CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Value Colleges, an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate college education, is accepting applications for its Finish It! 2016 Scholarship for non-traditional college students: http://www.valuecolleges.com/scholarships/returning-students-scholarship/
Applications are being accepted through January and the first half of February 2016. The winning applicant will be awarded a one-time scholarship of $2500 to offset tuition costs for students in a regionally-accredited undergraduate degree program. The Finish It! 2016 Scholarship is open to college students aged 25 years and older.
Because of major shifts in the job market since the 2008 recession, working adults and so-called "non-traditional" students have flooded higher education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, while traditional college students (ages 18-24) number approximately 12 million, students over 25 make up another 8 million. The numbers have been growing so much that analysts and marketers are looking for alternatives to the term "non-traditional," since going to school over 25 is becoming just as normal as going at 18.
"Working adults who return to college have their own challenges," Carrie Sealey-Morris, editor at Value Colleges, points out, "whether it's children, a full-time job, elderly parents, or any one of the many other responsibilities facing adult students. One additional thing almost all adult students have in common is the financial burden of paying for college." With rising tuition costs and the demands of family and work responsibility, non-traditional students often find themselves unable to pay for college.
An inability to afford tuition is one of the most common reasons working adults fail to finish their degrees, as multiple sources and surveys demonstrate. When non-traditional students have bills to pay and children to care for, money can get tight, and many older students do not have access to the types of loans available to traditional students. That means more working adults taking out less-desirable private loans and getting in over their heads. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way.
The winner of the Finish It! scholarship will be selected based on a short application essay with the prompt "What Next?" Entrants are encouraged to describe the goals that they believe a college degree will help them achieve, talk about how their educational pursuits differentiate them from the many other adult students who begin college every year, and explain how this degree will make a difference in their lives and the lives of those around them.
Applications for the Finish It! 2016 Scholarship close February 15, 2016 at midnight. The winner will be notified by February 29. For additional information, or to apply for the scholarship, please visit http://www.valuecolleges.com/scholarships/returning-students-scholarship/.
Value Colleges is an independent, online resource with one mission: to help prospective students find the best educational value in their chosen field. At Value Colleges, future students can find rankings for the top investments in online and residential college degrees, advice on making the best decisions about finances when in college, and explanations of commonly-misunderstood aspects of college costs.
Contact:
Carrie Sealey-Morris
Editor, Value Colleges
Email
(512) 710-9901