Free College Essays: Incredibly Bad Idea
The odd thing about a website is you have to anticipate what questions your readers are using search engines to ask, so right now I’m using Google’s keyword tools to study what students interested in free college are trying to learn more about. I got some good ideas for future projects, but the first and most urgent thing that jumped out was the number of people searching for free college essays.
This is an incredibly bad idea. I can’t stress that enough. There are several reasons why students should not use pre-written essays for admissions, courses, or scholarship applications. I might have though the reasons were obvious but apparently this is a popular topic and I want to remind everyone what is at stake.
- Ethics - Its cheating. Taking credit for someone else’s work is not just unethical but in many cases it is illegal. Even if a service is offering permission for you to use their essays, it is still a violation of the educational contract the student has with the university. If he or she is caught, expulsion is the most likely result. Once cheating is on a student’s academic record, its not very likely that other schools will want to admit them either.
- Education - Learning is what you’re paying big money for at school. Copying an essay might theoretically get you a good grade if you avoid getting caught, but it completely defeats the purpose of that major tuition check paid out on the student’s behalf.
- Easily Detected - Several tools exist on the internet for detecting duplicate content. Usually, web publishers use this to see if someone else is ripping off their work, but teachers and professors can and do often use these sites for studying suspicious essays.
- Poor Quality - Moral, legal, ethical, and education concerns aside, even if you did find a free essay and get away with using it, chances are if it is free it is also poorly written. If a no-cost paper is actually any good, then the chances are that its been used over and over again and your professor might have seen it already.
All I can suggest is that if you got here looking for free college essays, just take the time to write the essay yourself. Writing skills can really only be learned through practice and sharing your work with people who will give you opinions and advice. Ask teachers, parents, a school advisor or counselor for help. If you fail or don’t get accepted to the program your essay applies for, take the experience as a chance to improve in the future - don’t take a risk on ruining that future with a record of fraud.
Advanced Placement: Worth more than Credits in College
Advanced Placement (AP) classes are usually recommended as a way to get a head start on college credits, but they also really help the student prepare academically for the scholarly standards of an undergraduate program.
These days, most high school courses are pretty easy. Individual teachers and some districts may have particularly rigorous standards, but for the most part there is a huge gap between the level of effort required in a high school class compared to the effort required in a college class.
AP classes can be a student’s first introduction to college-level curriculum standards. Suddenly, homework and self-study is top priority. AP science students should be developing unique experiments, while AP history students might be evaluating sources and writing persuasive essays to influence political opinions based on researched analysis. Either way, it is likely to provide new challenges that the student hasn’t encountered yet and its going to require a significant effort outside of class time.
A successful AP test will also provide you with some credits at most colleges, of course, and its possible for freshman students to skip ahead into sophomore-level courses. Admissions departments tend to look favorably on high grades in AP classes as well, since its a sign that the student is taking challenges and succeeding.
But trust me on this part, there can be too much of a good thing. Know your limits and don’t underestimate the time you’ll have to invest in these types of classes. Two hours at home for every hour in the classroom is a common estimate used in college and it would apply well to what I experienced with Advanced Placement classes, too. Instead of trying to take every single opportunity the student can get, he or she should try to pick a few subjects that most closely match their interests.
Search for Scholarships & Instantly Enter to Win $5,000
Right now and until April 30, 2008, any new user who signs up to search scholarships at Scholarship Experts will be automatically registered in a contest to win $5,000 for college tuition. Contest or not, searching for scholarships online through these type of free services is a good part of an overall college financial strategy.
I’ve mentioned before that scholarships are posted all over the place from financial aid offices to local businesses & charities. Some schools might have a really good scholarship research department that specializes in local awards and grants, but most sources are incomplete in one way or another.
