Building Good Credit

Before making a decision about credit cards, student loans, and other credit financing, take a brief moment to view our affiliated member site on credit card and debt management:

(links go to our member site at SayGoodCredit.com)

Credit Management
summary review of credit management and how to start and develop your own credit skills.

Topics include:
introduction: about credit
types of credit
what is credit management
applying for credit

establishing credit
maintaining good credit
repairing your credit

Debt Management
learn tactics to manage and avoid debt.

Topics include:
about debt management
how much debt
solving your debt problems

Budget Management
develop important budgeting skills while in school.

Topics include:
why budget
what’s in the budget

More information available:

• view our complete college planning calendar for February

Scholarship Deadline Extended

On occasion, a scholarship donor will extend its deadline to allow for students to complete their applications as well as for more students to apply. JM Eagle is one such company that has extended its $10,000 college scholarship for civil engineering college juniors, seniors and grad sudents. The new deadline is on June 30, 2012. The winner will be announced on Aug. 1, 2012.

“At JM Eagle, we are committed to supporting the next generation of engineers, as well as demonstrating sensitivity to their busy college schedules,” said JM Eagle President and CEO Walter Wang. “These are the people who will build infrastructures that deliver safe and clean water, and we wish to open the opportunity for a scholarship to as many entrants as possible.”

Hispanic Scholarship Consortium

Students of Hispanic (Latino) background in central Texas are invited to apply for the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium’s 2012-2013 scholarship program. The program awards renewable scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale and demonstrate financial need. Residence in one of seven Texas counties — Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Lee, Travis or Williamson — is required. Application deadline is March 16, 2012.

“We are inviting highly motivated individuals who have a vision for their future, have a plan to meet their goals, and are committed to their personal, professional and academic development to apply for the 2012-2013 HSC Scholarship Program,” said HSC Executive Director Octavio A. Hinojosa Mier.

G.I.R.L. Scholarship Announced

Sony Online Entertainment is now accepting applications and submissions for its 2012 Gamers in Real Life (G.I.R.L.) Game Design Competition. The goal of this scholarship is to encourage more women to get involved in the video game industry, with the winner awarded at $10,000 college scholarship. The deadline for this year’s program is March 29, 2012.

“The goal of G.I.R.L. has always been of opportunity, education and recruitment to get more women into the gaming industry,” said Laura Naviaux, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “Over the last few years, we have been nothing short of impressed with the hundreds of amazing submissions from talented students nationwide. Now in our fifth year, we can’t wait to see the creativity that comes out of the G.I.R.L. program.”

Final Thoughts

College scholarship applicants are reminded to carefully check the requirements for any scholarship offers before applying. Some posted deadlines require your application to be postmarked by a certain date; still others require that your application be in hand by certain date and time.

If you’re a college student, chances are you could use some cash. You may have your tuition, room and board, books and related educational expenses covered, with little else left over to cover incidentals including entertainment.

College students will often turn to work as a way to bring in some income. However, if your schedule is full, you may not be able to hold down a steady job. That leaves you needing some creative ways to make money, five that we’ll serve up to you here.

1. Sell personal items. You may be “cash poor” but you could be “stuff rich” or at least own a few items you don’t want or need. Go through your stuff and pull out items you haven’t used in months and set these aside. Go to Craigslist and make a listing of the items you want to sell. Be descriptive and upload pictures. Who knows, but that bike you never ride may interest a student who is looking for self-propelled transportation.

2. Start blogging. If you have a gift for gab or like to write instructive prose, then head over to one of those free blog platform sites and create a blog. Free sites include Blogspot, WordPress and LiveJournal. Choose a subject you’re passionate about and be prepared to write articles and upload related video and photos. Visit Google’s AdSense site and place advertisements on your space. You won’t get income immediately, but the potential for revenue is there for the getting.

3. Offer your skills. You may have a skill or a talent that other students could use and would pay a fee for it. If you’re a math whiz, then offer to tutor students one on one. Set a fee and stick with it. You may also be able to make money by helping students with a project, such as a term paper. No, you can’t write the paper, but you can help the student with his research.

