Book Review: Free $ for College

Bought this book, Free $ for College, last month from a dollar garage sell and then spent my spare time reading through it to better understand how getting free money actually works. This book will come as a big help to others looking for ways to save while attending a university.

Here’s the book review I did at amazon.com.
link: Free $ for College

4.0 out of 5 stars Get help with education cost, October 4, 2009
By Larry Battle –

David Rosen and Caryn Mladen, the authors, cover every route for paying for college: Scholarships, grants, low interest or interest-free loans, tuition discounts, and other stuff. With that said, I found half useful and the other half irrelevant and repetitive.
This book gives good tips on what payment plans do and don’t work. Like how working during college to pay your expenses is a bad idea.
They also talk about scams, joining the military, athletic scholarships, and other means of reducing your tuition.
The best part of the book is how they help you discover what makes you unique and how to use that to win grants, scholarships, and discounted tuition.
After reading this Dummies book, I can now assist my friends and myself with getting free/discounted tuition.

Here are a few good tips provided in the book:
– Some states have early deadlines, so completing your FAFSA as soon as possible is a must. Most states funds require your FAFSA to be completed.
– No scholarships are guaranteed, so don’t pay money to get a scholarship or for someone to find it for you because most likely it is a scam.
– Apply to many small scholarship because they have low competition, helps you winner bigger ones, and they can add up quite nicely.
– When applying to scholarship, presentation is the key. Attach a cover letter, print on high quality paper and contact the scholarship committee’s office after your submission.
– College is a business, so you can negotiate a deal on your tuition. However finish college early because the price will keep on rising.
– You can get your student loans forgiven by working for a low income school for 3-5 years.

-Larry Battle