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Feb 10, 2009 4:01 pm US/Central
Scholarships Key To Saving Money On Tuition
Tuition Prices Across Texas
Figures are for in-state tuition and most include room and board for one year.
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
While most people are trying to figure out how to pay for gas, some are trying to figure out how to pay for their education. As tuition prices go up, students and their families are finding it hard to pay for college. But one man says he can help.
Paying for four years of college can be a real drain. But the author of a book called "How to Go to College Almost for Free" says that he has a way to lessen the blow, and it boils down to one word: scholarships.
Taylor Cameron of Bedford is an active North Texas teenager. "I'm on the varsity softball team, and I'm in theatre and in the National Honors Society," she said.
The 17-year-old will be a senior this coming year at L.D. Bell High School, but she is already thinking about what lies ahead. "I've looked at SMU and they have a human rights minor and non-profit, so that'd be really good," she said.
The aspiring non-profit manager says SMU is her dream school. But, to get there, she knows that she has got a lot of work ahead of her. "It's going to take a miracle to get to go, but it's a really good education," she said.
Cameron's parents said they are extremely proud of their daughter, and just want the best education possible for her. But with the rising cost of tuition, they're worried about how to cover it.
"The expense of sending a kid to school right now is so astronomical," said Craig Cameron, Taylor's dad.
The Camerons are just like thousands of other North Texas families trying to pay for college.
"We're in this gap where we make too much to get a lot of the help, but then we don't make enough to write the checks," says Taylor's mom, Gloria.
UNT Vice President of Enrollment, Troy Johnson, said that more students are attending school on scholarships and other financial aid. He estimated that only 30 percent of students at UNT are there on some sort of scholarship.
"Scholarships are great for a family because they don't have to pay them back," Johnson said. "The best investment anyone can make in their future right now is a college degree."
Johnson recommends to start looking early for financial aid and apply for federal and state assistance. For families like the Camerons though, federal and state financial aid is hard to find. But one man says they are just not looking in the right places.
Ben Kaplan is said to be one of the nation's leading experts on college scholarships. The 30-year-old secured more than $90,000 worth of scholarship money for himself that nearly paid for his entire four years at Harvard University.
"This is possible, but you have to be proactive and you have to take action today," Kaplan said. "Scholarships equals freedom to do what you want to do."
His book, "How to Go to College Almost for Free," is a varitable guidebook of how to find and get scholarship money for school. In it, he dispells many of the common myths that keep people from applying.
For instance, many think that scholarships are only for low-income families. "All types of families can win scholarships," he said. "These merit-based scholarships, the two dozen I won, they never asked about your income and assets."
Myth number two is that you need a sky-high grade point average in order to win a scholarship. Kaplan says that's not true. "Sometimes actually, students who focus too much on grades, they assume that's going to get them a scholarship and it's not," he said. "There are so many other areas that are recognized."
He said community service and extracurricular activities can open more scholarship doors. He also recommends not overlooking the smaller local scholarship contests. Those can add up to bigger wins in the long run. "Sometimes it's only a couple hundred dollars, and people say why bother, but I love those awards because hardly anyone applied and there's a snowball effect. You win the smaller ones, and they're a credential that help you win the larger ones."
For students like Cameron, who need to raise a good chunk of change, Kaplan says his best piece of advice is to be persistent, and to learn from those who have done it.
"Winning scholarships is a game," Kaplan said, "and the best way to master the scholarship game is to learn from those who play it well."
Kaplan is hosting a free expo in November as part of his City of College Dreams Regional Tour. Watch the video entitled "
WEB EXTRA: Ben Kaplan Talks About College Expo" to learn more about the expo, or
click here to visit the tour's official site and sign up.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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