Al Jamiat Magazine » saving for college

20 Sites to Help You Save Money in College

aljamiat — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:08 +0000

Saving money in college can be difficult. There are always required purchases–books, computer equipment, food, etc.–that must be made. The good news is that there are many different sites online that can help college and university students cut costs and make ends meet. Here are 20 sites guaranteed to help you save money while you’re in college.

Upromise – Upromise offers a unique way to save money for college. Users can earn up to 8 percent on restaurant purchases, up to 25 percent on online purchases, and up to 10 percent on grocery and drugstore purchases. Earned money can be put into a savings account or 529 plan or directly reimbursed with a check.

Student Advantage – This student discount card program helps students save on food, travel, school supplies and more. The card is accepted by hundreds of colleges, universities, and campus organizations and thousands of national chains and local stores.

Student Savings Club – Designed specifically for college and university students, this student savings club provides discounts that can be used at local and national businesses. Discounts are available for restaurants, fast food, entertainment, travel, school supplies, and much more.

STA Travel – STA Travel is the world’s largest student travel agency. The company offers discounts on airfare, care rentals, hotel stays, insurance, cell service, and more.

CouponMom – CouponMom is a great place to find printable grocery coupons and restaurant coupons. The site is also a good source of coupon codes for department stores, home improvement stores, computer stores, and more.

FatWallet.com – FatWallet.com is a community of savvy shoppers who share deals and coupons over the web. The site can also be used to compare prices on millions of products.

Feed the Pig – Feed the Pig is a non-profit site that was created to help individuals between the ages of 25 and 34 take control of their personal finances. Site resources include free savings tips, savings tools, and community forums.

Campus Tech – Campus Tech has partnered with numerous companies, such as Barnes and Noble, Google, Adobe, and Microsoft, to help students save money on everything from books and backpacks to computer hardware and software.

Zilok – Zilok is an online marketplace that can be used to locate anything you want to rent. Site users can rent almost anything imaginable, including cars, apartments, vacation spots, electronics, DVDs, event supplies, and tools.

PriceGrabber – Considered the leader in online comparison shopping, PriceGrabber allows users to compare prices on everything from books and electronics to clothing and furniture. The site also provides a back-to-school shopping guide.

BookMooch – BookMooch is a great place to save money on reading material. The site allows users to exchange books they no longer want for books they need.

eCampus.com – This site offers up to 90 percent savings on college textbooks. eCampus.com visitors can choose to either rent or buy textbooks and can later return the books for cash when they are no longer needed.

Cengage Brain – In addition to selling and renting entire textbooks, Cengage Brain also allows students to purchase single chapters. eChapters can be purchased for as little as $1.99 each.

Textbook Revolt – Textbook Revolt is a student-to-student textbook renting site. Users can compare rental rates, rent the books they need, and return books at the end of the semester for free.

CourseSmart – College and university students can save up to 50 percent on their textbook purchases by buying digital textbooks from CourseSmart. Textbooks can be read on the computer, an iPhone, or an iPad.

Textbook Revolution – Textbook Revolution is a student-run site that provides links to free textbooks and select educational materials. The goal of the site is to get free textbooks into classrooms so that college students can save money on school supplies.

BIGWORDS – This search engines makes it easy to compare prices on textbooks, books, DVDs, music, and games. BIGWORDS searches multiple stores, compares prices, and shows you where you can get the best deal on the item you are looking for. The average shopper saves $70 per textbook.

Public Library Locator – This U.S. Department of Education site offers a unique search engine that can be used to locate public libraries in your area. Public libraries are a good place to find free books, music, and movies.

Mint – Mint is a popular online finance service that helps users establish a budget, track expenses, reduce debt, track investments, and more. The service also offers a blog and advice on paying off students loans, using credit cards, buying a car, and saving for retirement.

Bob’s Budget Planner – Scotland’s Building Society provides free budgeting software that is easy to download and use. The software works well for tracking weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual income and expenditures.

Karen Schweitzer is an education writer who specializes in writing about business education. She is the Business School Guide for About.com. She also writes about pharmacy technician education for PharmacyTechnicianCertification.com.

