For all you prom-goers out there who want a one-of-a-kind look on prom night, remember the Stuck At Prom Contest. Win scholarship money and look fabulous for your big night out.
To all the juniors and seniors in high school … Have a wonderful, memorable prom, but please remember to act responsibly.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
There it is. Staring you in the face. Your college financial aid award letter. If you don’t understand everything that’s on it, please refer to Understand Your Financial Aid Package. The second thing you need to think about is: is this a good enough amount of money? Will this combination of student loans and college grant money be able to pay all of my educational expenses for the entire school year?
For upper middle class (UMC) families, lack of grants and scholarships can be a frustrating consequence. However, the UMC can find their way back into the abundance of receiving college financial aid. How is this possible?
Firstly, UMC parents and students have to understand how the college financial aid officer (FAO) does her/his job. It’s good for everyone to know how the FAO came to the award s/he created for your family. This is the first step in a possible negotiation with the FAO. It’s imperative you understand the process fully before talking with a school’s FAO.
We suggest reading this easy-to-understand, straightforward article on:
Financial Aid Officer and the Truth of Student Loans Grants
For this week, make certain to understand your award and understand the process of how you came to receive it. Next week, we will delve into negotiating with a financial aid officer, so your family can find yourselves back in abundance.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
Can you truly say you understand your college financial aid package? Well, if not, you definitely should. This is not a time to “skim” or overlook the little details because it could cost you and your family big money!
We’ve arrived at a great time at White Picket College when upper middle class (UMC) students receive their acceptances to colleges. Congrats to all of you! You may have received your financial aid award letter along with your acceptance, or it’s coming very soon. Either way, it’s best to read up on what you’re receiving or not receiving.
In honor of all of you, we’ll be giving you straightforward, easy-to-understand and short articles on how navigate through the financial aid award process. We’re so happy for you if you love your award–it’s full of scholarships and grants–then that’s awesome! But many of you may be left saying, “Show me the money!”
To those of you, we have a series of articles that discuss everything from how to understand your award to how to negotiate with a financial aid officer to how to receive more money. So let’s get started.
Our first article is entitled:
A Breakdown of the College Financial Aid Package
It discusses how to understand what you are receiving in regard to scholarships, grants and loans. Learn what is the best of the best and how to decide if you need to go into negotiations with the college of your dreams.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
… I watched the Golden Globes last night. The blockbuster movie “The Social Network” took home the big prize for best motion picture in the drama category. I haven’t seen the movie (yet), but this big win made me think about how much Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms in general have helped me help all of you here at White Picket College.
Every week I have to find ideas and hot topics for blog posts and articles. Sometimes, it can be a daunting task. And many times, it can be a relatively easier task because ideas come to me or I use my good ole friend named Twitter.
When Twitter came out I was one of those people who scoffed at it. I thought of it as a narcissistic device for egotistical people. For example, I really didn’t care to hear what you just had for lunch or that your baby just burped. I didn’t need to know about Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore’s every move through their tweets. Thus, I stayed away from Twitter completely.
Then I realized the HUGE mistake I was making. I could leave all the egomaniacs and fluffy celebs out of my tweeting existence. So I started an account and signed up to receive tweets from informative sources such as: CNN, WSJ, US News & World Report (Kim Clark writes fantastic college financial aid articles), TIME, FastWeb, Sallie Mae and a plethora of sources for scholarships and other educational financial aid information.
With Twitter especially, I feel I can stay on top of everything and help all of our readers in a timely, efficient manner. I strongly advise you to utilize Twitter too. If your child is nearing or is in the college application process, start a family Twitter account. Receive tweets from your child’s top choice schools and financial aid sources. Educate yourself about the process and find free money along the way.
So I urge you to use social media to find college financial aid info. Please join us on our Facebook page. Just type in “White Picket College” in the search feature atop your FB page. Also, receive our tweets on Twitter: @whitepicketcoll.
And remember, if you have a question, comment or request for White Picket College, simply tweet or Facebook us anytime!
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
We understand that upper middle class (UMC) parents and students search for non-need based scholarships and non-need based financial aid. It’s often a search that lasts all year long. Those who receive the most financial aid start the earliest. So it’s time to start your search for college scholarship money in January 2011.
White Picket College aids in your search. We have a whole section entitled Non-Need Based Scholarships. Simply click on the scholarship name in the pull down list and read about the requirements and deadlines. No scholarship is under $1000 in award money. To date, we have 30 scholarships listed and we’re working on more.
This is a great time to organize for the year and plan for deadlines. Some scholarships will take a large amount of time, while others only have a few requirements that can be done quickly. Either way, make sure to check out all the scholarship opportunities listed.
Keep in mind, if you win a few, smaller scholarships, that’s $3000. No, it won’t pay your tuition, but it is some extra money for spending, books, fees, etc. So make sure to submit applications to the scholarships you’re interested in. Take this process seriously and apply when possible.
Don’t forget to continue checking as we add more scholarships. Join us on Facebook or on Twitter @whitepicketcoll.