In an earlier post, I compared my experience with various scholarship search engines and I found them all to be very useful in unique ways. Even specialized databases can’t get all of the possible funding sources and keep them up to date, so there is no reason to limit your search to one site or another. Remember the federal government’s advice when it comes to evaluating which sites you sign up for, and watch out for these common scams.
Focus on free services, because any time anyone is offering financial aid assistance at a cost, that is cutting into your total potential aid! Over at Accepted to College, there’s a whole article dedicated to this topic, and the very absurdity of spending money in hopes of earning more financial aid. The best thing that a student can invest to pay for his/her college education is time and genuine effort.
Stanford Joins Yale and Harvard in offering Free College
SFGate is reporting that Stanford’s president will announce major changes tomorrow regarding school financial aid policies. The provost John Etchemendy is saying that the school’s multi-billion dollar endowment will be used to provide free college to students with annual family incomes under $60,000. Students in families earning up to $100,000 will be able to get free housing, and even students with higher family incomes will see increases in financial aid packages.
Stanford’s expected announcement comes not long after Harvard and Yale introduced similar financial aid reforms, and it is expected that other elite colleges are likely to follow the trend.
There are three major factors causing ivy-league schools to increase financial aid:
- Economic pressure: Rapidly rising tuition costs reduce the number of applicants unless tuition assistance keeps pace
- Political pressure: Facing continual budget deficits, and looking for ways to pay for the upcoming fiscal stimulus package, some politicians have put increasing pressure on schools that are holding multi-billion dollar investment accounts while remaining tax free. If its a choice between paying taxes and investing in their students, it seems they would rather spend the money themselves.
- Competition from other colleges: All these schools want to get the best students so they can continue to justify their higher tuition rates. Better students creates more successful graduates, more endowment donations, and more cash on hand to attract good students and build the school’s academic capability. The business model is extremely profitable for both the administrators and the students, but only so long as they can get the best students.
Practice and Prepare for the Best SAT & ACT Scores
Like most things in education, SAT and ACT scores have a lot to do with practice, planning, and preparation. Some students may have an automatic advantage, but well planned effort can help bridge the gap and any student can get a great score.
Take Challenging Math Classes
When you’re a high school freshman, you might be given the option to repeat math courses that you took in middle school. Skip pre-algebra and head right to geometry if they let you! It is commonly agreed that students tend to get their best math SAT scores immediately after taking geometry. If you’re taking geometry in your freshman year, you’ll want to take the SATs and ACTs for the first time over the summer after 9th grade.
Consider Latin
The Latin language isn’t exactly spoken fluently anymore, but the word roots and variations influence a lot of modern English, Spanish, French, and Italian. Latin words are also a big part in the origin of scientific terminology, so this could help you out in the science sections of the ACT and any science or technology classes you take. Students tend to do best on the verbal sections of the SAT after they’ve been in high school for several years. Read a lot of books, study vocabulary, and make sure to schedule SAT and ACT tests near the end of your junior year.
Take the SATs and ACTs Multiple Times
If you take the tests several times, most colleges and universities will allow you to combine your best scores in each section toward your best total score. Also, the more you take the test, the more familiar you will be with it - and students tend to do a little better each time. Don’t overdo it though, if you take the SATs and ACTs 10 times and only get a mediocore score, the admissions department of your chosen school may be skeptical of your ability. Aim to take each test about three times - once after your freshman year and then at the end of the next two years also.
Take Practice SAT Tests and/or Prep Courses
If it is affordable, sign up for an SAT or ACT Preparation Course. A good class will cover many hours of instruction, practice, and personalized assistance for your particular needs. These courses were included at my high school for the PSATs, and I would recommend them for anyone else who is hoping to get a competitive SAT score.
If the cost of a SAT/ACT prep class is out of reach, spend a few bucks on a study guide with practice exams. These days, many of those types of books will include online or CD-ROM based practice tests.
Stay Calm, Well-fed, and Rested
With clubs, tests, finals, and essays, its easy to think that sleep is something that can be cut out. NO! This is one of the best-kept secrets of education: You think better and are more productive with your time when your body is happy.