Image by: voobie (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinish/3226484450/sizes/m/)

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20 Student Loan Calculators and Scholarship Resources

aljamiat — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:30:42 +0000

decisions decisions decisions

Working hard to get into your college of choice is important, but you must also consider how you are going to pay for your education. If you’re still unsure about where the funds are going to come from, there are many different resources on the web, including student loan calculators and scholarship guides, that can help. Here 20 online resources that will assist you in determining how you can bankroll your higher education.

Student Loan Calculators

Student Loan Repayment Calculator – Map Your Future, an informational site for finding college, financial aid, and career information, features a helpful student loan calculator. Simply input your loan amount to calculate your monthly payment, total interest, and the minimum salary required to repay your loans.

Student Loan Calculator – CNNMoney.com features a quick and easy-to-use calculator that estimates how long it will take to pay off your student loans.

Loan Calculator – Adventures In Education (AIE) has a free online loan calculator that gives students an in-depth look at their payment schedule for the duration of the loan. To use the calculator, you must be able to provide the amount borrowed, an estimated interest rate, and loan terms.

Chase Student Loan Calculator – This online calculator from Chase Bank allows students to estimate the monthly payments of their loan. To use this calculator, you must have an estimate of your loan term, interest rate, and loan amount.

Loan Calculator and Amortization – This loan and amortization calculator estimates monthly student loan payments. It also calculates the impact extra payments will have throughout the life of the loan.

Student Loan Calculator – College Loan has a unique student loan calculator to help students decide how much they need to borrow for college. You can use it to estimate costs for tuition, room and board, food, books, supplies, and other common items.

Federal Direct Consolidation Loans Online Calculator – Borrow Services provides a way to estimate standard and graduated repayment of federal loans. It works very well for anyone who is considering loan consolidation.

Graduated Repayment Calculator – This online calculator estimates the size of your loan using a graduated repayment plan.

Citi Student Loan Calculator – This loan calculator from Citi allows students to calculate the cost of attending college after scholarships, grants, and other financial contributions.

Edwise Online Financial Planning Guide – Edwise offers an extensive financial calculator that maps out a college budget, loan repayment, post-college budget, and summary report.

Scholarship Resources

Next Student – Next Student provides a free online scholarship search engine with over $5.9 million worth of scholarships and grants. This college funding site also features tools and resources for comparing loans and calculating loan costs.

ScholarshipExperts.com – Since 2001, ScholarshipExperts.com has been finding scholarships and grants for students. This site provides a constantly updated database with accurate information on over 2.4 million scholarships.

Scholarships.com – Scholarships.com provides free scholarship and financial aid information for students. After creating an online profile, students can find national, local, and state scholarships and grants that match their personal profile.

FinAid – FinAid offers scholarships and graduate fellowships to pay for higher education. This financial aid guide also features loan information, savings tips, and military aid.

FastAid – FastAid has been helping students find scholarships, fellowships, and grants for more than 30 years. This financial aid search engine features an up-to-date database with scholarships that can’t be found anywhere else.

SallieMae – SallieMae’s scholarship database features over 3 million scholarships worth billions of dollars. Students can enter specific information into the database engine to receive a customized list of scholarships.

Fastweb – With 15 years of experience, Fastweb is a great place to find scholarships from sources all over the world. College bound students are matched with scholarships based on qualifications, educational goals, and activities.

Federal Student Aid – The U.S. Department of Education provides a financial aid and scholarship wizard that assists you with calculating financial aid and scholarship searches.

CollegeBoard – CollegeBoard offers students a free online search engine for locating scholarships, grants, internships, and loans. The database contains over 2,300 sources, totaling almost $3 billion.

Free Scholarship Searches – This site for college bound students provides links to more than 20 sites where students can find scholarships.

About the Author

Karen Schweitzer is an education writer who specializes is writing about business education. She is the Business School Guide for About.com. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net.

Photo by:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24697663@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

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Best Value Colleges and Universities in the United States

aljamiat — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:06:08 +0000

Debt, debt, debt, student loans, lower paying jobs for college grads, spiraling tuition costs, and excessive cost of books and campus life mean that many students are graduating already buried under debt. Its time for students to make better informed financial decisions about their education. Whether its choosing to go to an In-state college, community college for a year or two as a bridge to a 4-year institution, or fighting harder for a full or partial scholarship there are some colleges and universities out there that are still a fantastic value.

