A Guide to Student Grants and Scholarships

 by: John Mussi

Colleges and universities can be expensive… sometimes getting accepted into the school of your choice can be the easy part of the educational journey of the new student. It isn't always easy to find the money that you need to pay for your education, but there are ways to make paying for school much easier. Two of the more common ways to ease the cost of continuing education are student grants and scholarships, both of which provide certain amounts of money that can be applied toward the cost of further education without the need to repay them.

Student grants and scholarships aren't always easy to find or to win, but the extra time taken in researching and applying for them is well worth it if you are awarded any of those that you apply for.

Defining Grants and Scholarships

The first thing that you need to know when looking for student grants and scholarships is exactly what the difference between grants and scholarships is. Both grants and scholarships are funds that are given to students based upon academic performance, financial need, or other reasons, and do not require the student to pay them back after graduation unlike student loans.

The major difference in grants and scholarships are their origins and the ways in which they are used. Grants are usually given by government offices and non-profit organizations and can generally be used to cover a variety of different expenses. Scholarships, on the other hand, are usually created by businesses or private individuals and are used to cover specific costs such as tuition or dormitory costs.

Both grants and scholarships must be applied for, and are generally considered to be highly competitive since there's only so much grant or scholarship money to go around each semester or each year.

Finding Grants and Scholarships
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A Guide to Student Grants and Scholarships
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About The Author John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

Additional Resources

category - Education Grants

Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program revolves around improving then country's information infrastructure through the utilization of funding projects that are designed to address the education and training needs of certain professionals who help build, maintain and provide the public with immediate access to some of the world's vast and wide-ranging information systems and resources.

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SMART Grants - Educational Grants for the Student of Math, Science and Languages
National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grants assist those undergraduate postsecondary students that major in foreign languages or certain designated technical fields. Financial grant assistance is provided on need-basis to help these students meet their educational expenses.

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Higher Education Challenge Grants Program
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture has recently constituted the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program in an attempt to boost and enhance the quality of formal, postsecondary-level agricultural sciences education.

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Early-Grade Reading Improvement Interventions Program
In line with this mission, the USAID has developed the Early-Grade Reading Improvement Interventions Program wherein they seek to solicit interventions that would improve the reading achievements in the early grades in Latin America and in the Caribbean region.

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