Relax. The test isn’t everything. Schools still care about your GPA, activities, awards, and job experience. If you can stay calm, you’ll be able to devote more mental energy into the actual test questions.
Eat a good breakfast. Bring snacks. High fat, high protein breakfasts have been shown to increase mental activity throughout the day. However! Too much grease and fat can make you drowsy, especially if you’ve been cutting back on sleep. Egg whites and lean meat would make a great SAT-morning breakfast - stay away from the drive through.
The brain also needs simple sugars to function. I’m going to let you in on the biggest food-related secret of my SAT success: Chocolate covered raisins. Trust me on this one, try it out. Bring some to snake on, but be aware you might need to leave them in your car or in a locker. Food is not allowed inside of the testing room, but it is a long test and you need something to get you through it. It might sound silly to focus so much on diet, but this does affect how you feel and perform.
Sleep! The worst I ever did on the SATs was my sophomore year. I signed up for the test and forgot the date I had scheduled for. So I ended up getting tickets to a Megadeth concert the night before. Thinking I could “do it all” I went to the concert and stumbled into the SAT test the next day, half-asleep. While most students go up on their 2nd time through the test, I ended up going down about 30 points. I had finished more advanced math and I had been practicing the test for a whole year, but just being tired was enough to counter-act all that preparation.
Credit Crunch Affecting Student Loan Rates
Banking and loan problems don’t stay contained in the sub-prime mortgage industry. Borrowing is borrowing, and the availability of cash affects the profitability of the lending industry, whether its in home loans, car loans, or student loans.
The Federal Reserve can try to keep interest rates from spiking too fast by lowering their reserve lending rates, but the market still has to price in risks created by inflation, regardless of what the Fed says is a good interest rate.
As more banks cut off the supply of loans due to insufficient reserves and defaulted sub-prime mortgage accounts, the price of student loans has been rising even though the official interest rates are down. Students are a risky investment to begin with, and right now the financial markets have little tolerance for big risks.
Since many of the student lenders also participate in the federally subsidized loan programs, the recent legislative reform drastically reduces the amount of income they are able to generate from this part of their business. To make up the difference, lenders are: raising rates on private loans; denying loans to students with low credit scores; or getting out of the subsidized loan business all together.
In the long run, this could be helpful for tuition costs as more schools figure out business models that allow them to admit students without necessarily needing loans to pay for it. In the short term, it limits a lot of the options that students have in paying for their college education. Students who qualify for federally subsidized Stafford and PLUS loans may be unable to find a provider who is willing to loan the money at the prices the government requires. Parts of the federal education budget may go unspent - and colleges might have a hard time meeting recruiting goals.
Hopefully, this doesn’t put any schools into bankruptcy. That would be the worst possible outcome, but it would force Congress to consider new legislation to fix the new set of problems they have unintentionally created.
Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Secrets
The Florida Bright Futures Scholarship paid for most of my college education.
I didn’t get the 100% award because my GPA fell in my junior and senior years (3.4), but I did manage to complete the classes and earn the SAT scores I needed for the 75% award.
At a public university in Florida, 75% of tuition doesn’t seem like much (since the tuition is so low to begin with) but it is an incredible deal when you realize you only have to shell out about $800 for a full semester’s load of classes and books. Many semesters, I would pay more for my books than I did for the classes! That’s a deal - and the government is willing to give you that same deal if you can get decent grades and follow the correct course of study while you’re in high school.
Grades and SATs aren’t everything - and two of my friends learned this the hard way. Their high school financial aid counselors weren’t up to date on the eligibility requirements and they ended up being disqualified on a technicality. Don’t let this happen to you! Since the criteria for selection is completely based on high school scores and classes, there is no way to appeal Florida state’s decision after you graduate high school.
Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Eligibility Requirements:
Gold Seal Vocational Award - 75% of Public College/University Tuition
Yes, you can get a scholarship to attend a Florida college even if you’re in a vocational program and you want to further that vocational training to a degree in the field or specialty - or heck, even if you want to do something completely different.
Grade Point Average: 3.0 weighted in 15.5 “core credits” and 3.5 in 3 credits of vocational classes
Standardized Test Scores: 440 in BOTH the Math and Critical Reading Sections of the SAT; OR ACT scores greater than or equal to a 17 in English, an 18 in Reading, and a 19 in Math.
CORE CLASS REQUIREMENTS:(This is important!)
4 Credits of English
3 Credits of math (including Algebra 1 or higher)
3 Credits in Natural science
3 Credits in Social science
1 Credit in Performing art OR 1 Practical art or .5 in each
.5 credit Life Management Skills
.5 credit Personal Fitness
.5 credit Physical Education
Florida Medallion Scholars Award - 75% of Public College/University Tuition (100% for community colleges)
This award is worth a little more if you’re going to a community college, but the payout is basically the same as the Vocational program scholarship. The major difference is the classes required to achieve eligibility: Students pursuing the Medallion version of the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship will be required to take a foreign language AND two of their sciences with a lab component.
Grade Point Average: 3.0 weighted in 15 “core” credits
Standardized Test Scores: 970 or higher on the student’s best combination of the math and verbal sections of the SAT. You could get a 490 in each section, or a 500 in math and a 470 in verbal. Any combo works to secure eligibility. The listed ACT score is 20 (not including writing).
CORE CLASS REQUIREMENTS: (This is important!)
4 Credits of English
3 Credits of math (Algebra 1 and above - take Geometry, too!)
3 Credits in Natural science (2 with substantial laboratory work)
3 Credits in Social science
2 Foreign Language (IN THE SAME LANGUAGE!)
This foreign language requirement is the one that gets people in trouble. Some people will take Spanish 1 and French 1 - but they will NOT qualify! You have to take two levels of the same language. One friend of mine did not qualify because the language they had taken in another country did not count. Another friend was disqualified for not taking a language. They WILL NOT let you get around this requirement. It is incredibly important and will ruin your eligibility for all four years of college if you do not complete it. Take your two languages, and take them early. It will help you on the English section of the SAT (really!) and you’ll probably be glad its out of the way.
Florida Academic Scholars Award (100% public tuition AND $300 per semester for college-related expenses like books or housing)
Grade Point Average: 3.5 weighted in 15 “core” credits
Standardized Test Scores: 1270 or higher on the student’s best combination of the math and verbal sections of the SAT. You could get a 640 in each section, or a 500 in math and a 770 in verbal. Any combo works to secure eligibility. The listed ACT score is 28 (not including writing).
CORE CLASS REQUIREMENTS: (This is important!)
4 Credits of English
3 Credits of math (Algebra 1 and above - take Geometry, too!)
3 Credits in Natural science (2 with substantial laboratory work)
3 Credits in Social science
2 Foreign Language (IN THE SAME LANGUAGE!)
See the note in the above scholarship award regarding the language classes required for eligibility. I’ve known several people who got caught up on this requirement and missed out on a few thousand dollars because of a technicality.
Community Service!
To be eligible for the big award, you need 75 hours of community service approved by the school district or the student’s private school. This is also not negotiable. Like the language, I recommend doing this early. Community service will give you great experience, a rewarding sense of accomplishment, and a chance to help out someone or someones in need. Oh yeah, don’t forget - it will help you qualify for and win even more scholarships, other than the Florida Bright Futures! Don’t put it off to the last minute because you’re “not sure” if you’ll make the other qualifications like SAT scores and grades. If you’ve invested in the 75 hours of community service, you’ll have more motivation to keep the grades up and study hard for the SATs and ACTs. Its worth 25% of your tuition - and that’s money that could be used to buy a car, a laptop, or it could even be the difference between needing small student loans or no loans at all.
