Juggling a Degree and Debt: 6 Tips to Make It Work

College is a great cognitive adventure, where you learn about the intricate world around you and build a giant wall of debt in the process. And that debt can become like a scary monster, lurking in the shadows of your college experience.

Avoiding a future of paying off college debt can seem challenging, but with the right guidance, you can turn that foreboding monster into nothing more than a stepping stone to a future of great achievement. Here are some tips for getting through college with a manageable amount of debt.

Choose Your College Wisely

Brochures and websites can hypnotize you with pictures of students studying on an impossibly green lawn or kicking around a soccer ball in the quad, but beware of this distraction. There will be places to stage your brochure-worthy photo on all of the campuses.

Your college choice should be based on your future career goals and the cost of attendance, particularly the latter. Tuition and fees can make a huge difference in debt, and choosing a college with a more manageable cost of attendance can really save you in the future.

Get Funding for College

When you have a chosen a school that seems to fit the bill, do not merely glance over the financial aid portion of the application. Getting funded is the quickest way to minimize student debt. Understanding and accurately portraying your financial position can be the difference between a fellowship and a loan, the second of which you must repay after your college experience is over.

Funding college can be a challenge.  Flickr LendingMemo

Be sure to contact a financial officer at the school for application help, and do not forget to inquire about specialized grants, scholarships, and funded positions offered by the school. These financial advisors are there to help you, so do not be afraid to use them. Minimizing your loans with funding on the forefront will help you manage your debt once college is over.

Work the Debt Away

Since debt cannot be studied or partied away (bummer), you can get ahead of your loan payments by working through college. While serving tables or working in retail may fit your schedule, these jobs should come second to those that can build your resume. Look for paid internships in your field, apply for teaching and research assistantships within your department, and consult your college career center for part-time and temporary jobs.

Maximize Your Savings

Making the money is only one step to the process. Finding ways to save that money is the key. Open a savings account and put a percentage of your earnings into it each month. By the time you are walking across the graduation stage, you will have a nice cushion of money to begin paying off your debts. Maximizing these savings by setting a strict budget and minimizing your bills will also increase your debt fighting arsenal.

Choose a Lucrative Career in Your Field

While sites will tell you jobs in public relations, accounting, and computer science are the best career paths based on a variety of indicators, do not let your major field decision be based solely on the money. Do your homework. Find a lucrative career path within your major to maximize both earnings and post-graduation contentment. This tip will help you maximize your earnings and attack debt in a timely manner.

Give Online Classes a Chance

While some majors are better suited to in-classroom learning, online classes can be a viable option for more straight-forward career paths. Think back to when you were a kid, what did you want to be? A nurse? A princess? A cop? There are online classes for these career paths (well, maybe not for being a princess) that can lead to greater savings when completing the requirements of your degree and quick job opportunities upon graduation.

Being mindful of your finances in college can pay off in the long run. If you take these tips to heart, you will be well on your way to a debt-free future, where you can warmly reminisce about your college experience, without being harshly reminded by student loan bills.

By: Bill Bilse

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7 tricks to maximize your chance of winning a scholarship

Scholarship money, a great desire of every student, is the coveted offer that helps students in paying hefty college tuition fee. There are hundreds of student scholarship programs offered each year to students from middle school to freshly enrolled for colleges and universities. It is an interesting fact that almost every student thinks that he will never win the scholarship. Also, there are many students who never won despite applying multiple times.

Why do some students easily get scholarships, whereas others do not despite applying several times? The difference is HOW they apply. Even a high school valedictorian can’t win a scholarship, if he is a single day late. Your scholarship application that is superb in all ways is more likely to win scholarship money. Today, we will talk about some of the ways to successfully win scholarship money:

Always be the first for best chances of winning:

Most of the students apply for scholarships in spring of the final year of their high school. As these students are already accepted at college, they have pressure from their parents to find some way to pay their college tuition fee. Contrary, scholarships with deadlines by fall or early winter are applied by less number of students. You should know the most common times of scholarship openings and apply for all without missing their deadlines.

Set your own deadline for each scholarship:

There are so many activities, which keep students busy, like sports, extra-curricular or volunteering activities, job, and classes; so, whenever you find any scholarship, set your own deadline at least a week before the actual scholarship deadline.  By doing this, you make it sure that no scholarship is missed and you have enough good time to include all required documents without any hassle of last-minute submissions.

Your first Impression must give you an edge:

Most of us have experienced opening an envelope with excessive use of tape on it, over-stuffed and smudged due to leaky pen. Did you ever like it? If you use a proper-size envelope, nicely close it and personally hand-over to post office, you will have an edge over many other applicants, who have sealed and dispatched in a poor way.

