My Loans Consolidated

In the past decades, US students were told that having student loans is having a “good debt”. The reason was because taking out this kind of loan is like investing into the future and that it will pay off once they graduate and get a 6-figure income job. Unfortunately, it has never that simple.

Today young Americans graduate with a huge debt burden on their shoulder, starting their lives after college with a depressing and enslaving debt, controlling their lives. The “good debt” that was promoted is actually the most toxic debt of all in the American history.

This month, Obama released the 2011 budget with the title “A new era of responsibility”. In his State of the Union address the president said, “Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” Very noble! Whether the document he released actually support his rhetoric, read a whole article about it yourself here.

Obama tries to make education more affordable by capping monthly payments at 10% of borrowers income. But no matter what Obama is trying to help ease students from their debt burden, new students should learn the greatest lesson in the US history: student loan is never a “good debt”, it turned out it has been the most toxic debt of all, wrapped in enticing packages of low introductory interest rates to naive inexperience high school graduates, hiding all the pitfalls and danger within it.

If you are thinking of going to college and are currently searching for financial aid, do yourself a favor and save your own future from toxic debt. Before deciding to take out a student loan, understand that there is a way to finance your education, which is using grants or scholarships.

What is the difference between a loan and a grant?

A loan is an amount of money that you borrow and will have to pay back, over time, with interest. You may find loans with very low interest but if you do your math and carefully calculate, you will see that your loan is going to cost a significant amount of money over the course of your lifetime. A grant, on the other hand,  is an amount of money that is given to you for a specific reason – for free. You will not have to repay this amount of money that you received forever.

Which would you most likely obtain to further your education? Which of the two above would be a better choice for you? Obviously, you will want to take as many grants and scholarship as possible before looking for a loan. Here are a few options available for you to apply for grants and scholarships:

College Grants for Single Parents

If you are a single parent, the best way to receive funding is to look for grants locally in your own state. Many states in the US have grants available for struggling single parents who are looking to further their education. Your chance to find a grant that could finance your education is to visit your state’s higher education agency to find information on education programs, financial aid assistance programs, grants and scholarship. If you contact them, make sure you specify that you are looking for grants/ scholarships and not loans!

To look up your local higher education agency, visit this website and navigate to your state. There is a list of local agencies based on states – Education Resource Organizations Directory.

College Scholarship for Minorities

You may not realize that every scholarship source have available scholarship specifically for minorities. Grants and scholarship programs from the federal government, the state, professional organizations, private endowments, corporate donors, colleges and universities. The good news is that it is very likely that you fit into at least one of the minority groups as following list.

• African American
  1. Scholarship for Science and Technology
  2. United Negro College Fund
  3. National Society of Black Engineers
  4. Ron Brown Scholar Program
  5. African American Scholarship
  6. Little Africa Scholarship
  7. African-American gay male students
  • there are plenty of other sources which you can search over the internet
• African American Women
  1. National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc
  2. College scholarship for Women
• Asian
  1. Pan Asian Scholarship
  2. Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund
  3. Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) scholarships
  4. Asian American Bar Association offers generous scholarships for law students
  5. Asian Pacific American Librarians Association provides a $1000 scholarship
  6. Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Award
• Female
  1. American Association of University Women
  2. Jeanette Rankin Foundation Scholarship
  3. Fresh Start Scholarship
  4. National Society of Women Engineers Scholarships
  5. CosmoGIRL! Of the Year Scholarship
  6. Possible Woman Foundation Scholarship
  7. Girls Going Places Scholarship
  8. Arrid Total Woman Scholarship
  9. New York Women in Communications Foundation
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT)
  1. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
  2. Point Foundation
  3. Transgender Scholarship and Education Legacy Fund
  4. African-American gay male students
  5. Just Out Scholarships
  6. Equity Foundation
  7. Lax Scholarship Fund for Gay Men
  8. Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Award
  9. eQuality Scholarship Collaborative Awards
  10. Bobby Griffith Memorial Scholarship (Contra Costa County, California)
  11. The Pride Foundation (Pacific Northwest)
• Hispanic
  1. Hispanic Scholarship Fund
  2. Hispanic Heritage student scholarship awards
  3. Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
  4. National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) scholarships
  5. Society for Spanish Professional Engineers
  6. STATE FARM INSURANCE Hispanic Scholarships
  7. Hispanic Scholarship Fund
  8. Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards
  9. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
• Multi-racial or multicultural
  1. Multi-racial James E. Burr Minority Scholarship
  2. Multiracial Student Scholarship Fund
  3. Ohio University Multicultural Scholarships
  4. Multicultural Scholarships and Opportunities
  5. Multicultural Scholarships
  • you will also be able to find multicultural scholarship in your preferred universities or colleges
• Native American
  1. Native American Scholarships
  2. Association on American Indian Affairs
  3. American Indian Graduate Center
  4. Another list of American Indian scholarships

For more information on scholarship for minorities, simply do a search in Google using the keywords African American Scholarships, Scholarships for women, Hispanic scholarships, and so on.

