Paul Mannet

Click To A List Of Schools Specializing In Online Degrees

With economic times so tough, many students are looking at online degrees as a way to save money. But if you want to absolutely maximize your savings and still get a high quality degree online, it’s important to cover all your bases. Here’s an overview of money saving opportunities in getting your college degree through elearning:

Basic savings:
• No college dorm fees. Not having to pay to live on a campus is probably the single greatest money saver about studying online. It’s one of the main reasons so many students are pursuing online degrees today. At a private school, dorm expenses can easily surpass $20,000. per year, while even state schools in large cities often charge more than $12,000. a year.
• Auto costs. If you had planned to commute to college, elearning eliminates the need to drive to and from school. That means zero gas costs, no wear on your car and a whole lot less chance that you’ll have a car accident and the rise in insurance costs that can result from it.
• Child care expenses. If you are a parent, attending a traditional school can involve a lot of babysitting expenses. Taking an online program can eliminate those costs, though it will require some discipline to get the work done with your child or children in the house.
• Clothes. No need to dress up to attend an online course, obviously.
• Parking fees. A parking pass can cost up to $500. per year at some colleges. No need for one if you’re in an online degree program.
• Less eating out. College students often pay a big fee for a college meal plan, and then add to the cost of it by eating out a great deal – because they don’t like the school’s cafeteria food. As an elearner, you can eat for a lot less, and probably end up a lot more healthy by avoiding the fast food that college students tend to favor.
• Online books and other library materials. Online colleges often subscribe to digital libraries that provide students access to textbooks, publications and other study materials over the internet at no cost to the student. In addition, many professors who teach online courses make a point of not requiring their students to buy any physical books. Depending on what kind of courses you are taking, that can save you anywhere from $300. to $1,000. per year.

Advantages For Smart Savers
• Accelerated degree programs. Though these are not only available to online learners, the big online colleges tend to offer more of them because they know their students are so cost-conscious. The details on these programs can vary – some are three-year bachelor degree programs, while others are 18 month RN to BSN nursing bachelor programs or five year bachelors plus masters programs (as opposed to the normal bachelor to masters track, which takes six years or more in most specialties). There are accelerated programs offered in just about every specialty. The key issue to remember here is that while a “fast track” approach can save you money and time on your online degree program, it will require a more intensive commitment of time and effort than a full-length program. But cutting a year off a four-year bachelor program, for example, can easily save you $10,000.
• Taking it slow. The flip side of taking an accelerated program is that online schools are generally very liberal about allowing you to take only a course or two per semester, or taking a break in your studies to take care of work or family responsibilities. That means that if things get busy at your job, you can stop studying for awhile and then return later. On-campus programs often require that students take a minimum number of credits per semester, and place restrictions or re-application requirements on students who stop for a few months and then want to return to their studies. On a personal level, an online degree program can allow you to attend your kids’ school plays or ballgames, or keep going on family vacations – as long as you bring your laptop with you.
• Tax benefits. Getting the greatest tax benefit from your degree program requires some work – but you never want to miss out on any deductions you have the right to take as a student. You may qualify for a hope and lifetime learning credit for some tuition and other non-tuition costs (books, insurance, athletics), a tuition deduction for up to $4,000. or you may be able to deduct most of interest you pay on a student loan. All together, these can add up to thousands in savings when it comes time to file your tax return. Learn more here at the Internal Revenue Service website. More on student loans for online degree programs here.
• Use a community college to your advantage. With many community colleges offering online degree programs, it can make sense to study a few years at one, and then transfer to another, better-known school to complete a bachelor’s degree program in particular. You may save up to 40% on the credits you get in your community college.
• Transfer as many credits as you can. If you have taken advanced (AP) high school classes, taken a few college courses in the past or even done work that you feel might qualify you for “life experience” credit, make sure to ask the admissions people at your online college if you can get credit toward you current degree program for it. This may require you to take one or more College-Level Examination Program or “CLEP” exams to prove that you have knowledge in particular areas, but if you can pass them you may be able to skip many introductory level classes and save money on your online degree by getting it finished a whole lot faster.
• Don’t fall behind on payments. Be careful about keeping up on your school or loan payments, and not going too deeply into debt on your credit cards. Getting behind on payment can trigger extra fees in all areas that can send the overall cost of your education through the roof.
• Shop around for the right school. Make sure to get information on several online degree programs. When you focus in on a few that seem right for you, make sure to ask lots of questions about the complete costs of the program you want to take. Online schools are often hesitant to show fees clearly on their websites because they don’t want to scare students away. Don’t sign up until you feel you’ve been given a complete picture of fees by your prospective school.