Best luck in your search for college scholarship money.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
A friendly reminder from WPC to get your FAFSA in asap! Please read the article below to know the best time to submit the FAFSA. (Hint, it’s really soon.)
Here’s the article:
FAFSA Deadline 2011-2012 to Receive the Most Financial Aid
Remember to check out this article in between Christmas shopping and traveling to relatives’ houses for the holidays. Trust us, it’s a MUST read.
Happy and safe holiday wishes to all of our readers!
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
We received invaluable advice from one of our readers last week. The reader discusses an expensive mistake she made in regard to her child’s education and why April 1st is a magic date. Please read:
“As a member of the upper middle class and mother of 4 children, 3 of whom will be attending college next year, I want to thank you for the hard work and time you put into this web site. I also want to make you aware of a situation that we experienced that may help others.
My daughter was named a National Merit finalist last year and had applied to 3 schools, an Ivy League school and two private schools. The Ivy League school was her dream school but when it came down to making a financial decision, the private school made more sense because they had offered her a partial scholarship.
This year, when touring this same school with my son, the admissions rep told the group that National Merit finalists receive full tuition. When I got home, I called the financial aid office and questioned why my daughter had not received a full tuition scholarship. I was told it was because she did not inform them of her status by April 1.
My point to all of those families out there….be sure to thoroughly investigate all financial aid scholarships for every school your child lists as a potential choice. It was an expensive mistake that we made.”
Thank you so much to this reader for reminding all of us to double-check all scholarships, especially National Merit scholarships. We advise all parents and students to mark off deadlines on a calendar, or even better to be safe, hand in all scholarship applications early. Remember that deadlines DO change, so call the financial aid office at the school or call the scholarship institution directly. One day can make a huge difference in finances as the reader above clearly states.
Please let us know if you have any advice or if we can learn from any mistakes you’ve made. We welcome any and all advice.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
White Picket College students and parents, do not forget that we are entering the fall season. That means applications for college scholarship money is just around the corner. Remember to take a look at our college scholarship list for non-need based scholarships. So far we have 23 scholarships, 1 link to the best colleges that give non-need based financial aid and Scholarship Tips. To access all of this information, please read Non-Need Based Scholarships.
Simply scroll down the page and you will see a list. Click on the titles to be directed to the page of your choice.
Please note that we have to go through hundreds of listings to find these non-financial need scholarships. It takes a lot of time and energy. Most scholarships we’ve come across are driven by financial need. Many times the scholarship is too niche as well. For example, an Asian woman with an extra toe living in Idaho receives a $2000 scholarship. Okay, we’re exaggerating a little, but it’s quite hard.
On the bright side, please check out the list above as you ease back into the school year.
Enjoy the last days of summer & Best of luck for the 2010-11 school year!
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
We doubted this when we first heard about it as well. Students can create their own scholarships? So in essence, the student creates her/his own opportunities for college scholarship money. It just sounded too good to be true, so we did a little investigating and this is what we found.
The first organization is called ScholarMatch.org. It started the same month as White Picket College in April 2010. Students (only in the San Francisco Bay area as of press time) can set up online profiles of themselves and provide their goal of raising money for school. Potential donors sign up for the site and are given student matches. Donors get to know the student via her/his profile and donate money toward the student’s education.
As we perused the site, we found that none of the students we saw had incredibly high goals such as $25,000. In fact, the highest scholarship goal we saw was $8000; however, we did not sign up for the site, thus we did not have full access to all the student profiles. So it seems ScholarMatch is for students who would like to fill a gap in their need, but do not have overwhelming need.
It is likely that ScholarMatch will expand to include other parts of the United States besides San Francisco, but who knows. We like the idea of creating scholarship opportunities for motivated students, and we like that it seems to be based on the student’s need, which is great for students from upper middle class (UMC) families. Therefore, we urge our readers in the San Fran area to take a look and please report back to us.
There are two other sites where students can also create scholarships called: Sponsormydegree.com and Greennote.com.
For more in depth commentary on how to create your own scholarship, please refer this college scholarship article by Kim Clark of U.S. News & World Report.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class
July 12, 2010: Sometimes you come across a rare gem, and here at White Picket College, we present that gem to you. We found a highly coveted list that we’re sure you’ll appreciate. Do yourself a favor and print out this list of schools so you can read it on the beach this summer, poolside or in the comfort of your air-conditioned home.
Please click on the below link to find a list of:
Best Colleges 2010 for Non-Need Based Financial Aid
On this list, you will find the top 100 schools that give out merit scholarships as educational financial aid to their students. In the right hand column, you will see the percentage of students who receive non-need based aid at that particular college. Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan comes in first, since they give 100 percent of merit aid. Well-done, Finlandia.
Some prestigious colleges that stand out on the list are Cooper Union, University of Colorado, Seton Hall University, University of Florida, Tulane University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Southern Methodist University, Baylor University and University of Rochester. So definitely check out these colleges.
It’s not all gloom and doom here at White Picket College. Great colleges can offer great financial aid packages for the upper middle class (UMC). You just have to find out where to look.
Many thanks to U.S. News & World Report for providing such a great list.
~ the WPC team
© White Picket College, 2010