4. Market your talents. Closely related to the previous point is offering your talents, but to people outside of the academic community. Go to Craigslist and visit the “services offered” section. Choose the corresponding category and list your services there. Also, check the “jobs” section and look for current listed information there.

5. Become a jack of all trades. You may not have mastered any particular talent, at least not yet, but if you have the chops to work and work hard, then offer yourself as someone who can walk dogs, shovel snow, pick up laundry and dry cleaning, shop at a supermarket or perform any number of services that a busy individual might need help with and would be willing to pay you for. Go door to door near your dorm or off-campus apartment and ask people whether they need your help.

One, two or more of these approaches can be taken concurrently. Ask your network of students, professors and college staff about possible gigs too.

Related Reading

How to Make Money at College Sitting at Your Computer

7 Quick Ways to Earn Cash This Summer

How to Make Money Online While Attending College

The death of a loved one is always a challenge to survivors who must work through grief as they seek to move forward with their lives. When children lose a parent, they lose someone who not only offered them guidance, but financial support. In many cases the children of a deceased parent are at a financial disadvantage, especially when it comes to funding their higher education needs.

Eighth Year

The LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program is now in its eighth year and has put out its call for submissions. If you’ve lost a parent or a guardian, then you meet an important eligibility requirement. A total of 59 scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 will be awarded as part of a $110,000 initiative. A March 12, 2012, deadline has been set.

“Since 2005, the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program has helped hundreds of young people who have suffered the loss of a parent to pay for their college educations,” said Marvin Feldman, CLU, ChFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation. “Many of the students we help are having financial difficulty paying for college because their parents didn’t own any life insurance. The best way to ensure that your children will have the opportunity to attend college is to include life insurance in your college-funding plans.”

How to Apply

There are two ways for applicants to apply. The first way is to write a 500-word essay describing how the parent or guardian’s death affected your life financially as well as emotionally. Students are urged to describe how their financial challenges have affected them including their choice of a college. Additional information can be found on the application page.

For students desiring to make a video, LIFE will accept those that are 3 minutes or fewer and carry the same requirements as the essays. Applications and essays may be faxed in, completed online or sent by postal mail. Winners will be announced in August 2012.

LIFE Foundation

The nonprofit LIFE Foundation or Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education was established in 1994. LIFE was formed in response to informing and educating the public on life, health, disability and long-term care insurance. For more information, please visit LifeHappens.

Information about LIFE and other college scholarships are provided as a service to our readers. Scholarship rules and awards are handled by the grantors only. SayCampusLife encourages college-bound and current college students and their families to verify eligibility before applying for any scholarship.

Credit the University of West Virginia for leaving a huge void in the football schedules of multiple teams for the 2012 season. Before you get your nose out of joint, I’m not blaming the Mountaineers for leaving the Big East Conference early. University officials strongly felt that any delay in the schools exit to the Big 12 Conference would be more harmful than the $11 million the university had to pay for an early exit. WVU’s exit fee was added to the $9 million given by the Big 12 to compensate the Big East for its loss (you can read the legalese here.

Exit Fee

The $20 million exit fee will benefit Big East schools directly. Amounts have not been announced, but it seems that the football playing schools will receive some of the largesse given that each of the seven remaining football-only schools are now scrambling to fill one or two voids on their schedules. An earlier void was created when TCU backed out from joining the conference last fall. Expect the B/E schools to use some of the money gained to entice other schools to schedule a game at the home of a B/E school.

Upon exiting the Big East, the Big 12 Conference immediately published its upcoming football season schedule. There is still a chance that one or more of the schools bound for the Big East Conference in 2013 might join the conference early, which would immediately resolve one of the scheduling voids each team has. If that school is Boise State, then the Big East would leave the Mountain West Conference in a lurch. Yes, the B/E should and most likely will compensate the MWC for its loss.

