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Why Scholarships Make More “Cents”

(Or, how the money choices you make as a student affect your life now, and after college)

At local universities, the current average amount of student loan debt at the time of graduation is $21,000 and growing fast! Here is how much it could cost to pay off a loan:

Scenario #1

• A Student who owes $25,000 in loans at 8.25% interest will make payments of $306.63 per month for 10 years, paying a total of $36,796.

Scenario #2

A student invests 20 hours of his /her time to apply for 10 scholarships and is awarded one for $2,500.

• This student has earned $125 per hour for the time invested.

But, it gets even better!

• Say this student chose to work to earn the same amount of money: At $7 an hour she would have to work 357 hours (or about 10 hours per week, each week of a full academic year) to earn $2,500. The student saved 337 hours of work time over the course of one academic year!

• Also, if this student reduced his/her student loan debt by $2,500, the student could save an additional $5,117 in total loan payments over a 20-year period. This represents an additional savings in future dollars for each of the 20 hours initially invested.

Taking time to apply for scholarships can really pay off!

It can be one of the smartest ways to minimize student loan debt and align your time, energy and money to support your college education.