Social media is key in seeking scholarships

In the face of a steep rise in the cost of college, a national organization dedicated to helping students secure tuition assistance is urging that they start their search for scholarship funding early, and tap into a burgeoning crop of social media tools to improve their chances of receiving an award.

Scholarship America, which describes itself as a national education service organization that has distributed more than $2.7 billion to some 1.8 million students over the last half century, called on secondary-school students planning to go on to college to get serious about the challenges of funding a four-year education.

"With the cost of attaining a college education at an all-time high, scholarships have become a much-needed resource for students seeking to complete a degree," Lauren Segal, president and CEO of Scholarship America, said in a statement. "Students should plan to start the search by age 14 and consider the search a part-time job that they should spend several hours each year looking for scholarships."

Through the roof

Scholarship America cites estimates that the cost of college has ballooned by more than 400 percent over the past 25 years, noting that debt from student loan, now more than $1 trillion, recently eclipsed Americans' cumulative debt from credit cards.

When paired with a highly competitive jobs market and an unemployment rate around 9 percent, that loan debt can become all the more burdensome once repayments come due for recent graduates.

This challenge has caught the attention of policymakers at the highest levels of the federal government. In October, for instance, the Education Department unveiled new rules that would expedite the implementation of a cap on the monthly repayment obligations for federal student loans in ratio to the borrower's income.

In Congress, House and Senate lawmakers introduced legislation in June that would modify bankruptcy law to eliminate an exemption that has made debt from private students loans off limits in bankruptcy proceedings.

But the administration's efforts and the pending legislation only address the loan portion of the college cost equation. With tuition and other costs having rapidly outpaced the rates of inflation and many Americans' earning potential, some observers highlight the increasing importance of scholarships as a mechanism for funding a college education.

"Now more than ever, students need to find scholarships of all types," Scholarship America advises.

And now more than ever, social media is at the heart of that process, according to the group.

Consider all sources

In addition to starting the search early in high school, Scholarship America recommends that students cast a wide net as they navigate both the social and general Web in search of tuition assistance. Most basically, that means seeking out what the group describes as "credible scholarship search sites," some of which require registration, while others are simple click-and-go search services. Among those that Scholarship America endorses are FastWeb.com, AidScholar.com and Scholarships.com. On its website, the organization also directs scholarship seekers to a bevy of news and information sites that offer parents and students helpful resources on financial aid around the Web, including tips for filling out the Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA).

On the social side, Scholarship America counsels that students take to Twitter and follow the feeds of handles devoted to promulgating scholarship information, including @scholamerica, @gilmanprogram, @scholarshipsusa and @college_success.

Additionally, to mark the 220th anniversary of the First Amendment, the 1 for All coalition is organizing the "Free to Tweet" campaign on Dec. 15. Thanks to funding provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, students between the ages of 14 and 22 who tweet messages on that day expressing their thoughts on the right to free expression (which can include embedded links to longer materials) with the hashtag #freetotweet will be eligible for one of 22 $5,000 scholarships, with the awards expected to be delivered in March of next year.

For many students, the process of seeking out financial assistance for college starts and ends in high school. Scholarship America warns against that approach, noting that "the college bills keep coming," and advising students in need of assistance to continue the search as they advance through college and to do everything they can to cut the debt load they will carry with them after graduation.

"The time spent will have immense benefits in the long run by providing a financial base for a student's higher education," Segal said.