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Scholarship Inquiries


Sweetpea
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Over the last years i have seen that we ex-TWI members have had a very hard time to provide for the future education of our children. I am not the smartest person in the world, but my desire is to start a foundation that could offer scholarship help to our children. Without discriminating, my goal is to help with college costs for us who had been unable to accumulate wealth, whether it be due to past involvement with a cult, or because of our living situation.(divorce, two-household families,etc.)

I am very serious about this and welcome any serious suggestions in this forum or privately about a name and direction this could take.

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Have you and your children looked at Pell Grants?

If parents are 'wealthier' they are expected to pay college tuition expenses for their children, even when those children are in their thirties.

If parents are 'poorer' they dont have to pay for college, as doors of grants open.

The less a couple makes, the more grants become available.

If you want your children to be able to freely go to any college, one thought is to earn less money starting one year prior to their admission to college.

In 2001, when our eldest son started college, we paid a portion of his tuition. Until the grants kicked in. Then they paid for his tuition, they put $500 into his college bookstore account for 'expenses' [but even then his books did not cost that much maybe $300, which he got 2/3 back at the end of each semester].

I dont earn enough, so the grants have kicked in and they pay for all his expenses. We did look at sending him out to California, as the colleges are so much cheaper to attend. Rather then keeping him here in Conn, where living expenses are so high.

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Galen, Sweapea wants to GIVE scholarships.

Sweapea, there are fine examples of scholarship administration in libraries in books of scholarships.

I think that that's a *wonderful* idea! When I was in college, I would have loved to have qualified for a scholarship, but even though there are scholarships for such diverse groups as grandsons of railwaymen, 1st generation Polish-American kids, daughters of single mothers, etc, there wasn't a single scholarship that I qualified for. And it wasn't for academic reasons - I graduated Valedictorian.

If you are very serious, you should consult a lawyer, and then you need to establish grant criteria.

Good luck on this!

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Sweet Pea- would you consider "adopting" a forty-some year old college student? I'm housebroken, fairly well mannered, humorous, and sanitary, at least most of the time.

Besides, think of the tax benefits.

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Simple. Don't worry about it too much.

This is what works in California, 2 years of transferable community college work followed by 2 years of state college. Community college is more expensive than it used to be, but it's still dirt cheap for what you get. My daughter does a full schedule at the local community college and still has time to manages a toy store and live in her own apartment with 2 of her friends. We pay for her books and fees and it runs about $300 per semister.

Things will get more expensive when she starts her junior year at a 4 year college, but we will still be able to help her out of our household budget. We stashed some money for her education, but it appears not to be needed.

Now if your kid has his/her heart set on 10 years of premed and Harvard medical school, this plan obviously won't work. Have the kid take a loan.

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Community college is really a good way to go. The one here has signed academic transfer agreements with all of the big dogs in the state, except for one. Every "major" class I am/have been in has been taught by an actual professor- and most have Doctorates in their field plus some have big degees in education beside. The quality of education is outstanding, and transferrable. It's definitely a good way to go on a budget. Current costs are about $77.00 per credit hour vs. way over $200 I think- last I checked- for the big dogs..

Probably gonna really need some help when I hit the big university..

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One fraternity that I belong to does a scholarship program.

When I was stationed in Washington state, they gave away a single $1,000/year scholarship to one graduating high-school senior for each and every highschool through-out the state. Those scholarships continue for as long as the student stays in college.

The work just of going around to each high-school and interveiwing all entries, and then deciding which student to award the scholarship to at each high-school; was a LOT of work.

Tonnes of money is needed, and lots of time to interview the applicants. We even did an award dinner, each awardee was allowed to bring their parents and one teacher. It turned out to be a HUGE dinner. We were divided up so at least one member of the fraternity sat at each table with all those awardees.

Running something like that is a huge job.

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