As with most things, and certainly all things involving money, scholarships and other financial aid opportunities are sometimes scams designed to part you from your money. It’s an unfortunate, but time proven fact that there is a small percentage of the human population making life worst for the rest of us. They cheat the elderly out of their life savings, they sell broken down cars to newly expecting parents, and they put lead in toys sold to babies just to make a few dollars more. They also prey upon students and their parents who are desperate to find just a few extra dollars in order to go to school to get a better life.

Knowing that there are unscrupulous people and companies in the world fraudulently representing scholarship and Aid opportunities will hopefully make you more careful as you sort through applications. In this case, the mind numbing task of filling out applications is actually working in your favor. With the exception of the essay portion almost every application requests the same information- grades, address, interests, field of study, extracurricular activities, etc. When you come across an application that requests your credit card or banking information it should raise a giant red flag. If it looks a little peculiar, it probably is. Set that application aside and take a few minutes to investigate it. Ask the school guidance counselor about it or better yet, contact the Federal Trade Commission whose job it is to investigate these issues.

Students and parents should also be weary of opportunities that cost money to apply for. Often a student will be invited to an ‘exclusive’ seminar where they will be given a high-pressure sales pitch to pay for an opportunity or risk losing it. Or they will be asked to pay a membership fee to an organization that awards scholarships. Sure, that $25 membership fee is pittance compared to the $2,000 annual scholarship. But, that’s because the scholarship isn’t real. ALWAYS investigate any organization promising you financial aid if there is a fee involved.

The FTC is always on the lookout for scams such as these. With their help and the help of vigilant students and parents across the country fewer and fewer students are getting scammed. If you encounter a scholarship or Aid opportunity that looks too good to be true; or just want ore information on what to look out for please visit the Federal Trade Commission’s site http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/ouchalrt.shtm.

By: Dan Russell

Thanks to Fastweb.com and similar websites students now have access to a huge number of scholarships.  Billions of dollars in free financial aid is now easily accessible via the internet.  These Free Money sites are similar to job sites in the way they simply list out all those opportunities that fit your parameters. It can be easy to get carried away simply clicking on scholarship opportunities that you then forget what you’ve done.  Let’s face it, after reading through 50 links over the course of an hour, they all start to look the same anyway.  If you go through 50 links everyday for a week there is no chance you’ll remember the first link you looked at after lunch on Tuesday.  Living in the information age is a great boon for students.  But, if you don’t know how to organize all that info you might wind up drowning in it.

With so much information at our fingertips it becomes even more important to keep track of everything.  Trust me, as I have learned the hard way, being organized will pay off in the long run.  There are a number of good reasons to keep track of the Free Money you have applied for.  First off, you don’t want to waste time doubling up your efforts by applying for the same scholarship 3 times.  Many of these applications also need an essay.  If you are organized you will be able to keep track of these essays and you’ll find that certain essays are a fit for a number of Free Money applications.  The students who are winning multiple scholarships typically do so with just one or two very well-written essays.

In order to make things easier on yourself it helps to build a simple spreadsheet when you begin.  On that spreadsheet you’ll want to list out all the info pertinent to each Free Money opportunity.  The Company or Organization, the due date, amount of award, application requirements.  Do that for every single opportunity before you apply for anything.  At the end of a period of time, organizes that spreadsheet.  What you’ll discover is that many of these applications require the exact same information and have similar essay questions.  Taking a day to fill out all the applications rather than doing them one at a time will save you time and energy in the long run.

by: Dan Russell

Seeking out and applying for scholarships, fellowships, and grants is easier than ever, but that doesn’t mean slackers are rewarded. Just because you have access to so many more opportunities doesn’t mean you should take the application process lightly. I have always felt that people take more care to read and fill something out when they are doing it with pen and paper rather than by mouse and keystroke. I know I do. For some reason my attention span seems to lag when I scroll too long.

If you are like me, than straighten up and refocus. When it comes to filling out information for Free Money (as I will now refer to scholarships, fellowships, and grants) you don’t want to miss anything. For example, the survey form for fastweb.com’s scholarship search will probably take you a good 10 minutes to fill out. There are the typical questions about grades completed and GPA, as well as boxes to check for your extracurricular involvements. But then they proceed to ask questions about organizations, your parent’s jobs, and any number of unfortunate incidents that might have befallen you. In a word, it’s extensive. But that’s a great thing. The more you are able to tell them about yourself the more opportunities you’ll have to apply for Free Money.

