I don’t typically post any scholarship opportunities on CheapScholar.org that could be construed as gimmicky or just a way for an organization to garner attention or prospective clients for their database. That being said, the good people at DiplomaFrame.com are providing a scholarship opportunity for students and at first glance it could quickly be labeled as gimmicky, but after additional review, I think it is an awesome idea and it really makes students think about and establish a vision for their goals and dreams (of which I am imagining that going to college is part of that checklist…)

The Frame My Future Scholarship Contest (Click Here To Enter!)

Eligibility: Pretty straightforward, you must be a student attending  a U.S. based college full-time for the upcoming academic year and you have to be a legal U.S. resident.

What does the winner receive?: Frame My Future will be giving away $1,000 scholarships to five goal-oriented students. In addition, $1000 will be given to the college or university that one of these students attend. Lastly, the top 24 finalist will get a commemorative Frame My Future frame reflecting their work.

How Do I Apply for the Scholarship Contest?: Unlike other scholarship programs that require you to submit essays, Frame My Future only requires you to submit a single image in a .jpg or .png format that depicts what you want to achieve in your personal or professional life after college. They also give you the opportunity to attach a brief description or summary of your picture/image (500 words or less… so nothing inundating). Frame My Future suggests the following examples of projects they have received in the past:

• photograph
• collage
• poem
• drawing
• painting
• graphic design
• short, typed explanation
• scrapbook style page
• anything you can create within one image

If you think you have what it takes to be part of this contest, don’t hesitate to click on the banner below and get started with your entry. It may score you $1000 in additional scholarship dollars that you didn’t have before. At the same time, it will help you to put your “eye on the prize”, which is all the great contributions you will bring to this world after you graduate from college.

Good luck and have fun! Also, if you know of anyone else that may benefit from this scholarship, please don’t hesitate to pass this information onto them using the “share tab” below.

Do you like people? Do you stay up all hours of the night? Is there a little part of you that likes to be in a position of control? Do you want a job on Campus? Do you communicate well?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, being a Resident Adviser may be just the ticket for you to help cover some of your college expenses.

The Role of a Resident Adviser

RAs have different responsibilities at different college campuses but the common expectation of someone fulfilling this role is that they serve as a role model for fellow students living in their residential communities. Yes, RAs are the enforcers of all the rules put into place by Residential Life, but more importantly, they serve as a resource for their peers and help new students acclimate to campus in a healthy fostering way.

The following represents a brief description of what one college expects of their RAs:

RAs are expected to initiate contact with students on the floor within the first two weeks of classes to begin building rapport. Names of residents should be known by the end of the second week. As the year continues, try to make it a point to see each student at least three times a week so as to learn and know more about them than their names. While contact time with residents may vary by section or floor, this is to be a guideline for use in establishing and gaining knowledge of residents, and to begin the development of community. RAs are expected to promote community within their sections by establishing guidelines, limits, and expectations for cooperative living among residents.

Depending upon which college you attend, the job duties may be different but the description above gives you an idea of what may be expected of you if you decide to become an RA.

The Benefits of Being a Resident Adviser

Colleges and Universities understand the importance of RAs on their campus, so they are usually very quick to treat them fairly when it comes to compensation and benefits.

The following highlights some of the more common benefits associated with being an RA:

• Free Room – That’s right! Just about every RA program in the nation provides a free room for their Resident Advisers. My experience is that the RA rooms tend to be the larger ones and they also get to have a room all to themselves (which is an amazing luxury all to itself in residence halls!).
• Monthly Wage – Since an RA’s schedule can vary and is depicted by unscheduled events, it is hard to put an hourly rate on their pay. So, most colleges will just give them a monthly stipend to help supplement the free room benefit.
• Bookstore Vouchers – Everybody likes free books! It is not uncommon for some colleges to provide a free bookstore voucher to RAs since this is a non-taxable way they can show appreciation.
• Priority Registration – RAs have successfully lobbied  for this benefit on a number of campuses. Basically, since they are dedicating all their non-academic time to their position, they get benefit of having first pick of their favorite courses.
• Free Meal Plans – I don’t see this as often but some schools will provide this incentive for returning upper-class RAs. This benefit usually helps to offset the fact that they will be spending another year in the residence halls even though they qualify to move off campus.

