Congratulations! You have been accepted to college. The question is: Now what do you do? The next step towards successfully planning your college education is to figure out how you are going to pay for it. A college education is the most valuable investment you will ever make but you want to make sure that you invest smart. You don’t want to pay more than you have to for tuition, books, housing and other expenses. The first thing you need to do is get an idea of how much college will cost you per year and then you can execute a financial plan to pay for it. Use the SMB College Life Cost Calculator to estimate your college costs by identifying the most costly college expenses.

Once you have an estimate on how much your education will cost per year you can start to look for money to pay for college. At this point you should have filled out the FAFSA form and can plan on hearing back from them within a few months. If you haven’t filled out the FAFSA form this should be your first step towards financial your college education. You can check out our financial aid section for more information on filling out the FAFSA form. Since it may take a few months for the government to get back to you on your financial aid eligibility you should roughly estimate the amount you’ll receive. For middle class families a safe estimate is $2000.00 although this may vary depending on your parents’ financial status.

The next best way to pay for college is though scholarships. To search for scholarships we recommend that you sign up with a scholarship search database, where you will receive notifications for different scholarships that you qualify for. You’ll need to put some time and work into filling out the scholarship applications and writing scholarship essays but the time you spend here can save you thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars now and in the future. A lot of students skip this step because the don’t want to spend the time searching and applying for scholarships, which ends up being a very costly mistake. For more information on scholarships and resources that you can use visit our scholarship section.

You can also search for additional grants to help you pay for college. For more information on grants visit our college grants section.

The last thing that you should look into is student loans to pay for the rest of your college expenses. There are many different types of student loans that you should be aware of. You should also know when and how you will need to repay these student loans so that you can plan ahead for your financial future. Different types of student loans are discussed in our student loan section and payback information can be found through our loan consolidation section.

We hope this helps with your college planning over the next few months. Congratulations again on being accepted into college! This is a really big step in life that some people take for granted. Remember to stay on top of your college planning in order to succeed in your college life. Feel free to contact us if there is anything else we can help you with! Thanks for using SMB College Life!

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For seniors planning to graduate in the Fall Semester of 2008 now is the time to start aggressively planning for your future.  I say aggressively because you need to hit the job market hard to let companies know that you exist.  Take the summer months to beef up your resume and add anything you might think is important.  Once you have a strong resume you want to start making contact with as many companies and human resources departments as possible.  You need to start cold calling.  I know it’s hard to pick up the phone and sell yourself, but with a little practice you can get good at it very quickly.  You want to build yourself up to contacting the companies you really want to work for so that you have plenty of experience talking with professionals and answering questions about yourself.

If you are graduating in the fall you may be thinking that this will be your last summer of freedom.  You might want to take the time to think about something that you’ve always wanted to do and then do plan how you are going to do it this summer.  You’ll hopefully be starting your career in January of 2009 so you will want to make sure you start out with no regrets.  You want to look back on college as a learning experience and also as one of the greatest times of you life.  There will be more great times to come as you develop your career and start your own family but your college life will always be something that you remember.  Make it worth your while so that you can look back on the good times.

As the semester continues to wind down most students are thinking about what they’ll be doing for the summer, but senior college students may be more concerned with graduation. As college seniors enjoy their final days in college and prepare for graduation the may begin finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Most seniors have been in school since they can remember and it might feel very reassuring that they are finally finish and can start their careers. For other seniors, the pressure may start to set in as they need to find a full time job and begin paying back student loans.

Some seniors graduating in the Spring may already have jobs lined up and well on their way to a great career while others might not know what they will do as they cannot find a job in their field of study.  It can be a very uncomfortable feeling to not have a job secured and to not know where the road will take you in the next few weeks.  Instead of getting discouraged and giving up it may be time to develop a “Plan B” if you don’t already have one.  There’s nothing wrong with working elsewhere while you search for a job in your field. You might need to become more flexible with your desired location, or job title, or even salary just so that you can get your foot in somewhere.   Once you’ve gotten your foot in the door you can start to learn more about the industry and begin to make a lot of important contacts which may help you to earn a raise, or get promoted, or even relocate to a different city or company.

If you do not have a job lined up already do not get discouraged!  There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies that are looking for a person just like you to fill a position in your field.  The hard part is sucking up your wants, and settling for what you need at this point.  Once you’ve got you foot in the door you can start going after what you want.  The important thing is to get your foot in the door, or get you name out there to start letting people know you exist.  Make as many contacts as you can now and something will come along eventually.  You just have to do a little footwork to get what you want/need.

Check for follow up posts in the future!