Fastweb.com takes all of your answers and sources Free Money opportunities for you. There are far more than you could possibly dream of. There are scholarships for children of specific unions and professions, grants for children who are adopted or victims of domestic violence, and even money for students willing to create blogs for Corporations. The more you can tell Fastweb.com about yourself the more Free Money you will be eligible for. A quick word of advice though not to be dishonest or over embellish. You don’t want to be bogged down with opportunities that you truly aren’t eligible for. You may have written the best essay of all time for that AFL-CIO Scholarship, but if no one in your family is a member of the Union all you did was waste your time.

by: Dan Russell

There aren’t many times in your life when there are literally billions of dollars waiting for you to freely claim.  Free, as in no cost.  Free money.  What I’m talking about are scholarships, fellowships, and grants.  Millions and billions of dollars in free money simply waiting to be given to students like you.  Best of all its now easier than ever to find and apply for this money.

In the past simply being proactive in looking for scholarships wasn’t always enough.  Your school or community might not have the resources available to do a complete and thorough search.  In the past students would pore over books that listed scholarships, but not every student had access to the most updated versions of those books and many opportunities could be missed.  Thankfully today’s students exist within the information age and there are great resources within everyone’s fingertips.

There are many websites right now that focus on helping students secure scholarships.  One of the better known is www.fastweb.com which claims to be the largest source of scholarships available.  The beauty of fastweb.com they have built a personalized search tool to aid your search.  Actually, the real beauty of the website is that it’s free.  There are plenty of websites with personalized search tools, but they aren’t all free.  And, let’s face it if you are looking for scholarships, fellowships, and grants you probably need every dollar you have.

By: Dan Russell

Searching out and applying for scholarships can be a crazy stressful time. For many of us the success or failure of our scholarship search will have a profound affect on the next few years of our lives. With such weighty concerns it’s easy to overlook the basics. There are certain things that in hindsight everyone says, “of course you DON’T do that.” But, in the haste and stress of filling out applications they always do. Here is a quick list that I’m search everyone is aware of…an Idiot’s guide to the basics of scholarship search that.

1. Start early. Since you can’t start yesterday, start now! The earlier you begin your search the more opportunities you will find for financial aid. But wait, there’s more. You’ll also have more time to craft those applications in order to make sure they are perfect, further increasing your chances to win thousands of dollars!
2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Use all your resources. Talk to your school guidance counselor as well as teachers you have relationships with. Find out if your job offers any scholarships, same thing for your parent’s job. If you belonged to any organizations growing up look into those opportunities. There are many scholarship opportunities available to members of organizations such as the Boys and Girls Scouts. Of course use the internet. Scour it. Use services like FastWeb.com to help you quickly find opportunities you might e eligible for.
3. Don’t ignore small awards that fit your profile. They add up and many times you can simply use the same essays for multiple scholarships cutting down on time it takes to apply. Money is money and even if it takes you five hours to fill out an application for a $1,000 scholarship, it’ll be a long time before you are in a position to make $200 an hour again.
4. Don’t spend money to win money. It’s a scam and a suckers bet. Don’t ever give someone your credit card or banking information when applying for a scholarship. When in doubt, contact the www.ftc.gov.

By: Dan Russell

In part one I described the more generic varieties of textbooks- new and used. Now as we have learned there are many different shapes, styles, and more importantly conditions of used books. And, quite frankly, all of the additional book varieties also come in new and used also but they will also turn up in more specific searches. The textbook savvy student should be aware of all their choices including the more difficult to find varieties including International Editions, Annotated Teacher’s Editions, and eBooks.

International Editions can be HUGE bargains, sometimes selling for 90% less than the same US Edition. Many of these books have big stickers on the covers prohibiting their resale within the USA. But, only publishers and brick & mortar bookstores are really affected as they won’t knowingly buy or sell these editions. For the common student the International Edition of a textbook can be similar to finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk. International Editions can be significantly less expensive for a variety of reasons and none of them affect the information in the text. It seems the International textbook audience is less demanding and publishers will use black and white rather than color pictures and photographs; the paper used might also be thinner or inferior to the paper used in US versions. Lastly, there is no market for a $150 textbook in Bombay so the book is priced for that market. Occasionally the book trickles into our market at a huge discount for a lucky student.