Forget Luck - Plan Ahead
Well, I was going to wish you good luck in your quest for a free college education but I decided that was silly because luck has nothing to do with it! The premise is simple. Florida will pay for your college tuition if you can use your high school years to prove that you’re willing to work hard and follow instructions. If you’re that type of person, society wants you to succeed - heck, we need you to succeed.
These are the people who contribute major breakthroughs that advance society, these are the people who build businesses that employ others, and these are the people who love a challenge because they love the rewards of overcoming obstacles.
Start before you’re even a freshman in high school. Sign up for language classes before you even see your new school. Study hard. Do your homework. Then, when you’re within one year of graduating, fill out the Florida Bright Futures application form at www.FloridaStudentFinancialAid.org. The only thing you will regret is if you let this great opportunity for free money pass you by.
Free Money for a College Education in Dentistry
So you’ve picked a profession: You’ve decided to pursue dentistry.
The good news is that the dental and oral health field offers a lot of career opportunities and a pretty high salary. Dentists and hygienists are in high demand and they provide a service that makes their customers extremely grateful. I know this for a fact because I’m personally thankful for the oral surgeon that was recently able to get my wisdom teeth out. It wasn’t a “typical” procedure at all and not every surgeon was willing to take the risks associated with such a delicate procedure.
Here’s the bad news: What would have happened if this expert in dentistry couldn’t afford his college education? I’d probably be sitting here in worse pain than the pain of recovery I’m feeling now!
Let’s check out some resources for students looking for free money for dentistry education:
- Of course, there is the U.S. Navy dentistry option. The upside to this is generous educational assistance and financial aid. Navy dentists earn an officer rank, and they have access to some of the best cutting edge technology and equipment. The link shows a few of their financial aid alternatives, and they’re offering up to $180,000 for dental school tuition - and a sign-on bonus - AND a monthly stipend! The downside is commitment: You’ll need to be sure that a career in the Navy is right for you. Although there’s a paid month off each year, this is definitely a job for people who love the seas and love to travel.
- If you’re not ready to go all-in with free college and a Navy commission, consider the Western Dentistry program. The amount of tuition assistance isn’t nearly as generous, but every bit of free money helps - and this one is easy and quick to apply for.
- The American Dental Association (ADA) has a scholarship foundation too - this page includes several significant sources of tuition funding.
One or two scholarships isn’t likely to pay for your entire college education - unless you’re willing to make a long-term commitment after graduation to the Navy or a local or state medical organization. Smaller scholarships and grants are probably the best way to go if you want to keep your options open. When you’re searching for scholarships that match your eligibility, make sure you set your major and/or intended career as dentistry, and if you know your specialty, use that. Remember, the more specific the eligibility criteria of the scholarship or grant, the better your chances of getting free money for school.
Free College Visits and hey, Free Food too!
Cappex is announcing several new scholarship programs today. There’s an online talent contest, a scholarship for active students where GPA doesn’t necessarily matter as much, and there’s some money for travel grants for students who are setting up college visits over the next few months. If you’re a community or campus activist, if you have some cool skill or just something you want to show off, check these out! The travel grants are also great because you may think you want to go to a school until you’ve actually seen it. Are you going to spend the next four years in some place you’ve never seen?
Surviving College Life has a few great ideas for students on a budget to consider as well: How to get free food in college!
These are actually really good suggestions that I remember putting to work in my own undergraduate days. It wasn’t ramen noodles and frozen pizza every night, thanks mostly to clubs and other campus events! Here’s an extra tip, if you’re in student government you’re the first one to have a calender of all the budgeted food-related events (and sometimes you can even set the menu!)
Of course the food is great at these events, but make sure to take advantage of the social and academic benefits of these events, too. Professional societies, industry-related clubs, and even purely social groups can give you a great advantage once you’re out of school and looking for a career.