A fellow writer has sent me this great article that will answer a lot of questions about the current student loan crisis. I know that the current economic status is depressing and it seems as though their may not be an answer for college this coming year but as college students we must push for a change! This is the most important year for change because of the presidential elections. I want to take this time to encourage all college students to make their voice heard by voting. College students make up a large portion of the voters in America but rarely go out to vote. Our future is left in the hands of the retired community, who actually make the effort to go out and vote. Make a difference this year as your financial future depends on it!

Here is the article, written by Tisha Kulak who is a writer at www.creditorweb.com, about the current economic crisis and how it will affect college students this year. Thanks Tisha for another great article!

Economic Crisis Cuts into College Funding

As family continue to struggle with the growing concerns of the economy, the money once save for college funds are now being used to keep the family afloat. More and more students need more financial assistance than ever and it is not going to be easy this time around. By February, the financial crisis of the mortgage market had gone beyond being an issue solely for homeowners. The crisis had spread to areas once considered to be stable, including the bonds for student loans. Here’s why:

Loan Crisis Lowdown

Local and state governments acquire money for public or semi-public programs from what is called the market for auction-rate securities. These securities typically offered a very low interest rate to government borrowers. It also allowed banks and other lenders access to cash investments, through bond auctions. They could sell their investments on a weekly basis and get the money back, essentially allowing them to earn a higher return than if their money were placed in a bank. Every investment was insured by a bond insurer, who guarantees such debts. However, the bond insurers also provide insurance to other debts, including dub-prime mortgages. As a result, banks no longer believe the bond insurers will be able to guarantee the student loans as well as they have in the past.

Lenders Are Suffering Too

Additional strain on student loan companies is the incidents of default. Lenders are taking huge losses in recent financial quarters. Realistically, the debt collectors brought in to collect on the defaulted loans are the one industry who stands to gain anything from this financial crisis. Subsequently, the auctions for the loans have become virtually abandoned, as the investments are now considered too risky. Interest rates are being raised, and adding to the damage, the federal government had cut it subsidies in 2007. States and their universities have started to cut or cancel their own student loan programs. Private lenders are taking their companies out of the lending business. State programs once supported by the government have begun canceling their federal student loan programs.

Making Promises

Through all of this, students are stilling being told not to worry. They are being directed by government officials to apply for the direct loan program through the Department of Education. The Department of Education has been making an effort to reassure future borrowers that there will, in fact, be enough money. However, the evidence is strong that the student loan industry is not as strong as it once was and students will be faced with many issues, including increased interest rates on loans or worse, no funds available at all for loans.

Students Hit Hard

Students are coping in different ways depending on their own personal situation. Some hit hard by the lack of financial assistance are leaving four-year universities and opting for a community college. Those less fortunate have had to abandon the idea of higher education all-together. Student who have forged ahead to complete school are now facing higher than usual debt situations. This, in turn, causes another major concern because high paying jobs are getting harder to come by, leaving students in a bigger bind.

How to Deal

Students will soon begin applying for financial assistance in the coming months. Planning to fund college may take a lot more effort than in recent years. Students still eligible to receive college scholarships from high schools and community organizations should consider researching as many as possible. Carefully weighing the pros and cons of starting at a community college and transferring later may be an option for many. It would also be worthwhile to take time and research scholarships and grants that are available on a national level. Parents and students alike may be surprised to learn of the variety of funding offered through philanthropists and companies that will help pay for college.

Tisha Kulak is a writer for Creditorweb.com, where she writes about credit card offers, student credit cards and college finances.

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Don’t forget that the deadline for filing your 2007 taxes is quickly approaching.  For some college students this might not mean much because their taxes may be handled by their parents, or it they at least get help from their parents while doing their taxes.  For the latter, we are on our own when it comes to taxes and with the semester coming to an end we could be so buried in our studies that we forget to file our taxes.  I can assure you that the IRS will not take our forgetfulness lightly,nor will they listen to any excuses we have for not filing.

One of the few financial benefits to being a college student is that we are able to claim our tuition on our taxes and usually receive a nice chunk of change back for the government. Of course this money is already spent on tuition, housing, books, and other things, but it is still nice to receive some money for a change instead of spending all of ours.  If you have an accountant or use a tax service then they will handle the filing for you and make sure that you receive the maximum deduction from being a student.  If you do your taxes on your own however you will need to be sure that you add your cost for tuition as a deductible.  I’m not a finance major so I can’t give you all the details on this deduction…..my accountant handles that!  I’m sure if you need more information about it you can ask you financial aid officers and they will be able to help you.  After all, it is their job to be blood sucking parasites.  Just kidding, no pun intended. I’m just having a little fun tonight!

Thanks for using SMB College Life!