We do everything we can to have our students avoid loans. The student loan industry huge racket dressed up in a lamb suit. we just wrote this to send out to our students… you readers may find it helpful:

Most people don’t know that the vast majority of scholarship money comes directly from colleges and universities themselves. Something like 90%, in fact. You don’t have to spend hundreds of hours researching and applying for individual private scholarships from businesses and non-profits. It is far easier and more effective to focus on college and university endowment funds for scholarships: that’s largely what those funds are for! Someone is going to get that money: it may as well be you!

Here’s an exercise that you will find enlightening and helpful:

Pick a couple of local colleges near you, or any colleges you might be interested in for your child. Give their financial aid offices a call. Ask what their policies are for financial aid and scholarships. If you get a general reply, press for details. What levels of scholarships are available? What grades are needed for each level? What ACT or SAT scores? Ask about “superscores” (those are the best component scores from different ACT/SAT score reports, which is a great advantage if the school accepts them, as many do.) In most if not all cases, the schools will give you a lot of useful information.

Don’t worry if you think your child’s grades are not good enough or your income is too high to qualify for scholarships. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. This is all part of a free series. If anyone is interested in the rest of it just email me: Tony(at)edsortium.dom