Daily Aid 46: Internships, Philadelphia scholarships lost

4 December 2008 1 views No Comment

Daily Aid 46: Internships, Philadelphia scholarships lost

Student Financial Aid News

From NASFAA and the Chronicle of Higher Education:

“Cooperative education helps students beef up their résumés and earn some money during college: two welcome prospects in tight economic times,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “But it also means that college doesn’t provide the usual escape from the realities of the job market. About 100 colleges in the United States offer co-op programs, in which students intersperse periods of work with on-campus instruction. The jobs are paid, but students also get academic credit for the work. That model can give co-op students advantages when they look for full-time jobs after graduation. But while they are still in college, the economy touches them more directly than it does most other students.”

Commentary

It is entirely unsurprising that paid internships and co-op programs are running into the same headwinds as the rest of the economy. If you have the financial means to do so, explore an unpaid internship for the experience and networking connections during a down economy. You may be able to get into companies that otherwise wouldn’t give you the time of day if they can get a free set of extra hands around the office.

From CNN:

“Even the legal industry is not immune to the downturn, leaving recent graduates with hefty student loans and no jobs,” CNN Money reports. “Employment opportunities for legal professionals have traditionally been plentiful – and lucrative. But as the economy has dried up, so too have those jobs. In the past several months, some of the nation’s largest law firms, which also recruited and hired the most aggressively, have started laying off lawyers and staff members. That means recent graduates not only face experienced competition for limited jobs, but also hefty student loan bills.”

Commentary

Every graduate this spring is walking out of commencement into a maelstrom of an economy. Anything you can do to minimize the economic effects on yourself will be valuable. Student loan consolidation, for example, does still exist, primarily through the Department of Education, so there are still opportunities to minimize your financial burden upon graduation.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A scholarship program that has provided cash to nearly 13,000 Philadelphia high school students headed for college is coming to a sudden end.

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) told Mayor Nutter in a letter last week that he was disbanding the program, in part because of the mayor’s decision last month to cut the city’s annual contribution this year by $1 million.

“Regretfully, the budget realities for the City of Philadelphia make it impossible to continue this effort,” Fattah wrote of the Philadelphia College Opportunity Resources for Education program, known as CORE Philly.

Commentary

It would seem that the financial aid crisis and the broader economic crisis is finally finding its way into scholarship programs. Expect to see and hear more news like this as we move into 2009; scholarships that were safe from the downturn in 2008 because funding was allocated in the prior year may find themselves suddenly coming up short as those funding sources pull back.

If you’re a student looking for scholarships, competition for a diminishing pool of dollars will be greater than ever. Be sure you take advantage of all of our student resources to help you during this time. They’re all free.

Scholarship Update

In light of today’s news about Philadelphia, I thought I’d highlight that the city maintains its own scholarships directory organized by deadline. Not a huge number of scholarships, but it’s always good to check out other directories for ones you might have missed.

Details at our free college scholarship search site.

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