Annotated Teacher’s Editions can be the envy of a dormitory. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more helpful textbook. You might find a textbook chock full of notes in the margins and highlighted in pink AND yellow, but when push comes to shove, those notes in the margins might be dirty limericks and the highlighting might have just been an excuse to color on a rainy day. An Annotated Teacher’s Edition however is pure gold. Teacher’s Editions differ from student’s in they often contain study guides, solutions to textbook problems, and answers to exams. As opposed to the well-highlighted student text, you know the info in a Teacher’s Edition is the real McCoy. These books are given to teachers directly from the publishers. They then make their way to the open market. Their resale is restricted and certain websites including eBay will not list them. Other websites such as Campusbooks.com will list them where it is noted within the seller comments.

The final variety of harder to find textbook is the eBook. These are usually tougher to spot simply because they are never seen being lugged to class. This also happens to be one of the eBook’s primary advantages. eBooks when found can also be significantly less expensive because you won’t need to pay a shipping charge.

It’s important to know all the options out there when looking at textbooks. Textbooks are a significant investment and its wise to understand all the varieties that exist in order to make the wisest purchase.

By: Dan Russell

Much like apples, textbooks come in many different varieties.  I am not writing of simply new and used- the green and red apples of the textbook orchard.  Today’s student has their pick of more than just a new or used edition. Additional choices include:  International editions which might be significantly less expensive, Teacher’s editions which might be significantly more helpful, or even eBooks which might be significantly more convenient.  We’ll examine these in Part II.

New textbooks are simply defined.  They are new, pristine, fresh, previously unowned.  The book’s pages are clean and crisp, the cover is in perfect condition, and it might even have that fresh off the presses new book smell.  For all practical purposes you will never sell a new book, but you’ll probably buy your share of them.  Once bought a new book is used.  It can be described as “like-new” but it’s used and there is no getting around that fact.

Just as there are both sweet and sour green apples, there are many different varieties of used books, in general though a used book is any book that isn’t new.  The price, as well as the value, of a used book fluctuates greatly according to its condition.  A “like-new” or once-used book can resell for 50% its original cost.  However even the most expensive book you own won’t resale for anything if it looks like it sat in water overnight.  Keep in mind, if you can’t open the pages to read the book no one else can either.  In between those two extremes is an entire resale world.  The majority of used books have minor wear and tear from notes in the margins and highlighted text to creased pages and scratched covers.  Most companies are fairly lenient in their used buyback policies.  Just make sure there’s no water damage, no missing pages, and the spine of the book will standup for another year or two.

As I mentioned previously there are more than green and red apples in the orchard.  In our next edition we will cover some of the more exotic apple varieties; I mean book types, including international editions, teacher’s annotated editions, and eBooks.  Though these types might be more exotic and thus harder to find that can make them even sweeter when they are found.

By: Dan Russell

In the past, students were beholden to the campus buyback counter as the only outlet for their old books. Now however there are so many options online students no longer have to accept making pennies on the dollar for their used textbooks. Enterprising students are able to profit from their books, sometimes earning wads of cash rather than mere meal money.

Making the most off of your used books is not for the faint of heart, but if you are willing to put in the time and effort into selling your books online, you can reap some nice rewards. To begin with it helps to NOT buy your books on campus in the first place. As soon as you sign up for next semester’s classes get a hold of the required text list.

Time is of the essence; the longer you have the more you can make of it. With list in hand start doing some online shopping. There are many schools that change the textbooks for courses from year to year which eliminate the on-campus demand and value of that text. But, if your school needs that text it has some value to you. The student at the other school might be happy to sell you that $150 book for $15 because it’s $15 more than their bookstore was offering.

Not too long ago it could take forever bouncing from website-to-website trying to source the lowest priced book available. Luckily it’s now 2008 and thanks to CampusBooks.com you only have to visit their website, type in your book’s ISBN number and away you go. CampusBooks.com’s online price tool allows you to view what the top book websites (including auction sites such as eBay.com) are selling your book for. You will also be able to get shipping costs and any of the other fine print that can add to the cost of your purchase.

The next step is eerily similar to the first, just the opposite. Instead of going online to buy your books, you go online to sell them. The exact same principles are at work and the book might be far more valuable on another campus than on your own. If you have time and patience take advantage of it. Typically the prices rise as the semester approaches and people become desperate. On some occasions the demand for a certain text might have skyrocketed for the next semester allowing a student to actually sell the book for more than they paid.

You are probably not going to make hundreds of dollars every single semester. There might be semesters where you only break even. But other years the stars might align and you’ll strike gold with that geology book. Over the course of 4 years that it all adds up and maybe you’ve made $500-$1,000 which isnt too shabby.

By: Dan Russell