There are a few catches, of course. Nobody should sign up for anything that sounds
suspiciously good without doing a little homework. And most of the grants and rebates are
comparatively modest: The typical family might reap a few hundred dollars. Few parents
will get enough free cash to make up for the average 20-plus percent decline in 529 college
savings plans over the past year. (Tax-protected education savings accounts are called 529s
after the part of the Internal Revenue Service code that created them.)
Still, those who collect the grants when their children are young or who are diligent about
maximizing rebates could generate several extra thousand dollars.
No wonder those handing out the grants say interest is booming. More than half a million
people have signed up for at least one of the rebate or grant programs since the beginning
of the year. "You may as well get free money," says Joseph Hurley, founder of
savingforcollege.com, who says his credit card and shopping rebates have added thousands
of dollars to his family's 529.
There are six sources of free cash for college savings:
States: In at least nine states, government agencies or charities offer grants for college
savings to local residents. Maine, for example, in 2009 started handing out $500 to babies
born in the state for whom an adult opens a Maine 529. In states such as Arkansas,
Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Utah, the matching grants go only to
low- and middle-income families. Louisiana, New Jersey, and a few other states offer
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different kinds of grants or scholarship programs to encourage savers.
The catches: Each state has its own deadlines and red tape. Some require parents to fill out
long forms early each year, for example. Utah's grants are so new and limited that only 19
families had qualified in the first three months of the program, which started January 1.
And the Utah Educational Savings Plan, which awards the money, will stop accepting
applications for the year on May 29.
Employers: In 2008, Unum started giving new parents grants of $700. The catches:
Parents have to open a 529 savings account before the baby's first birthday, and the bonus
is taxable.
Credit cards: Fidelity offers an American Express card that will rebate 2 percent of all
purchases to a Fidelity 529. Upromise just launched a Mastercard that will send rebate
checks or funnel rebates to a Upromise 529 account or to reduce Sallie Mae educational
loans. The new card will rebate at least 1 percent on all purchases, 10 percent on groceries
at selected stores, and—if consumers choose—additional rebates on certain gasoline or
restaurant purchases. Babymint, Futuretrust, and FreshmanFund offer credit cards that
rebate at least 1 percent to any 529 account. The catches: Spenders who carry balances or
pay bills late will most likely pay more in interest and fees than they will save for college.
Travis Plunkett, spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America, notes that credit card
companies are not charities; accordingly, they are probably making more money from their
borrowers than they are giving back.
Websites: Babymint, Littlegrad, Futuretrust, Upromise, and other rebate websites will
send cash back to shoppers who click through their sites to partner retailers. The catches:
Some of the websites make you jump through a few hoops to collect your cash.
Colleges: Several hundred colleges are offering matching grants for parents who sock
away college savings. A marketing company, Sage Scholars Inc., has persuaded 230 private
colleges to guarantee "Tuition Rewards" scholarships to students from families who invest
or shop with Sage's business partners. And 274 private college members of the prepaid
Independent 529 plan give parents at least a half-percentage-point discount if they buy
tuition for a youngster at today's cost. Dickinson College upped the discount ante last year,
adding an extra 4 percent to its inflation discount. That means a family with a 10-year-old
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colleges charging to much for tuition
at national college in roanoke va we buy books with our loans
that we never use in the class like there way of getting fast cash
for classes the computer book was price by the school at 146
dollars well I went and found the same book for 25 dollars at a
who puts about $29,000 in the plan today will have paid a year's tuition in 2017, even
though a year's tuition in 2009 is nearly $40,000 and, at the current rate of inflation, will
probably reach $60,000 in eight years.
The catches: Plenty. Both the Independent 529 and Sage Scholars networks of colleges are
limited to a few hundred comparatively expensive private colleges. There's no guarantee
members' children will apply to or be admitted to the member schools. Both programs
require parents to sign up several years before they tap their money. And both cover only
tuition, not room, board, books, or any other college-related expenses. Sage members build
up Tuition Rewards only by investing or shopping with Sage partners, some of whom
charge more for their products and services than competitors not affiliated with the firm.
