FAP764: Marketing Yourself for Scholarship Dollars Listen now: Student Financial Aid News + Inside Higher Ed: Brazos Higher Education Service Corp., the fourth largest holder of guaranteed student loans, announced that it would no longer issue new student loans, Bloomberg reported. Brazos officials said that they hoped to re-enter the loan field if the credit crunch eases. + Chronicle: Financial experts everywhere agree that the economy appears headed toward a recession. The question is how long it will last and how deep it will be. “Economic downturns trigger a debilitating circumstance of increased enrollments and decreased funding,” says Eduardo J. Padrón, an economist and president of Miami Dade College. “Low-income students at community colleges bear the brunt of this paradox.” + When state finances tighten up, support for higher education often dwindles. In the past, many colleges have helped overcome those shortfalls by raising tuition. But the public’s increasing frustration over rising tuition costs — and families’ inability to pay more during sharp downturns in the housing and stock markets — will make that increasingly difficult. + Scholarship Search Secrets made an appearance last night on WCVB Boston 5 Scholarship Update + RotoHog.com is the next generation of fantasy sports. Share your funniest sports moment by submitting a photo, video or blog that captures the hilarious time that the Little Leaguer ran the bases the wrong way or the weekend warrior ripped a hole in his shorts shooting hoops. Whether it’s a hard hit from a softball or an all out collision on the banked track we want to know about what had you laughing all the way home. No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, has access to the Internet, and is 13 or older at the time of entry. + $500 scholarship + May 5 deadline + Details at our free college scholarship search site Scholarship Search + Yesterday, I was pleased to see a piece that WCVB had recorded on Scholarship Search Secrets, the Student Loan Network’s free eBook, on the 6 o’clock news + Just a few things, sort of behind the scenes/background information + The statistic for $20 billion in scholarships comes from an aggregate sum of data - our own, on StudentScholarshipSearch.com, plus other scholarship databases + The median award in our database is $17,750. + This includes the sum total of awards like the Pell Grant, SMART Grant, FSEOG, ACG, etc. + Government grants obtained by filing the FAFSA + For those new to the show, Scholarship Search Secrets is more than just how to use Google to find scholarships, though that’s a big part of it - it’s also a comprehensive guide to setting up your scholarships campaign + In many ways, it’s like a marketing campaign - setting up your portfolio, finding contacts, doing outreach, and closing deals + In turn, that means that many of the practices and assumptions from marketing also apply to scholarships - numbers game, good sales pitches, consistent follow up, and metrics to measure your success + In that light, scholarship essays really are sales pitches, follow up is follow up, and the metrics of your success are a sales funnel - scholarship opportunities you’re eligible for, applications you’ve filed, and dollars awarded + What does that mean for you? Go start reading up on effective sales letter writing, effective pitching, etc. Go read Made to Stick, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, and others. Learn sales and marketing - all of these skills will help you to win scholarships. Promo + Financial Aid Podcast Live: Surviving the Credit Crunch Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you . Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day. + + + Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3 Reminders + + Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com. + Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook + Open an FDIC-insured savings account today! + Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com + Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com + FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com + Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog! + Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com + The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network. I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast ShareThis Less