We have rated and chosen 5 universities from 3 different admissions categories, Most Selective, More Selective, and Selective. We would love to hear your comments and suggestions for other readers. You may notice most of the schools are Public Universities, as we reviewed various institutions the difficulty in choosing a private university with a better value especially in the More Selective and Selective categories became overwhelmingly difficult. Do you agree or disagree with this list? Leave us comments at the end of the post and register for blog updates!

Most Selective Admissions Institutions

University of Virginia – Charlottesville, Virginia.
Web site: http://www.virginia.edu
Most Selective rating for admissions.
Tuition1: In-State2: $9,450 ($20,173 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International3: $29,790 ($40,473 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 19,784
Consistently ranked as one of the top public4 universities in the United States.

College of William & Mary Image by David Burns under Creative Commons license

William & Mary – Williamsburg, Virginia
Web site: http://www.wm.edu
Most Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-State: $10,246 ($20,600 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $29,326 (39,600 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 7,890
Featured on Princeton Review as a “Best Value” http://bit.ly/1xBj

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Michigan
Web site: http://www.umich.edu
Most Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-State: $12,439 ($24,181 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $33,201 ($47,083 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 41,042
Consistently ranked as one of the top public4 universities in the United States.

University of California – Berkeley, Berkeley, California

University of California Berkeley Students Image by jeroen020 under Creative Commons license

Web site: http://www.berkeley.edu/
Most Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-State: $8,932 ($26,586 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $29,540 ($47,194 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 35,409

Rice University – Houston, Texas
Web site: http://www.rice.edu/
Most Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-State: $30,486 ($43,583 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $30,486 ($43,583 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 5,039
Consistently ranked in top 10 of all universities in United States

More Selective Admissions Institutions

University of Kansas – Athens, Georgia
Web site: http://www.ku.edu
More Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-state: $7,042 ($17,860 with Room and Board)
Out-of-state: $17,119 ($26, 281 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 30,120

University of Kansas Jayhawk Mascot Image by Home Town Invasion under Creative Commons license

University of Georgia – Athens, Georgia
Web site: http://www.uga.edu
More Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-state: $6,030 ($16,758 with Room and Board)
Out-of-state: $22,572 ($32,242 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 25,467

Ohio State University – Columbus,Ohio
Website: http://www.osu.edu
More Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $8,679 ($16,460 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $21,918 ($29,998 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 53,715

University of Florida – Gainesville, Florida
Website: http://www.ufl.edu
More Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $3,790 ($15,740 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $21,400 ($33,350 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 51,761

University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minnesota
Website: http://www.umn.edu
More Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $10,860 ($18,086 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $14,800 ($22,086 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 51,140

BONUS SCHOOL
SUNY – Stony Brook – Stony Brook, New York
Website: http://www.stonybrook.edu/
More Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $3,896 ($12,620 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $8,700 ($14,630 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 24,000

Selective Admissions Institutions

Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, Illinois
Web site: http://www.siuc.edu
Selective rating for admissions
Tuition: In-State: $9,186 ($20,750 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $18.708 ($31,200 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 21,387
University of Mississippi – Oxford, Mississippi
Web site: http://www.olemiss.edu
Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $5,180 ($18,430 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $12,235 ($25,462 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 17,600

West Virginia University – Morgantown, West Virginia
Web site: http://www.wvu.edu
Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $5,100 ($11,380 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $15,768 ($22,048 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 28,110

Image by jwowens under Creative Commons license

University of Oklahoma – Norman, Oklahoma
Web site: http://www.ou.edu
Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $7,420 ($15,909 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $17,400 ($25,890 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 20,915

Arizona State University – Tempe, Arizona
Web site: http://www.asu.edu
Selective rating for admissions
In-State: $5,400 ($18,045 with Room and Board)
Out-of-State/International: $17,949 ($30,320 with Room and Board)
Total enrollment 2008: 53,200

1 : Tuition in the US is calculated for a full year (2 semesters) not including the summer session.
2 : In-State is an resident of that state
3 : Out-of-State means any student who is not a resident of that state or an international student
4 : Public universities are founded and funded by the state

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