The Downside of Being a Resident Adviser

I wish I could say that being a Resident Adviser is the easiest job on campus and that you will never be confronted with “issues”.  The truth of the matter is that RA positions definitely come with their fair share of challenges and I personally think they could be one of the toughest work study jobs on campus.

The following are examples of why some people just don’t like being an RA:

• No Time For Yourself – If you are in your room or wandering around your floor, you are approachable as an RA since technically you are always “on duty”.
• Late Hour Commotion – Not so surprising, most events that require an RA to get involved usually happen in the middle of the night.
• Can’t We All Just Get Along? – Unfortunately, living in close quarters with a group of diverse people can sometimes bring out the worst of the worst when it comes to how students treat each other. Depending on the floor you are assigned to, solving roommate issues may become a full time job.
• Who is Your Sounding Board? – Students always turns to the RA for a compassionate ear but who is the RA’s sounding board? If you become an RA make sure you quickly identify someone that you can bounce “issues” off of, whether it be a fellow RA, someone from Residential Life, or good old mom and dad.
• Rules Are For Everyone – You have to enforce the rules for everyone… including your friends. There is no way around it. That is just how it has to be if you are going to survive as an effective RA.

In Summary

RAs are the champions on campuses across the nation. They are the unsung heroes that sometimes get overlooked or under appreciated. However, if you are looking for a great way to reduce the amount of money you have to spend on your college education and you want to have an awesome resume builder experience, you should definitely consider becoming an RA. It may make you tough as nails but that may benefit you in your future career more than you know! 😉

The folks that find themselves “stuck” in the middle class designation have been experiencing all the benefits (or lack there of) afforded to that socioeconomic population. Lower middle class families usually don’t make a lot of money but somehow they always manage to earn just enough to keep them from qualifying for any financial programs that provide benefit to them in multiple sectors (education, medical/health, home mortgage subsidy programs, etc…).  Even though lower middle class status sure beats poverty, it has its inherent challenges and these families still face difficult financial decisions every day.

It Pays To Be Middle Class

Thanks to the generosity of Syracuse University alumni Howie and Louise Phanstiel, middle class students just found a reason ($20 million of them to be exact) to attend the New York based college. The university states that this is the second largest single gift that they have ever received and that the funds will be used to establish a scholarship fund (nicknamed “Project P”) for benefit of middle class students only. How amazing is that? In a time where the middle class are struggling to pick themselves back up from a stumbling economy and record high unemployment rates, this type of support goes a long way to help make a difference in the lives of many.

Syracuse states that the target group for this scholarship would be families that have a household income greater than $56,000 but less than $100,000. However they also indicated that they are still finalizing all the details. Wikipedia describes middle class on a number of different scales but household incomes between $40,000 and $95,000 seem to be the norm when depicting a middle class family situation. Obviously, other factors such as number of dependents and demographic region in which a family resides would factor into the calculations but I anticipate Syracuse to utilize the good old reliable EFC figure calculated from the FAFSA as their final model to identify a student’s eligibility for the scholarship. Time will tell, but for now Syracuse looks like a great option for middle class students.

A Little More About Syracuse

• School was founded in 1870
• Main campus is in New York but they also have satellite locations in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles
• Enrollment is just shy of 20,000 students
• Last year over two-thirds of students received institutional aid to the sum of $160 million dollars
• The faculty student ratio is 1:15
• The 2010-2011 cost of attendance is $51,960 (includes tuition, room, board, books, and misc fees)
• Additional information can be found here: http://syr.edu/

In my college days, I frequented a couple campus parties every now and again. Surprisingly, many of these parties were actually a way for entrepreneurial college kids to make some extra cash.  What they would do is buy a couple kegs of beer, roll out the good stuff first (Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob,etc…) and then when that keg was empty they would switch it out for the cheap stuff (Milwaukee’s Best, Natural Light, or Busch). The money making aspect came into play because they would sell specialized cups for $5 each and basically that cup gave you free access to as much beer as you could drink or until the kegs ran dry. In my experience, the cups were plentiful in supply but the beer – not so much.