Scheduling Holes

It isn’t just B/E schools that are coming up short this season. Florida State had a game scheduled against West Virginia, but the Mountaineers canceled that game as soon as it confirmed its B/E exit as reported by the Orlando Sentinel. Florida State wants a home game and has contacted Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. Rutgers, however, may not be willing to give up another home game with unconfirmed news that the Scarlet Knights are in talks with the University of Arkansas for a home and home series to begin this fall in Fayetteville. Syracuse has confirmed that it will not play Rutgers twice this fall as has been proposed.

Other schools are seeking to fill their scheduling voids with FCS (former Division 1-AA) teams. That option, however, might be a problem for schools that already have one FCS game on the schedule, but then a look at Arkansas’ schedule for 2012 shows the Razorbacks starting the season with FCS Jacksonville State and a FBS Sunbelt team, Louisiana Monroe. No one will knock the Razorback’s schedule given its challenging SEC schedule and its usual Top 10 capabilities. And Jax represents just one FCS team, not two.

Looking Ahead

Barring no further conference defections, the scheduling woes for most teams should settle down next year. That’s when the Big East welcome several new members and may, for a fee, allow Pitt and Syracuse to beat feet for the ACC in 2013.

Building Good Credit

Before making a decision about credit cards, student loans, and other credit financing, take a brief moment to view our affiliated member site on credit card and debt management:

(links go to our member site at SayGoodCredit.com)

Credit Management
summary review of credit management and how to start and develop your own credit skills.

Topics include:
introduction: about credit
types of credit
what is credit management
applying for credit

establishing credit
maintaining good credit
repairing your credit

Debt Management
learn tactics to manage and avoid debt.

Topics include:
about debt management
how much debt
solving your debt problems

Budget Management
develop important budgeting skills while in school.

Topics include:
why budget
what’s in the budget

More information available:

• view our complete college planning calendar for February

Colleges and universities all across the nation regularly solicit donations to fund their programs including those for capital purposes. In 2011 those donations came in at $30.30 billion, representing an 8.2 percent increase over 2010. Adjusted for inflation the increase was 4.8 percent, according to the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey conducted by the Council for Aid to Education.

The increase is welcome news for higher education as funds have fallen or remained stagnant in recent years. Yet, the CAE notes that giving comprised just 6.5 percent of college expenditures in 2011 with giving designated to offset current year expenses at 3.8 percent of college expenditures.

Select Institutions Prosper

Some schools fared better than others, far better in some cases. The CAE focused on the top 20 colleges and universities that raised the most and found that these schools pulled in more than 25 percent of all donations. That collective amount, tallied at $8.24 billion, represents an 15.8 percent increase over 2010. Notably, the top 20 institutions represent just 2 percent of the 1,099 institutions that responded to the survey.

The nation’s top 20 fundraising universities (and dollars received) in 2011 are:

1. Stanford University ($709.42 million)
2. Harvard University ($639.15 million)
3. Yale University ($580.33 million)
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($534.34 million)
5. Columbia University ($495.56 million)
6. Johns Hopkins University ($485.41 million)
7. University of Pennsylvania ($437.72 million)
8. University of California–Los Angeles ($415.03 million)
9. University of California–San Francisco ($409.45 million)
10. University of Southern California ($402.41 million)
11. University of Texas at Austin ($354.34 million)
12. Duke University ($349.66 million)
13. New York University ($337.85 million)
14. University of Washington ($334.49 million)
15. University of Wisconsin–Madison ($315.77 million)
16. Cornell University ($315.53 million)
17. Indiana University ($295.90 million)
18. University of California–Berkeley ($283.35 million)
19. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ($274.95 million)
20. University of Minnesota ($272.57 million)

Drilling down, the CAE survey revealed that 25 percent of the institutions brought in 86.3 percent of the donations. The bottom 25 percent brought in just 1.0 percent with the middle 50 percent receiving 12.7 percent in 2011. Another way to look at it is that the top 50 percent pulled in 95.5 percent while the bottom 50 percent took in just 4.5 percent. Clearly, the lion’s share of donations goes to the most recognized institutions in America.

