Talbots offers generous scholarship for women returning to college

It gives us great pleasure to help the Talbots Scholarship Foundation get word out about the 2010 Talbots Women’s Scholarship Fund and Nancy Talbot Scholarship Award. Targeted to women returning to full or part time undergraduate studies at two- or four-year colleges, universities, or vocational schools, this program is designed to “empower women to enrich themselves through learning and achieve a college education later in life."

The Talbot’s Women’s Scholarship Fund will award $180,000 in college scholarships for the 2010 academic year, including ten $15,000 scholarships and one $30,000 scholarship to an extraordinary finalist demonstrating “courage, conviction and an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit.”To qualify, applicants must be:

• women who earned a high school diploma or their GED on or before September 2000;


• enrolled or planning to enroll in a full or part time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two-, three-, or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school in the US or Canada;


• attending the full 2010-11 academic year and receiving a degree no earlier than May 2011; and


• must have at least two semesters (24 credit hours or more) remaining to complete an undergraduate degree as of the beginning of the 2010 fall academic term.

All applications must be submitted electronically by January 2, 2010, and only the first 5,000 eligible applications will be considered. Scholarship finalists will be selected based on a number of criteria including academic record, demonstrated leadership and participation in community activities, honors, work experience, and a statement of educational and career goals. Registration and more information may be found on the Scholarship America website.

E-Book offers insider strategies for saving money

The brilliant folks at Cappex recently announced publication of a new e-book entitled, 20 Insider Strategies to Save Money on College NOW, available FREE of charge on the Cappex.com website. The concept is simple: most students and their parents don’t know how to take full advantage of all the money-saving tools available to them and many miss out on financial aid simply because they don’t understand the process. To level the playing field, the book offers insider tips, strategies, tools, secrets, and other ways to help families in the never-ending quest to pay less for college.If nothing else, the book's easy-to-understand guide to financial aid terminology is worth printing out and saving. From there, readers will learn the importance of choosing the right college list, how and when to apply for financial aid or merit scholarships, and what factors should go into making smart decisions about where to attend college. The book is simple, direct, and extremely helpful.“This e-book is ideal for anyone seeking help paying for college. It sheds light on the top approaches,” suggests Chris Long, President of Cappex.com. “Among the approaches are a revealing look at merit scholarships, special strategies for saving on public and private colleges, and getting money that you don’t have to pay back.”

Founded in 2006 by the former CEO of FastWeb, Cappex offers college search tools designed to promote easy access to profiles and reviews of more than 3000 college and universities. A key support for the service is MeritAid.com, which provides Cappex with comprehensive details on about $11 billion in merit scholarships. Both websites are definitely worth investigating, as they offer an incredible wealth of information in addition to the search tools which form the basis of both services. Note that everything is free and that privacy is fully protected for those who choose to register on either website.