Since those days, most colleges have implemented some sort of keg ban on their campuses. The purpose of this rule is not meant to squelch the entrepreneurial spirit of students. It is driven by a more practical initiative to curb binge drinking.

Why You Shouldn’t Have a Keg Party on Campus – The $86,000 Question!

Apparently, a few students from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) decided to throw a keg party last month that got a little out of hand. Travis Ludy, Mitchell Klatt, and Kevin Joseph Tracy purchased a couple kegs and invited over a 100 of their “best friends” to their apartment for a celebratory party – the Badgers football team pulled a win!

The police showed up later that evening to shut down the party but their attempts were unsuccessful because the party goers immediately locked all the doors and windows, turned the music and lights off and decided to play possum – try to be as still and quiet as possible until the police leave.  Their efforts did not work and the persistent officers finally made access into the house when one of the attendees decided to “make a break for it”.

Needless to say, the three gentlemen responsible for the party started racking up fines and citations from the city. After everything was totaled, they had over 130 citations and the fines were $86,000 (or $28,666 each). The charges they are subject to facing include providing alcohol to minors, encouraging underage drinking and dispensing beer without a license

“Depending on circumstances such as prior records and cooperative attitudes, the city may require payment of less than half of a fine, with the proviso that the full penalty will come due if there’s any future misbehavior”, Assistant City Attorney Marci Paulsen said.

Even if the fines are reduced by half, these students are still looking at a large financial investment in their college experience. Do you think these fees would qualify to be paid out of a 529 college savings account? 😉

I can tell you that not very many people get excited about seeing the latest and greatest paper FAFSA form being released. However, for those of you that are chomping at the bit to get a sneak peek of the 2011-2012 Free Application For Federal Student Aid, I am happy to satisfy your craving. Even though this form is the draft version, it will be very similar to the final version that applicants will be able to use starting January 1st, 2011.

My hope is that everyone quickly passes over this paper option to filing the FAFSA and goes straight to www.FAFSA.ed.gov to submit the electronic version. Besides being more efficient, the electronic version now has all the cool bells and whistles like skip-logic questioning and IRS/Department of Ed linking.

However, if you still like good old paper FAFSA forms, you can click this link to view a PDF of the 2011-2012 FAFSA application (10 page draft). When you complete the final version, you need to make sure that you use a black pen (easier to scan), print all your letters clearly and make sure they are capitalized, leave an empty box between words, and round your dollar figures to the nearest dollar (no cents allowed). If you encounter problems or have a question that is stumping you, you can always call the FAFSA Help Department at 1-800-433-3243 (4-FED-AID).

Hope this information is helpful…

UPDATE (01/03/2011)

The 2011-2012 paper FAFSA is now available for download or you can complete it online. Click Here to learn more…

Ok.. so Hallmark is probably not creating cards for this momentous occasion but financial aid folks across the nation and their prospective students are sure to enjoy a day filled with more financial aid information than they can ever hope for.

College Week Live is presenting Federal Student Aid Day in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid. The cascade of events begin today at noon and will end at 6pm (eastern standard time). The day will be full of live video presentations dissecting anything and everything you ever wanted to know about financial aid.

Here is an agenda for some of the key presentations:

• 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST “If I Knew Then, What I Know Now: The Inside Scoop About the College Experience”
• 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST “Federal Financial Aid 101”
• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST “FAFSA 101: Learn the Ins and Outs of Applying for Financial Aid”

If the presentations don’t satisfy your financial aid cravings, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and get answers directly from the Office of Federal Student Aid via text message and phone.

If you think you are interested in participating, you can register for free by following this link.

Happy Federal Student Aid Day!