In previous posts, student loans and scholarships were covered.
Now I’ll start giving you information about Grants.
Grants are Great because you don’t have to pay them back.
Essentially, it’s FREE MONEY!

On Feb 8, 2006, President Bush signed into law two new
student grant programs - The Academic Competitiveness Grant
and the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent
(SMART) Grant.

$790 Million is set aside for these grants, created by the
Higher Education Reconcillation Act of 2005.
The grants encourage students to take more challenging courses
in high school, making success in college more likely.

ACADEMIC COMPETITIVENESS GRANT

An Academic Competitiveness Grant will provide for the first year
of undergraduate study up to $750. And up to $1,300 for the
second year of undergraduate study to…

Full-time students who are U.S citizens…
Eligible for a Federal Pell Grant…
And who had successfully completed a “rigorous high school program”,
(as determined by the state or local education agency and
recognized by the Secretary of Education).

Second year students must also have maintained a cumulative grade
point average (GPA) of at least 3.0. The program will be available for the
first time for the 2006-07 school year for first year students…
who graduated from high school after January 1, 2006.

The program will be available for second year students who graduated
from high school after January 1, 2005.

The Academic Competitiveness Grant award is in addition to the student’s
Pell Grant award.  If you can answer YES to all of the following questions,
you may potentially be eligible to receive an Academic Competitiveness Grant.
 
- Are you a U.S. citizen?

- Did you graduate from high school after January 1, 2005?

- Are you eligible to receive a Pell Grant?

- Will you be enrolled as a full-time first or second year student in
a two-year or four-year degree program?
If you COULD NOT answer YES to all of the above questions,
you do not qualify to receive an Academic Competitiveness Grant.

However, you may still qualify to receive other types of federal student
financial aid. Make sure that you have completed a FAFSA
(Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

For more information call: 1-800-USA-LEARN

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Financial Aid, Grants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.