Stock Market Trends

The CAE also took note of how well the New York Stock Exchange performed in relation to the academic fiscal year that ends on June 30. Notably, on June 30, 2011, the NYSE had increased by 28.7 percent over the academic fiscal year, falling somewhat for the remainder of the 2011 calendar year. The CAE sees a correlation between invested wealth and donor contributions, with the stock market perhaps signaling the direction current and future donations patterns may take.

More Information — Council for Aid to Education: 2011 Voluntary Support of Education Survey

1. Are you qualified? Not every college scholarship is geared to help every student. Some are for students who have declared a specific measure. Others target students based on GPA, location, ethnicity (yes, that is legal) or other factors. If you meet the requirements, then you can apply.

2. What is the deadline? We’ve heard sad stories of students applying for a particular college scholarship, but they waited too late to get their application in. When you find a scholarship you are qualified for, you need to know the due date for the application and plan accordingly.

With these two points in mind, we give to you the following college scholarships with March 2012 deadlines:

Marriott Scholars Program/Hospitality Majors Application — The Marriott Scholars Program offers financial support of up to $9,000 per year for four years for scholarship recipients, but they take that award one step further by offering students continual career guidance and mentoring by Marriott hotel managers and corporate executives. Deadline is March 1, 2012.

A Nurse I Am — Nursing students are eligible to apply for a $2,000 college scholarship sponsored by Cherokee Uniforms. Candidates will need to have watched either version of “A Nurse I Am” – the 32-minute Educational Version or the 62-minute documentary — preferably both, and write a 750-word essay, answering two questions as outlined on the Cherokee website. The deadline is March 1, 2012.

Golden LEAF Scholarship Programs — The Golden LEAF Foundation awards college scholarships to students in qualifying North Carolina counties. Students will be attending participating UNC System universities and private colleges and universities in the Tarheel State. High school seniors are eligible for a four-year college scholarship totaling $12,000 or $3,000 a year over four years. Community college transfer students are eligible for $3,000 a year for up to three years. The deadline is March 1, 2012.

Ashley Marie Easterbrook Internet Scholarship Fund Application — Applicant must currently be a high school student (or home schooled) in the United States, graduating in the spring 2012. Cumulative 4-year grade point average between 3.50 and 3.74. One $1000 award given. Deadline: March 30, 2012.

SAMMY 2012 Program — Sponsored by the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, 25 applicants will be awarded a $7500 college scholarship and will be invited to Orlando to accept their reward. As part of the Nomination Form, each Applicant will be required to write an essay, in English, of no more than 250 words about “How you make milk a part of your breakfast routine to fuel daily achievement in the classroom and on the sports field”. All essays must be the sole, original work of the Applicant, must be typewritten. Deadline is March 19, 2012.

QuestBridge College Prep Scholarship –QuestBridge is a non-profit program that links bright and motivated low-income students with educational and scholarship opportunities at some of the nation’s best colleges. QuestBridge is the provider of the National College Match Program and the College Prep Scholarship. The 2012 College Prep Scholarship application is posted in mid-February and is open to high school juniors. Applications are due on March 27, 2012.

36th Annual Glenn Miller Scholarship Competition — Clarinda’s Glenn Miller Birthplace Society is offering scholarships of $4,000, $2,000 & $1,000 to instrumentalists. The vocal scholarships will also be $4,000, $2,000 & $1,000. These scholarships, which are awarded without regard to any other award, may be used for any education-related expense. Applications must be postmarked by March 1, 2012.

Points to Ponder

Read the scholarship deadline information carefully. Some offer a “postmarked by” date while others require your completed application to submitted by the date provided. The information supplied herein is deemed accurate, however the DEFAULT rules and information is supplied by the scholarship awarder alone.

President Barack H. Obama has moved beyond his 2012 State of the Union address to articulate his call for a national commitment to create an economy that is “built to last” by training workers to fulfill key jobs. That plan was unveiled by the president at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia, on Monday, representing a proposed $8 billion Community College to Career Fund.

