All of the schools in our rankings perform well on measurable criteria, such as student-faculty ratios, academic competitiveness and on-time graduation rates. The schools on our list also deliver an affordable education, our other measure of value, by keeping the sticker price low, offering plenty of financial aid or both. Of the colleges in our rankings, 39 charge about the same or less than the average annual in-state sticker price ($15,213) for four-year public institutions, and many come in well below that amount. Those prices look especially attractive compared with the average cost of a private-school education, which this year hit an average total of $35,636, according to the College Board."

Check out the full top ten list and much more here. The article is a part of Yahoo and Kiplinger's "Financially Fit" series, which is pretty good reading across the board if you're looking to learn a bit more about personal finance. You can find the series homepage here.

The tireless researchers over at onlineeducation.net have put together a terrific guide to finding scholarships via Twitter -- from searching and hashtags to scholarship-specific Twitter accounts, their list of 50 Tips and Tools To Find Scholarships On Twitter covers a lot of excellent ground. Great to check out as the school year gets closer!

While debt -- student loans, government deficits, personal debt -- may not be the world's most exciting subject, it is at the heart of much of the current global financial crisis. And Indebted a new site developed by MTV's college network, MTVu, in conjunction with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, aims to provide a simple and stark look at just how much debt is out there -- and how it affects college students.

Below is a 30-second, animated introductory video; the Indebted site also features a half-hour documentary, I.O.U.S.A., some basic facts on student and government debt, and will soon also contain a debt-reduction video game, produced by a Lehigh University student for the site's Indebted Digital Challenge game-design contest.

Check out the video by clicking the image, and visit Indebted.com for much more; it's an excellent resource for students, teachers and parents alike to examine what national debt and a struggling economy mean for the future of education.

Scholarship America is partnering with the National Association of Student Financial Aid, Lumina Foundation for Education, and a number of organizations across the country to host College Goal Sunday events this February.

College Goal Sunday offers an opportunity for students and parents to learn more about the world of financial aid, and each event has trained experts on hand to help you and your family fill out the Federal Application For Student Aid (FAFSA) and ensure that you know about, and are prepared to apply for, all of the postsecondary education help you're eligible for.

Check out the College Goal Sunday Web site at CollegeGoalSundayUSA.org to find a location near you.

"I'm good enough to go to my dream school, but I can't pay for it." That is the lament of one of the six students profiled recently on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, as they take their 'Faces of the New Economy' series to Fairfax High School in northern Virginia. The students, in their own words, discuss the challenges of both finding and paying for college—one has a parent with three jobs (which puts food on the table, but also puts her over the financial aid limit for many schools); one hoped to receive a swimming scholarship and found the competition tougher than expected; one is pondering the military as a way of paying for school without taking out loans.

It's a brief piece, but a worthwhile listen for anyone who's looking at higher education for themselves or their children. You can check out the episode here.

The Project on Student Debt is a Web project created by the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit working to inform students, parents, schools and policymakers about trends and issues throughout the world of financial aid. It's well worth bookmarking and visiting often; their list of the Top Ten Student Loan Tips for Recent Graduates is a great place to start.

Dr. Clifford Stanley, president of Scholarship America, took the opportunity last week to be a part of a terrific event in our own offices' backyard -- the first annual Celebration Of Education event in St. Paul, MN, held by a group of private scholarship providers to celebrate more than 100 students who received scholarships to further their education.

As the St. Paul Pioneer Press put it:

"And may a warm sun and a few bright lights grace today's to-do in Rice Park, where five private organizations have called a party to encourage the 100-plus graduating seniors whom they've awarded college scholarships. There'll be food, music, short speeches by dignitaries such as Mayor Chris Coleman, school Superintendent Meria Carstarphen and Scholarship America CEO Clifford Stanley — and some remarkable young people who are the guests of honor. ...

"'We feel we're just doing what we should be doing,' says John Tillotson, a vice president with the financial firm Smith Barney. Tillotson has been involved for a dozen years with the scholarship program of the Optimist Club of St. Paul [which awards scholarships through Scholarship America's Dollars for Scholars program]. From his office overlooking Rice Park, Tillotson has been working for months on today's event, thinking, 'Let's celebrate what these kids have done. Let's celebrate what our local schools have produced, and let's celebrate the community gathering its resources to send these kids on to higher education.'"

You can read the full Pioneer Press article here; our congratulations to the students, and our thanks to everyone who helped them take another step toward their educational dreams.

Whether you're a homeowner or not, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis is hitting you one way or another—including in the world of higher education financing and student loans. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing about the impact of the credit crunch on the quality and availability of student loans, and both witness statements and a video of the hearing are available at the committee's Web site.

Scholarship America's Curt Trygstad recently told Miami's NBC 6 about some useful tips for students looking for financial aid. As noted forest philosopher Winnie-the-Pooh once said, "You can't always sit in your corner of the forest and wait for people to come to you ... you have to go to them sometimes," and these are just a few suggestions as to just how to get out of the corner and start looking. Read the full story here.

In addition, InsideHigherEd.com recently ran its own piece about ways to find financial aid, and how students can learn to maximize it. That story is right here, and we'd like to hear more from you. Students, parents, counselors, lend us your secrets: how do you find, apply for, and manage financial aid? Let us know in the comments.