{"id":62,"date":"2014-07-16T18:52:05","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T23:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/?p=62"},"modified":"2015-08-10T15:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T20:02:34","slug":"grants-scholarships-tuitionreimbursement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/grants-scholarships-tuitionreimbursement\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Fund Your Education\u2026for Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many ways to pay for your degree, but the most desirable are those that come at no cost to you, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/tuition-financial-aid\/scholarships-grants\/\">grants, scholarships, and other types of financial aid<\/a>. Here are four free avenues that can help take a chunk out of your total cost for education\u2014tuition, room and board, fees, books, supplies, equipment, dependent child care expenses, transportation, and even rental or purchase of a personal computer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>First Things First: FAFSA<\/h4>\n<p>Before anything else, fill out your FAFSA, or Free Application for Student Aid. It\u2019s easy. It\u2019s online. It\u2019s quick. One of the things your FAFSA determines is how much federal assistance you\u2019ll receive. Keep in mind, no matter what amount of money you\u2019re eligible for, you can still pursue non-government funds.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>1. Grants<\/h4>\n<p>Grants are usually distributed based on financial need. Federal grants are the most well-known, given out by the U.S. Department of Education to students attending four-year colleges or universities, community colleges, and career schools. There are a few different types of federal grants.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/types\/grants-scholarships\/pell\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Pell Grants <\/a>are usually awarded to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor&#8217;s or a professional degree.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/types\/grants-scholarships\/fseog\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) <\/a>are administered directly by the financial aid office at most schools. You\u2019ll often hear them called \u201ccampus-based\u201d grants.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/types\/grants-scholarships\/teach\" target=\"_blank\">Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grants <\/a>are different from other federal student grants in that they require you to take specific classes in order to get the grant. You\u2019ll be required to do a certain kind of job to keep the grant from turning into a loan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>School-specific grants are also available and given out by each individual institution.\u00a0 <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>2. Scholarships<\/h4>\n<p>Just like grants, <a href=\"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/comprehensive-guide-to-college-scholarships\/\">scholarships <\/a>don\u2019t have to be paid back. They are often awarded based on merit and typically distributed based on the standard academic year. They\u2019re also usually highly competitive and have a lengthy application process, which means it\u2019s important to get started at least 6 to 9 months before the funds are needed.<\/p>\n<p>Look for scholarships offered by the field you\u2019re hoping to enter. Engineers, teachers, nurses, and a variety of other industries have a number of scholarship opportunities for students. Some, but not all, offer help with your tuition in exchange for working in their particular industry after you graduate.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, search for scholarships that celebrate your particular attributes or hobbies. Do you play golf? Are you left-handed? You might be surprised to learn there are scholarships for both skills. One of the best sites to research scholarships of all kinds is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.petersons.com\/college-search\/scholarship-search.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Peterson\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>School<\/em><em>-specific scholarships are usually available and given out by each institution. Capella offers several scholarships to currently enrolled students in a variety of programs. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/tuition-financial-aid\/scholarships-grants\/scholarships\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Learn more about Capella scholarships<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>3. Federal Loan Repayment Options<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Under certain circumstances, you may be eligible to have your <a href=\"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/how-student-loans-function\/\">loans <\/a>discharged (i.e. either canceled or sizably reduced). For example, if you plan on teaching math, science or special education at elementary or secondary schools deemed low income by the government, you may be forgiven up to $17,500 in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scholarships.com\/financial-aid\/student-loans\/stafford-loans\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stafford Loans<\/a>. Also, certain public service professions are eligible for a discharge through the Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Employees program (<a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/PORTALSWebApp\/students\/english\/PSF.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">PSLF<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>4. Tuition Reimbursement<\/h4>\n<p>Many employers will refund you the cost of your tuition if you&#8217;re studying a work-related subject. Tuition reimbursement, also called tuition assistance, can cover as little as one or two courses, or can cover up to the entire cost of your education. Check with your employer\u2019s human resources department to see if they offer a program and if you\u2019re eligible.<\/p>\n<p>Other sources of information for grants and scholarships:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/careerinfonet.org\/scholarshipsearch\/ScholarshipCategory.asp?searchtype=category&amp;nodeid=22\" target=\"_blank\">FREE scholarship search tool<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/node\/4\/#aid-from-the-federal-government\" target=\"_blank\">Federal agencies<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Your\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ed.gov\/sgt\" target=\"_blank\">state\u2019s grant agency<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Foundations, religious and community organizations, local businesses, and civic groups<\/li>\n<li>Organizations (including professional associations) related to your field of interest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>One Last Word of Caution<\/h4>\n<p>If a scholarship sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Never provide your social security number or financial information unless it\u2019s for a federal or state grant.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Want even more ideas about how to save money on your degree program? Consider these <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.capella.edu\/tuition-financial-aid\/scholarships-grants\/\"><em>12 Ways to Save<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grants, scholarships, federal loan repayment, tuition reimbursement. Learn more about these four ways to fund your education for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2667,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/2667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}