Click To A List Of Schools Specializing In Online Degrees

The government education loan programs that are less-well-known to many students than Pell or Stafford grants include:

The Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant

A need-based award to undergraduate students enrolled in their first bachelor’s degree program. Funds for FSEOG’s are relatively limited, and are generally reserved only for students with the greatest financial need. While you are required to fill out the FAFSA form for these, the grants, when available, are administered directly through your school’s financial aid office (they’re known as “campus-based” grants).

A FSEOG grant can be $100. up to $4,000. for one academic year, though you may get a bit more if you have certain costs for studying abroad that are in addition to your normal school costs. Like a Pell Grant, an FSEOG does not have to be repaid. But this grant is only available to you if your school participates by providing 25% of the funding.

National SMART Grant

If you’re already getting a Pell Grant, you may qualify for an extra $4,000. per year in aid through this grant. SMART stands for “Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent”. You can receive SMART grant money only during the third and fourth years of a four-year undergraduate degree program, and only if you maintain a grade average over 3.0. To qualify, you also have to be studying physical or computer science, engineering, math, technology or a major foreign language. Application is through FAFSA.

Federal Perkins Loan

A “needs based” loan program using a mix of government and private funds. You must be in school at least half time. If you are, the government will pay the interest on your loan until you complete school. Perkins loans are given at a fixed 5% interest rate, and as of the 2009-2010 school year, loan limits were $5,500. per year for undergrads and $8,000. per year for graduate students. Application is made through the FAFSA form. Your school will then inform you if you have received a grant.

Federal PLUS Loan

Federal Plus Loans are available not to you, but to your parents. They can borrow an amount up to the difference between your total cost of attendance and the amount of financial aid you are receiving from any program. The loans are backed by the government, but administered by private lenders, who offer a very wide variety of repayment options. This type of loan can be found at institutions ranging from your local bank up to Sallie Mae. Interest payments are tax deductible, but your parents need to have good credit to stand a real chance of getting this type of education loan. It takes some research, usually starting online, to start locating potential sources of funding of this type. The problem with many types of college financial aid is that if you or your parents fall over certain income and asset ownership thresholds, you don’t qualify. That puts tuition aid out of the reach of many people who are actually far from being wealthy. PLUS loans do not present this problem, as your parents can take one out regardless of how high their income is.

Federal Work Study Program (FWS)

Under this program, the federal government gives money to about 3,400. colleges and universities so they can hire students to work for them and earn extra money for school. If your college or university participates in FWS, they may be able to hire you to either work on campus or for a non-profit group in your community, for a maximum of 20 hours per week. This would obviously not apply to online degree students. Ask your financial aid office if your school participates in the FWS program.

Dropping Out Can Cost You In Loan Money

Most of the government (and private) loan programs require you to remain in school on at least a par-time basis. If you stop school completely for any reason, you may be required to start paying back both the principal and interest on an accelerated schedule. Again, it’s good to talk about this with your school’s financial aid office before accepting any loan money so you know what you’re getting into. You should also be aware that if you are truly unable to keep up with your loan payments, many states have “advocacy units” that can help you consolidate loans and deal with your lenders. The good news is that the recent Obama health care bill also included provisions that allowed students much more time to pay back some types of education aid loans.

Don’t Forget About Tax Breaks

Beyond the low-interest federal loans available, there are several tax brakes that are particularly good for adult online students. The “Lifetime Learning Credit” allows you to subtract up to $2,000 per year or 20% of your total education cost from the amount of money you claim on your tax return if you are enrolled in an eligible school. In other words, you wind up paying tax on a lower income than you would without this credit.

That’s a plus for elearners, most of whom are working and earning money while they study. To get this credit, your school must file a 1098-T statement with the IRS, and you must submit a Form 8863 with your federal tax return. A particular bonus for adults who are gradually working towards a degree online is that there is no limit to how many years you can claim this tax benefit for.

The credit can also be applied to some non-degree courses. Your school’s financial aid office should be able to tell you which courses qualify you for this deduction. Keep in mind, however, that you can’t claim it if you are earning more than $55,000 per year as an individual or $110,000 per year as a couple filing jointly. This is a tax credit you can claim for your own education, unlike most other tax credits that are meant for families paying for a child’s college education. You can also take this credit for any tuition you pay for your spouse, and your parents may take it if you are dependent on them and they are directly paying some of your college costs.

Click To A List Of Schools Specializing In Online Degrees

If you think you will need financial help to pay for your degree, you’re not alone. According to the most recent National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), about 72% of all undergraduates in the US are receiving some type of student financial aid in the form of loans, scholarships or other help for college (about 79% of students are also working while enrolled in college).