The plan, which the president called a blueprint, proposes to create a partnership between businesses and community colleges to train 2 million workers for jobs in select high-growth industries.

Specifically, Obama’s plan would:

Develop community college partnerships to train skilled workers for unfilled jobs. Colleges would provide workers with current certified training and skills, with the fund also supporting paid internships for low-income students. Training would target employers in growth and demand sectors in an effort to turn out grads with the skills needed to handle these jobs.

Pay for performance job training. The Community College to Career Fund proposes to peg support to programs that support bonus programs for training programs whereby grads earn a credential and find qualified jobs soon after finishing a program. Management of these programs locally will be accomplished on the state level, giving states the opportunity receive additional funding for successful placement of affected grads.

Jobs for America. Federal agencies may partner with state and local governments in a bid to bring jobs from overseas to the United States. Under its “bringing jobs back to America” program, local and state governments can apply for grants to facilitate the relocation of jobs abroad to their communities. New jobs as well as jobs that were here in America and have since gone overseas are included.

Entrepreneurial training. A six-week online training course on entrepreneurship is part of a proposed plan of “training the next generation of entrepreneurs.” The fund could help as many as 5 million small business owners over the next three years, creating a 6-month entrepreneurship training program resulting in entrepreneurship certification for approximately 100,000 small business owners.

Obama has tapped Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to tour community college campuses to highlight some of the current industry partnerships now in effect across the United States. Biden is a community college instructor and has taught for more than three decades. Solis was a four-term U.S. Congresswoman from California before being appointed to her current position effective Feb. 2009.

More Information — White House: FACT SHEET: A Blueprint to Train Two Million Workers for High-Demand Industries through a Community College to Career Fund

There is no denying that there is big money in college sports. To think otherwise would be overlooking the billions of dollars annually derived from ticket sales, merchandise rights and media revenue. Which is exactly why West Virginia’s $20 million early exit fee from the Big East Conference will prove to be chump change in the years to come.

Terms of Endearment

On Friday, the Big East Conference and the University of West Virginia announced that both parties came to an agreement whereby the conference will not hold the university to the its required 27 month exit notice rule. Instead, West Virginia will officially become part of the Big 12 Conference on July 1 and begin to play football and all sports starting with the 2012-2013 academic year.

The $20 million exit fee is a huge one and something West Virginia sought to have reduced or eliminated, noting that Texas Christian University backed off from joining the Big East without penalty. Two other schools, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, are following West Virginia on the exit ramp out of the Big East, but those schools — both bound for the ACC — have decided to wait things out. At least for now.

Financial Settlement

The West Virginia deal has the university contributing $11 million to the Big East with the Big 12 adding $9 million. The Big 12′s contribution makes sense as it stands to benefit from West Virginia’s quick exit at the Big East’s expense. The Big East will be filling the West Virginia hole by expanding itself, but that won’t happen until 2013 at the earliest. With just seven football playing schools in the conference the remaining teams will be at least one game short this season. That’s a problem that won’t be easily resolved, but one solution is to allow the remaining teams to play home and home games with another Big East team. As it stands right now, Rutgers and Syracuse may do just that, with the second game not counting in the Big East standings.

The financial blow to West Virginia will likely be made up quickly with a much better Big 12 television contract helping to recoup those funds, giving West Virginia a broader audience than it has had in the Big East. The Big East will use some of that money to restructure, perhaps compensating some schools that may have to give up a home game to secure a 12th opponent. Funds might also be used to compensate other conferences in exchange for allowing Big East bound schools such as Boise State and Memphis to exit their respective leagues sooner.

BCS Qualifying

One factor that has not been resolved and has contributed to the seismic shift we have been seeing in conference relocating are BCS bids. The Big East has an automatic bid to this lucrative post season bowl with a chance to play in the national championship game. The BCS has done much to get schools to jump including West Virginia as it realized that the Big East’s automatic qualifying selection was in jeopardy.

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