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 Is anyone knowledgeable on how to search for freebies for kids going into college.   My daughter is going next year and we dont seem qualify for any of the "free" stuff so I'm throwing it out there.

 one thing I was wondering about is for adopted kids,   My kids were adopted from russia ,  does anyone know if theres any freebies for this.

 

  Thanks    

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Been there, and I feel your pain.

For those who don't qualify for need-based scholarships, there are a lot of what can be called 'affinity-based' scholarships out there, though the ones I've run across tend to be fairly small.   In the local shooting sports world, ANJRPC has one:  Cal Ellis Scholarship.   I've seen similar for aviation, SCUBA diving, music, credit unions, church groups, etc. etc.   My son once applied for a Tall Clubs International scholarship, but apparently 6'4" wasn't enough. 

Unfortunately, I don't think there are a lot of websites that aggregate all of these smaller scholarships.   You can try searching by entering the name of something that your daughter is good at, a member of, or interested in, followed by 'scholarship' and see what turns up.

If your daughter is an exceptional shot, there are 20+ NCAA Division I colleges that offer rifle scholarships,  Rifle Scholarships.  

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She probably won't like it but there are ways to get a degree without a spending fortune.

For example, in my area you can get some four year degrees from Rutgers through the County College of Morris (and as bonus avoid most of the woke/marxists indoctrination).    

I would've jumped on that if it was offered when I went there. Instead, I had to get an A.S. degree first, then commuted two years to Seton Hall for a B.S.

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9 hours ago, revenger said:

Is anyone knowledgeable on how to search for freebies for kids going into college.

 

8 hours ago, Bomber said:

She probably won't like it but there are ways to get a degree without a spending fortune.

Maybe not freebies, but here is the BEST way to go. Been there, done that with 3 kids...

Have her go to Community College for the first two years to take all the basic classes, and graduate with a A.A. degree. Will save TONS of money not going to a four year school.

Then, with the A.A. degree, EVERY credit transfers to a four year state school, even if it's not a exact match. Then, have her stack up classes at the four year state school over two days, three at most, and DON'T live at school, but commute.

There's NO benefit in living at college, except to blow a bunch of bucks.. This way she can work part time a few days each week, to help pay as she goes..

The key and goal is to get a four year degree at the LOWEST COST!!!

Regarding scholarships, there are tons of businesses, companies and organization that give out small ones, in the ranges of $500 - $1000, but if she gets a few, it can add up. My son applied for scholarships from companies like Walmart, Comcast, etc. and ended up with enough to pay for his Community College, with some left over for the 4 year school.

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I would recommend to have your child  contact their high school counselor  to see what local scholarships that they can apply to. Every dollar counts, those books are expensive, the food is expensive, and basically breathing in college is expensive. I applied to a few local scholarships which helped me out, but I didn't qualify for those bigger scholarships. My younger brother learned from my example ( like he usually does) and applied and got into the Bonner program at school. Its a work based community service organization where they pay for a significant portion of your tuition in exchange for work. Also don't live on campus, if you want to live on campus the first year to gain those memories and make those friends then okay, but once you do that, either commute from home or live in some off campus housing. Having a job while in school helps, on campus jobs don't pay much but you can always work on homework while you work and they aren't labor intensive. I also had friends do two years of community college and transfer to a bigger school, which saved them money. 

 

There is money out there for college with scholarships. It helps to know where to look. Also look in to the Elks scholarships.

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On 3/8/2021 at 12:56 PM, revenger said:

 Is anyone knowledgeable on how to search for freebies for kids going into college.   My daughter is going next year and we dont seem qualify for any of the "free" stuff so I'm throwing it out there.

 one thing I was wondering about is for adopted kids,   My kids were adopted from russia ,  does anyone know if theres any freebies for this.

 

  Thanks    

Back in ye olden days, you'd go down to the bookstore an buy a directory of grants and scholarships and start wading through them. They still sell them. 

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2 hours ago, raz-0 said:

Back in ye olden days, you'd go down to the bookstore an buy a directory of grants and scholarships and start wading through them. They still sell them. 

So true...

The community college route is probably your best bet to save a significant amount of $ off a four year degree.  Having been in staffing for the better part of 20years, I can confirm that it’s not where you start the degree, it’s where you finish.

another option, is to speak with college prep counselors, they’re often a paid service but may help with initial plans and possible leads on grants.

lastly, get to know the bursar at the school.  I worked in the bursar office while at SHU, and that saved me 1000s.  I got to learn about various grants like the pell grant and other nj based ones. Secondly, they are often very good friends with the FA office and can recommend you for school based grants.  Again, they might be small amounts, but they do add up.