Fortune 500 Scholarships

The Fortune 500 list is populated with a diverse crowd of corporations – not just ANY corporations but the wealthiest ones. Many of these companies offer scholarships of one form or another. Some of them offer scholarships to American citizen. Check them out:

1. Adobe Diversity Scholarships
2. AEGON scholarship program
3. AIG Scholarship
4. All State grants
5. Allianz South Dakota Scholarship
6. American Honda Motor Foundation
7. Apple Scholars program
8. ArcellorMittal Legacy Foundation scholarship
9. Assicurazioni Generali Scholarship
10. AT&T Foundation scholarship
11. AXA Foundation scholarship
12. Bank of America scholarship
13. BASF scholarship
14. Bayer foundation
15. Berkshire Hathaway Buffett Scholarship
16. Best Buy Scholarships
17. BHP Billiton scholarship
18. BMW Engineering scholarship
19. BNP Paribas scholarship
20. Boeing scholarship
21. Bosch scholarship
22. BP Community Scholarship Program
23. Canon scholarship
24. Cardinal Health scholarship
25. Carterpillar scholarship
26. Chevron International Scholarship
27. Cisco System scholarship
28. Citigroup Scholarship program
29. Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation
30. Conoco Phillips Scholarship
31. DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund Scholarship
32. Dell Scholars
33. Deutsche Bank scholarship
34. Dow Chemical scholarship
35. ExxonMobil Public Scholarships
36. Fiat Foundation scholarship
37. Ford’s educational programs
38. Fortis scholarship
39. General Electric scholarship
40. General Motors scholarships
41. George Weston Scholarship
42. Goldman Sachs grants
43. GlaxoSmithKline scholarship
44. Hewlett-Packard Scholars
45. Home-Depot scholarship
46. Honeywell International scholarship
47. HSBC Scholarships
48. IBM Scholarship
49. ING Funds Scholarship
50. Intel Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship Program
51. Johnson & Johnson Scholarship Foundation
52. JP Morgan Chase Smart Start Scholarship Program
53. KFC Colonel’s Scholars
54. Kraft Food scholarship
55. Kodak Eastman Scholarship Program
56. Lehman Brothers Scholarship
57. Lowe’s scholarship program
58. Marathon Oil scholarship
59. McDonald’s RMHC National Scholarship Program
60. McKesson Pharmacy Scholarship Program
61. Medco Labor Coalition scholarship
62. Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Scholarship Program
63. MetLife Achievement scholarship
64. Metro PCS Scholarship
65. Microsoft scholarship program
66. Mitsui USA Foundation
67. Motorola Foundation
68. Nestlé scholarship
69. New York Life Insurance grant
70. Nissan Motor Community Relations scholarship
71. Northrop Grumman Engineering Scholars Program
72. Pepsi Cola Scholarship
73. Pfizer Epilepsy Scholarship
74. Proctor and Gamble Fund scholarship
75. Prudential Spirit of Community Awards scholarship
76. Rabobank scholarship
77. RWE scholarship
78. Sallie Mae scholarship
79. Samsung Electronics scholarship
80. Sears Crowell scholarship
81. Shell Centenary Scholarships
82. Siemens Foundation scholarship
83. SONY scholarship
84. Statefarm Funds
85. Sysco scholarship
86. Target All-Around Scholarships
87. Time Warner Cable Scholarship Program
88. Total E & P Scholarship
89. Toyota Scholarships
90. UBS scholarship
91. United Technologies scholarship
92. UPS scholarship
93. Valero Energy Volunteer University
94. Verizon Communication scholarship
95. Volkswagen Scholarship
96. Volvo scholarship
97. Walgreen scholarship
98. Wal-Mart Foundation
99. Walt Disney scholarship
100. Wells Fargo scholarship
101. WellPoint Foundation
102. World Bank Scholarship
103. Xerox Technical Minority Scholarship Program

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