Clearing out the mailbag

22 June 2009 1 views No Comment

With no show last Friday due to travel, I wanted to take some time to answer the mailbag rather than make people wait.

Carol writes:

I just read your e-book on finding scholarships. My son is finishing his sophomore year in HS. Is it really appropriate to be applying for scholarships now, when he hasn’t even applied yet to college and doesn’t know where he is going? I didn’t realize they awarded scholarships to younger students. Carol in NH

Even if the scholarships aren’t necessarily open, it’s a great idea to identify ones he is or will be eligible for. That said, there are plenty of scholarships for as early as 4th grade. Try the procedures in the book and see how they work for him!

Marilyn writes:

I am a parent who listens alot since I have 2 gilrs in school. I really appreciate your sight. First off, my girls have Stafford Loans since 2005.and they are going to grad school Should they be contacting the dept of ed for lower rates? Secondly for this past year, 2008-2009, I have a plus loan at 8.5% and I have just started paying.on it. Is it possible to get that reduced?My dauhter is starting vet school and I cat find many scholarships……any ideas..in state 35000$ a year….help.. Marilyn in St. Louis

The girls going to grad school will automatically get the lower Stafford loan rates as the loans are certified – no need to worry about the grad school ones. The existing loans are either variable for the 2005 ones (and first half of 2006) which auto-adjust, and ones after that are fixed rate based on rates at the time of disbursement.

For PLUS loan rates, you can knock off 0.25% if you consolidate the PLUS loan, as student loan consolidation has a maximum statutory rate of 8.25%. Beyond that, unfortunately, there are no rate reductions available, at least for now. If the government succeeds in eliminating the federal student loan companies as the President has declared, there probably won’t ever be rate reductions available again.

For vet school – plenty of scholarships. Have you tried our free Scholarship Search Secrets eBook?

Jason writes:

Hi, I am taking some CS courses at Georgia State University post-baccalaureate to increase my chances of admission to a CS graduate program and also to ease the transition back to school (since I didn’t go straight to graduate school).

My question for you is: what are the best, if any, scholarship opportunities for post-bac students such as myself.

Jason in Georgia

Good question – have you checked out GSU’s site for post-bac awards?

Google for:

post-baccalaureate scholarships site:gsu.edu

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