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I appreciate all the responses they really helped,   so far we have her convinced to go to Morris County College so that buys me two years 

this way she can keep her part time job,  I live 1 mile from the school so the commute is easy,    I wanted her to go the Army way and get them to pay alot of it , thats what I did

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19 hours ago, revenger said:

I appreciate all the responses they really helped,   so far we have her convinced to go to Morris County College so that buys me two years 

this way she can keep her part time job,  I live 1 mile from the school so the commute is easy,    I wanted her to go the Army way and get them to pay alot of it , thats what I did

If she goes the CCM route make sure that college is her priority.  She needs to get absolutely kickass grades in all of her courses in order for it to matter when transferring to a 4 year college.  It will also help when she's looking for scholarship money.

Even at that point, most schools won't accept all of the credits from CCM, so she'll have to take a heavy courseload (or take summer courses) to compensate if she wants to graduate in 4 years.

 

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9 hours ago, 124gr9mm said:

Even at that point, most schools won't accept all of the credits from CCM, so she'll have to take a heavy courseload (or take summer courses) to compensate if she wants to graduate in 4 years.

Like I mentioned above, it use to be the law (not sure if it was changed) that if a kid graduates from a CCM with a AA degree, ALL credits earned MUST transfer to a state school. Now, if the kid goes out of state or to a private 4 year college, then they can evaluate which ones transfer.

Bottom line, and something EVERYONE who has kids that will go to college, college is a business, and they want to milk you for every dollar, and keep the kid there for as many years as possible, so they can collect tuition. They DON'T want to transfer CCM credits, because the 4 year school wants to charge for the kid to take NEW ones... Keep that in mind when fighting with the entrance office.

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This is not entirely true, and you may not find out until it’s too late. In my case Rutgers did accept all of my one son’s county credits, but said they don’t all apply towards the degree. Even though his associates is the same as the bachelor, they wanted another 3 years. 

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1 hour ago, SW9racer said:

This is not entirely true, and you may not find out until it’s too late. In my case Rutgers did accept all of my one son’s county credits, but said they don’t all apply towards the degree. Even though his associates is the same as the bachelor, they wanted another 3 years. 

In my case all of my credits transferred to Seton Hall, a private school BTW, and I changed majors as well.

Transferring to a four year school that have a transfer agreements with CCM is not difficult. 

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19 minutes ago, Bomber said:

In my case all of my credits transferred to Seton Hall, a private school BTW, and I changed majors as well.

Transferring to a four school that have a transfer agreements with CCM is not difficult. 

 

 

 

 

This..you need to make sure the school has a transfer agreement with the CC you are attending.  If they do, they accept all credits and apply them towards a degree.  SHU was like that.  I took summer classes at RVCC since I needed 130 credits to graduate.  As long as they weren’t my last 30 credits they accepted them and applied towards my business degree.

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On 3/10/2021 at 2:10 PM, revenger said:

I appreciate all the responses they really helped,   so far we have her convinced to go to Morris County College so that buys me two years 

this way she can keep her part time job,  I live 1 mile from the school so the commute is easy,    I wanted her to go the Army way and get them to pay alot of it , thats what I did

I loved it at CCM. 

 The faculty and staff were excellent, friendly and really cared. I made a lot of good friends too, everyone commuted so we were all in the same boat. The career services office was the best for finding jobs I otherwise wouldn't had access to.  

Once I got to Seton Hall I was just another number and as commuting student out of the loop socially. 

Their career services office was nothing great and there were a lot of leftist professors.  Wasn't a good experience for me and I loaded up on credits and finished in three semesters.

Not sure what its like at CCM now, they changed the campus around quite a bit but they have a lot to offer.

However choice of major and career field is the absolute critical thing these days. 

If one gets that part wrong the choice of school and your grades, no matter how good, are nearly worthless.  

 

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41 minutes ago, NJSigfan said:

  I took summer classes at RVCC since I needed 130 credits to graduate.  As long as they weren’t my last 30 credits they accepted them and applied towards my business degree.

I did that too. Summer classes, Winterium classes where you complete a full semester course in under four weeks. 

Busted my ass taking classes in the summer when everyone was down the shore and the campus was deserted.

Wow, haven't thought about that in long time..

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2 hours ago, SW9racer said:

This is not entirely true, and you may not find out until it’s too late. In my case Rutgers did accept all of my one son’s county credits, but said they don’t all apply towards the degree. Even though his associates is the same as the bachelor, they wanted another 3 years. 

Below is the link to the state wide transfer agreement. If the kid comes out with a AA or AS, half of their required credits have to be accepted by the 4 year school for the four year degree. Example, if the 4 year degree is 128 credits, 64 from CC will transfer.

Like I said above, sometimes you have to fight for it. When my youngest son transferred to Kean, I had to go there in person, with him, to fight and get ALL credits transferred over. If you don't push, some schools won't transfer, because it's a business, and they want you to spend 3 years there.

https://www.state.nj.us/highereducation/PDFs/XferAgreementOct08.pdf

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