Get an appropriate email address:

Sweatheart@xyz.com might be a nice email address for you, but a mature and professional scholarship judge will not like it. JohnJones@xyz.com represents a serious applicant and judges will become more familiar with your name by reading it once again and makes you a memorable person for them.

Be positive on social media:

Just like an email address, your social media contacts and postings also matter. Judges can view your posts and sharings. If you have tweeted about boring experience at school or disliked any teacher etc, and still have high expectations of winning the scholarship, it will never happen. Social media sharings and posts reflect the personality of students. They should always share about their objectives, success stories, strengths, talents, achievements and big dreams.

Search for Local scholarships:

Generally, local scholarships get less competition, so you have higher chances of winning there. Keep an eye on all local scholarships and make yourself eligible for them, if they have any specific criteria. Suppose, your local club has started a scholarship competition and there is nobody member from your family. Call at home and tell them that you are excited and eager about this scholarship for your college; they’ll surely support you. You must not miss any local scholarship and create a situation to avail it. Don’t settle for just local scholarship programs. Go for all scholarships offered online, such as this one from takelessons, which is offering up to $5,000 to students who have a passion for academia, music or arts. You can also search online for large company organizations, as many of them offer great scholarships online.

Label each page of your application:

Each page of your application must have a label on it having your name, address, contact number and any other essential info. As there are hundreds of applications under-consideration, sometimes papers get separated and it is not possible to find the actual applicant; so judges get a valid reason to place it in a rejected pile.

Good luck with your college career and hopefully the advice will help you win a fantastic scholarship!

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Chance to Win a Real $50,000 College Scholarship

Did your parents meet on Match.com? Are you a Match couple with a child (or step child) between the ages of 13-20? If you answered yes to any of these questions you’ll want to read on to find out how the #1 dating site may save you $50,000 on college tuition!

More than 1 million babies have been ‘made” by Match connections since their launch and many of Match.com's earliest couples — who met nearly 20 years ago on this first-ever online dating site — now have children graduating high school.

To celebrate the small role the company has played in their lives, Match just launched an annual scholarship program called MatchMade, which will award $50,000 in college tuition to a student and even the parents of the winner get a prize: $5,000 for their own MatchMade getaway!

Need some inspiration to enter? Check out what happened when Match asked some MatchMade kids about life and love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JoGP15fIDQ

To enter the scholarship contest, 13 to 20 year old students can submit a creative 1-2 minute video at www.MatchMade.com explaining how their parents met on the site. Submissions will be accepted through June 30, 2014.

Throughout July, Match will narrow down the applicants. In August they will post their 10 finalists for the public to vote on by sharing their favorite MatchMade video submissions across their social networks.

On September 1^st, the video with the highest number of shares will win the scholarship!

For more details, visit www.MatchMade.com and enter today! And if you do enter, don’t forget to share your video across your social media networks using the #MatchMade hashtag.

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Different Jobs in Banking and Finance Industries At A Glance

Despite heavy layoffs in 2008 and 2009, the banking sector has once again emerged among the fastest growing industries to offer better career options. This particular industry provides both lucrative and rewarding career opportunity to aspirants. According to an article published in Business Standard, the banking sector may come up with up to 20  fresh jobs in the next 5-10 years. This is because of issuance of new licenses and efforts being made by Reserve Bank of India and government. By this significant approach, the banking sector will be among the top job creators in 2014.

The Banking and finance industries looks for individuals who can sell and have operational, managerial and IT skills. Since a plenty of positions are available in banks and finance, a career is obviously varied and diverse. However, before deciding to work in this field, it needs to take a step back and consider which type of position would be suitable for you. Here is a list of some top positions in bank and finance with a brief highlight about them. Keep going ahead with this blog and determine which position you want to achieve.

Bank Teller

You can see bank tellers among the first people when you enter a bank. Bank Tellers offer excellent client service. They help resolve clients' problems by identifying referral opportunities for new products and services based on the customer’s financial goals. Apart from processing customer

Banking Jobs that Pay High Salaries Flickr: 401(k) 2012

transactions (like loan payments, savings deposits and all), they explain clients about bank products like loans and certificates of deposit to customers. They also resolve account service issues and respond to clients quarries promptly and effectively.

For a bank teller, you need to have a strong customer service skill, excellent verbal and written communication skills, analytical and problem solving skills, basic computer skills, and much more.

Financial Analyst

Financial analyst is one of the foundation stones of a bank. A bank depends to the great extent upon financial analysts for their expertise and guidance on investments, borrowing and other financial decisions. A financial analyst plays a major role. He tracks financial status by keeping watch on variances of plans, determining financial status by analyzing and comparing plans and forecasts with actual results. They also contribute to improving financial status by analyzing results and variances; recommending actions, identifying trends; reconciling transactions by comparing and correcting data. Furthermore, a financial analyst increases productivity by developing automated applications; eliminating duplications; coordinating information requirements. He or she provides information to management by assembling and summarizing data; preparing reports; making presentations of findings, analyzes, and recommendations.