In addition, parents of students who don't attend a member school don't get a penny of the
promised scholarships back. Sage rules allow colleges to count "rewards," which average
about $1,700 a year, against scholarships they were going to give the student anyway, so
students may not really get any extra money. If a student doesn't end up attending a
member of the Independent 529 network, parents who withdraw their money can receive
no more than 2 percent more than they contributed. (But they are also limited to 2 percent
less than they contributed, which makes the prepaid plan comparatively attractive right
now, when the stock market is weak.)
Relatives and friends: Freshmanfund.com and Ugift offer electronic tools to make it
easier to ask relatives and friends to donate to your college savings account in lieu of, say, a
birthday or graduation gift. The catches: While Freshmanfund will funnel gifts to any 529,
Ugift will work only with Upromise 529s. Some relatives and friends might find requests
for donations to be, well, tacky. And, let's face it, you might not have many wealthy
relatives. Ugift says that half of the birthday or other event donation requests result in total
donations of no more than $100.
Tags: financial aid | tuition | paying for college | scholarships | 529 college savings plan
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Foreign assistance
We can all feel compassion for those less fortunate than us and
by far most would agree that the standard of living in the US is
superior to most other countries, however if you consider that
statistically many other countries supersede us in education not
only on secondary but collegiate as well. The number of
advanced placement children in India or China alone is larger
than our number of students as a whole not to mention Japan
and other countries that are far more serious about their
dedication to studies and higher learning. We see how much
technical work has been farmed out overseas in the last decade.
I find that there are so many government subsidies and grants
for foreign students while so many other students are caught in
the quagmire that their parents make too much money to
qualify for student grants or government assistance, yet they
don’t make quite enough to afford the ever rising increases to
college tuition. The closest thing to real assistance is student
loans that rope you into an albatross you will drag with you for
as many years as a home mortgage and pay nearly as much. In
the very near future we will be education poor with a workforce
that has lost the cutting edge of technology. We will no longer
be the innovators of the future, but the workhorses of provided
services. Instead of paying for foreign students to come to our
Universities and learn, let us invest more into our own
children. Where are the tax breaks for those that choose to
place their children into private schools or advanced placement
learning? Where are the government subsidies to lower the cost
of college education for those that want to attend private
universities. Too many State Universities are over populated
already without making them the only subsidized schools
available. I am not talking about for those below poverty level;
we know there are programs for those, but those that are
middle class income that would have to second mortgage their
home to place their kids through college. We are a very
compassionate country and very quick to give help to those
m.l of VA
May 26, 2009 16:52:50 PM
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Be Smart
Be smart about your kids schooling, let them decide where they
want to apply to school. Talk to them about the high cost of
schooling and get educated about the schooling process. The
most cost effective option is to send them to a community
college which is half the cost of a major 4 year universtiy. You
can let them pick the school they wish to end up at and meet
with an advisor there and tell them you wish to transfer there
after completing your general education courses. Doing this
will cut your schooling cost in half easily, you can transfer all
the credits to your 4 year school and avoid the high cost of
there credit hours. This is what I did and I found that the small
class size of a community college offers more one on one time
with the professor which in turns allows for a higher learning
curve for the students. You have to take ridiculous amounts of
unneeded credits in your gen. eds. and this will considerably
cut costs. This will also cut your room and board off for the first
year or two which depending on school interested in could add
up to a savings of more then 6 to 10 thousand dollars that you
would have to pay (not including your schooling cost). You also
will want your child to take the ACT or SAT (which ever the
university requires) early, start with your child taking it his/her
junior year early on and send the results with your child to a
place like sylvian learning center to help your child focus on
area's that he/she needs improvement. This can help because
the higher the score the more grants/scholarship money they
can recieve so this will help with very little money invested.
There are tons of little lessons that everyone learns along the
way, don't buy the books from the campus itself, check local
shops that buy used books, they have up to date lists of the
books needed for next semesters classes that are alot cheaper
than the big universtiy's prices. In all you want the best for your
children, do what you feel would benifite them in the long run
but be smart about desisions that are very expensive and talk to
them about these pricey name tags and reason with them that
anonymous of TX