See a list of good, low-cost online bachelor and associate degree programs.

Loans and The Online Learner

Online degree students often don’t get the same help from mom and dad as those who attend traditional brick and mortar schools. That’s because most of them are working grownups themselves, many of whom already have kids of their own. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get financial help to pay for school. Many of the same grants for college offered to on-campus students are available to students in online degree programs as well.

The first step, obviously, is picking a school and a degree program that makes sense as an investment for you. That doesn’t necessarily mean choosing the lowest priced school, but it does mean giving some thought to which degree from which college will position you best on your particular career path.

Start With A Quality, Accredited School

Whether you’re financing an online bachelors or masters degree, you want to choose a school that is respected by scholarship committees and both private and government financial lenders. Make sure you enroll in a school that is properly accredited (see our article on accreditation).Some government agencies and private banks are actually prohibited from giving grants to a college student if his or her school is not accredited by a national recognized accreditation agency.

Moving Up To Government Education Loans

Students with a financial need just about always start by looking for scholarships and grants. They don’t need to be paid back in many cases, and they are available from a huge number of different sources. The next step up the financing ladder for most students is to try for a government loan, which is not free but is generally available at a lower interest rate than anything from a bank or other private lender. Military education benefits are also available to former or current service people.

An option that can work particularly well for online learners, who are out in the world and working already, is to get an employer to pay for your degree. It’s become tougher to get employer education grants in the current economy, but they have definitely not vanished completely. Finally, if these options either don’t pan out or simply don’t produce enough aid to cover your full tuition costs, there are still ways you to use private education loans to cover your costs. Borrowing from private groups can be expensive, so it needs to be done carefully.

Online Learners Often Get Loans

Online colleges and universities tend to be designed for adult learners. Many are also run by for-profit schools that need to complete very hard for students in order to stay in business. As a result, they tend to work very hard to get lots of financial aid for their students. Many, in fact, have close relationships with major scholarship groups and can make it easier for you to apply to them for aid. Capella University, for example, reports that 75% of its students get some form of financial aid to pay for school. DeVry University offers several of its own private scholarships to students, some of which pay up to 50% of total tuition.

Once you have honed in on one school or on several schools you like, your best move is to contact each school’s financial aid office have them draw up a grant or scholarship program that can help you get your online degree. Depending on what the school’s enrollment goals, you may be surprised to find that one college will offer you a great deal more in financial help than another. The people in the school financial aid office will also usually be willing to give you lots of help when you start to apply for scholarships to pay for your degree.

Next: How To Start Looking For Financial Aid

Getting Financial Aid For Your Online Degree
Finding A Scholarship – where to start your search for the “free money.”
Government Loans – they’re definitely available for online learners.
Smart Grants and Perkins Loans – some programs you may never have heard of can help you pay for school.

Click To A List Of Schools Specializing In Online Degrees

Here’s a look at the top government grants and loans that can help you get your college or university degree online. There is more government money available for both traditional and online learning students today than there was just a few years ago. But you need to be careful to borrow only as much as you should — signing on the dotted line for an education loan is something that can affect your financial life for many years to come.

Make sure you understand exactly what interest rate and payment schedule you are agreeing to. Also, be prepared to spend some real time filling out forms in order to get a government loan for your degree. A good tip to keep in mind: try to borrow as much as you can from a single source that offers you a good interest rate. It will be easier to keep track of your payments and debt balance than it will be if you borrow from lots of different lenders.

A Better Deal For Online Learners
The federal government made an important move two years ago that has opened up more aid to online learners specifically. For years, government student loans to elearners were restricted by the terms of the Higher Education Act of 1965. That law included the so-called “50 per cent rule,” which dictated that classes had to be delivered in a brick and mortar lecture hall for at least 50 per cent of the time in a school for any students there to qualify for government tuition aid. The rule, originally designed to keep a lid on phony degree programs where students signed up and never did any class work, was scrapped by Congress early in 2007. As a result, a college student in an online degree program can qualify for just about all the same government loans and grants as an on-campus learner.

Say Hello To FAFSA
Filling out the the “FAFSA” (free application for federal student aid) application online is the first thing just about everyone does when they’re looking for college financial aid. Unfortunately, it involves quite a bit of work. FAFSA requires you to provide in-depth information on all aspects of your personal finances, whether you are pursuing an online degree or a tradition college course of study.

You use the FAFSA form after you’ve made a decision about which school you will attend – you have to reference your school on the online form. Before signing up for any degree program, find out if your school participates in federal loan programs. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to look for student financial aid from non-government sources, which is unfortunate because no one else has quite as much tuition assistance to offer as Uncle Sam (though the FAFSA does also allow you to apply for some state-sponsored grants). Two main types of financial aid offered by the government are available to students getting university degrees online: Pell Grants and Stafford loans.