To work as a financial analyst, you need to have a bachelor's degree, often in accounting, business administration, statistics or finance.

Loan Officers

Employers generally recruit loan officers who also play a vital role and contribute for the growth of an organization. The role of a loan officer includes assisting individuals and firms in applying for loans, assessing individuals' creditworthiness and helps them determine the most appropriate type of loan for customer's needs. Moreover, a loan officer also evaluates loan applications by confirming credit worthiness, rejects applications by informing applicants of additional requirements, approves loans by issuing checks or forwarding applications to loan committee, helps customers by giving them complete information about interest and all.

If you want to apply for a loan officer, you need to have a degree in finance, economics or a related field. You can apply for jobs in banks and financial institutions or loan lending firms.

Conclusion

Aforesaid is a list of top positions that are offered in bank and finance industry. If you want to apply for them, find a professional school which provides courses relevant to these positions.

Author - Sumit Dawas is a leading content strategist for www.learnwithflip.com, a largest e- training and certification offering in  Banking and finance in India.

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10 Sure-Fire Ways You Can Secure a Charming Summer Internship!

Summer internships are the best resource for students to make the most of their vacations and use their time polishing their skills. Moreover, they get an opportunity to gain real life experiences of a professional working environment and enrich themselves as a student of their particular field. In other words, summer internships also offer students a chance to gain practical knowledge of their field. In this way, students are able to gain professional skills and experience.

Following are some effective ways you can find a perfect summer internship without any hassle.

1.     Set your Goals

Prior to applying for an internship, you need to identify your preferences. Set your priorities and then establish the goals that you want to accomplish from an internship program. Determine your interests, objectives, needs and wants that could help you identify the type of internship that you should consider.

2.     Network With the Right People

Networking is an important aspect when you are searching an internship opportunity. It exposes you to the right people who may come handy in your search for an internship program. Make contacts with everyone you know in your social sphere. Inform them about the type of internship that you are looking for. Make sure that they have your contact details so that they can easily get in touch with you when an opportunity is available.

Networking for internships can land you a job!  Flickr COD Newsroom

3.     Keep In Touch With Your College

It is important to stay updated about the current internship programs that your college is offering. Visit your professor or the concerned faculty of your college to get the necessary information. Check out their online resources and find the requisites for an internship.

4.     Always Start Early

Graduates often find themselves entangled in their assignments, such as dissertation writing or editing. Consequently, they tend to delay their application for internship. Remember, starting early will get you ahead in front of others and you will be able to secure a stronger position than others. Plus, you need time to organize all your papers and do the necessary preparations. Also, never forget to research the company and get crucial details before sending your application. Making the preparations early will make you mentally prepared for an interview. As you will be among the first ones in the row, you will have higher chances of getting an internship.

5.     Develop An Impressive Resume

A resume is an influential factor in your internship. Just like a job, a resume is your tool to showcase your skills or abilities for an internship. Describe your educational background and highlight the skills that make you a perfect candidate. Showcase the marks in your core subjects or mention any certificates that emphasize your distinct expertise in your respective field.

6.     Prepare For the Interview

An internship interview is very much like a job interview. The hiring manager will gauge the authenticity of information in your resume based on your performance in the interview. Therefore, it is important that you prepare your best and dress up according to the code of conduct of the company. Do a mock interview a night before the ‘D’ day. If necessary, get a friend to help you with the practice sessions.

7.     Stand Out Among The Crowd

Organizations are more interested in students who are unique and different. Bring to light the important aspects of your personality that define you. Mention the things, such as GPA, special characteristics and experiences, which can show you as a deserving candidate for the internship. With a distinct application, you will be able to capture the attention of the interviewer and so he will prefer you over other candidates.

8.     Follow Up With The Interviewer

Always follow up with the interviewer once the interview is over. Send a thank-you note to express your gratitude for the chance. This will show your interest in the internship and consequently the interviewer will feel a strong sense of connection with you.

9.     Broaden Your Research

Make your search for internship wider to various industries. Rather than focusing on a single organization, you should consider different other organizations that can utilize your skills and talent in the best possible manner. Use all your channels within your trade and grab every opportunity that matches your academic profile.

10.  Check The Viability Of Your Internship

After all the things have finalized, you must evaluate the success chances of your internship. You can do it by answering the following important questions:

·      Will this be financially reasonable for me?

·      Will I be able to manage my studies with this additional work?

·      How much time will I be consuming while doing this work?

About the Author:

A keen photography and a fervent writer, Martin Berk prefers to spend his time pumping up his knowledge through reading whatever he gets his hands on. He works as a specialist/advisor for a renowned company. He mostly spends his leisure hours polishing his photography skills or surfing Google+ |Facebook.

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