College with no debt and almost no cost to the parent.

[Montana71-F100]

The unfortunate death of ScreaminZ and the college fund for his kids made me want to post this.

My kid's college education hasn't cost me much if anything. I have one child that just graduated from college with no debt and two that are in college that are on track to do the same.

Some kids (like I was) aren't made to be scholars but here's what I found:

Studying and community service pay better than working at a job.

Scholarships are based mostly on GPA, community service and need. They start keeping score for GPA as a freshman but it helps if kids develop good study habits in grade school.

Community service is huge. Be a good example and volunteer yourself and have your kids volunteer as much as possible. Keep track of hours and dates. We used a calendar with big squares to write in. Our kids were in 4-H and scouting and had to do record keeping. They were also active in their church. The reason my kid's volunteered wasn't for the scholarships but it ended up helping a lot.

They've had to turn down some scholarships and have gotten refund checks from the college for over payment.

They've all had part time jobs in high school and college for spending money. In college it's been because they wanted to work rather than out of necessity.

There's no guarantee this will work for you but the worst that can happen is you'll end up with nice, hard working kids that don't mind helping.

[Brokenarrow]

My son received scholarships for his GPA but I've never heard of the community service thing. Free tuition is always a good thing but think about it. This just doesn't seem fair to all the two job working families (and there's a bunch of'em) who honestly don't have the time or excess energy to do community service work. And definitely can't afford to do volunteer work. Seems like a flaw in the system to me

[Montana71-F100]

This just doesn't seem fair to all the two job working families (and there's a bunch of'em) who honestly don't have the time or excess energy to do community service work. And definitely can't afford to do volunteer work.

Actually, we're one of those two job working families too. I probably made the volunteering sound like it takes more time than it actually does. My son had about 500 hours in 4 years of high school. That averages about 2.4 hours a week. Some came in large stretches like 15 hours helping with vacation bible school.

He just won a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship where The U.S. Congress sends 200 people to Germany to live with a host family and attend school. He graduated from high school this year but will attend a 5th year of high school in Germany. He was told that he was the most qualified applicant that they've had in years. 2.4 hours a week of volunteering doesn't seem like much but it must be way more than most.

When he gets back he has a full ride scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania through Questbridge (http://www.questbridge.org/)

[forrestbump]

Congratulations! You and your Son have earned it! "The Apple never falls far from the tree"

[Montana71-F100]

Thanks! You're too kind. A lot of it has to do with the kids having a really good mom. She even went on dates with me in my bump!