Pell Grants: The “Expected Family Contribution”
Federal Pell Grants are given, on the basis of need, to undergraduate students working toward their first bachelor’s degree. That need – the ability to pay really – is determined by a calculation of the student’s “expected family contribution” (EFC), which is based on family financial assets and income.

Total family income, or the “Expected Family Contribution” (EFC) to your tuition bills, can be a tricky question for online degree students who are paying for school tuition on their own. You are basically required to include your parent’s financial resources in your estimate until you are 24 years old, unless you are married or have a child. After age 24, only your income will be factored into the government’s estimate of your need for a Pell Grant. Keep in mind, though, that if you are married, your spouse’s income will be counted in the formula.

There is a FAFSA “dependency status form” you will need to fill out if you are an adult and have income of your own. The lower your EFC is, the more aid you will be eligible for, and vice versa. The EFC is calculated on not just your income, but also on whatever assets you or your family own as well. If you have low income but have a valuable house you’ve inherited, for example, your financial need will seem less in the eyes of the government – a problem given that it’s become a lot harder to borrow against a house than it was before the recession.

Pell Grant Limits
You can receive up to $5,500 in Pell Grant money per year (the minimum grant is $555). The grant cannot exceed half of the total cost of your annual tuition. The government uses a complicated formula to determine exactly how much it should give you, and it does not reveal exactly how your number is arrived at. A few points to be aware of, however:

• In the past, Pell Grants were only available to students enrolled on a full-time basis. They are now available to part-time students, but the grant will limited if you’re only attending school part-time.
• If you get a grant for your spring and fall semesters, there’s now also an option to get a second Pell Grant within the same year to help cover additional summer courses you may take. But you cannot get Pell Grants to use toward two different schools in the same year.
• The government does factor in college costs beyond tuition, like textbooks and supplies, in estimating your need. – You need to be either an American citizen or an eligible non-citizen and have a GED or high school diploma to apply for a Pell Grant.

Some great things about Pell Grants: They are, as the name implies, grants that don’t have to be paid back, which means that your ability to pay back is not even considered in your application. The information you put on the application is also confidential, so it cannot have any impact on your credit score. Keep in mind however that you generally have to keep up an academic average of at least a “C” to keep your eligibility for ongoing Pell Grant money. If you do receive a Pell Grant, it will be administered through your school. Your school may credit back the grant money to your account, give you a check or do a little bit of both. You must be given your grant money at least once every semester that the school has.

Stafford Loans
Stafford Loans, on the other hand, do have to be paid back. But they still offer real advantages over the other kinds of education loans that are available to a distance learner with limited resources. The interest rates on Staffords are generally among the lowest available, there are no origination fees, and you will have anywhere from 10 years to as many as 25 years (due to recent legislation), to repay your debt. These school loans come in two forms.

“Subsidized” Stafford Loans are given, like Pell Grants, on the basis of financial need, based on your estimated family contribution to your education. They are currently being offered with a fixed interest rate of 5.6%. The government actually pays any interest that accumulates while you are in school. This “grace period” represents a crucial advantage over just about any type of private education loan you can get. The terms of the Stafford Loans are so favorable that some lenders require you to state that you have already tried to get one before they will talk to you about any other type of education loan.

“Unsubsidized” Stafford loans are not based on financial need, and are currently being given at a 6.8% fixed interest rate. A key difference is that, while you don’t have to pay any interest on the loan while you are in school, it does accrue until you graduate and you are required to pay it in full over time. You’re required to apply for either of these loans through the FAFSA form.

More Than One College Loan
You are allowed to take out both (subsidized) and a non-subsidized loans. The formula for how much you can borrow on an unsubsidized loan takes into account how much money you are already getting on the subsidized loan.

Loan limits are based on whether you are financially dependent on your parents or not. Dependent undergrads can borrow a total of about $31,000 in combined subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans over four years towards a degree program, but the subsidized part of the loan cannot be greater than $23,000. Independent students can borrow more – up to $57,000 for a four year program, though the subsidized portion of the loan can’t be more than $23,000.

Formulas for how much you can borrow each year are a bit complex, ranging from $5,500. per year for dependent freshmen up to $12,500 for independent seniors. Unlike Pell Grants, the Stafford Loans are available to graduate students, who can use them to borrow up to $138,500. To qualify for any of these loans, you must not currently be in default for any other federal loan, be in a program that will result in a degree, be in a school that participates in the Federal Family Education Loan Program and be planning to attend school on at least a half-time basis.

Next: Less-known government education loans.