College tuition help a mouse click away
by Jessica Petty, reporter

     I found $40,000 on the web in 15 minutes.
     Web sites are no longer restricted to commercial enterprise and email. Now students can use the Internet to find money for college.
     After answering some simple questions, I funded over two college educations.
     Fastweb.com (www.fastweb.com) offers over 500,000 scholarships equaling $1 billion. The president for Fastweb, Tom Lubin, claims that scholarships are available for nearly everyone.
     “We have students who get scholarships based on financial need, on having a 4.0 grade point average or on high test scores,” Lubin said in a recent interview. “But we also have scholarships for people who are good at bowling or knitting and for people who are interested in studying bats.”
     My search yielded seven entries that fit my field of study, interests and grade point average totaling $39,500 in scholarship cash. Other scholarships were found by including information about my parents, such as employer’s name and address on a new search.
     The site is funded by advertisers and offers their services at the bottom of each page. Applicants can choose whether to receive the solicited information from advertisers.
     In addition, the College Board has set up a web site for students to determine their eligibility for federal aid. At www.collegeboard.com, students can find federal grants and loans for which they are qualified. The site also includes suggestions for students and parents regarding applying for financial aid and loans and reading loan account statements.
     Links to scholarships, grants and loans can also be found on www.finaid.org. The site separates aid by federal, state and private organizations.
     Students can also benefit from a new paid internship offered by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. The program presents students with the opportunity to work with federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Transportation while gaining job experience.
     Applicants should be undergraduate or graduate students who attend institutions that enroll significant numbers of Hispanic students.
     They must be involved in campus and community activities, possess GPAs of 3.0 or higher and have recommendations from their advisors or professors.
     The intern program runs from 10 to 15 weeks in the spring, summer and fall. For more information, log on to www.hacu.net.