2013年10月8日 星期二

Millions in Canadian scholarship dollars going unclaimed

[Yahoo Canada 10/04/2013]


Students are graduating with gross levels of debt these days. However, it’s possible they could soften the financial hit they take to pursue post-secondary education by doing some homework when it comes to finding and applying for scholarships— many of which go unrewarded across the country year after year.
Rob Henderson, president and CEO of Studentawards, an online database of scholarships, bursaries and other financial offers to students, says that most prizes that are attached to an institution get snapped up. Many of them are merit-based and often awarded automatically, without students even having to apply. It’s all the other awards out there, offered by private companies, that are often overlooked.
“Studentawards has $82 million in financial awards available to students across the country per year, and those are almost exclusively non-institution-based scholarships, bursaries that sit outside of educational system, which are already earmarked,” Henderson says. “No official study has been done on how much goes unrewarded, but … we estimate more than $15 million goes unclaimed each year. That number is probably low.”
A few reasons explain why so much cash is sitting untouched, but it mostly boils down to poor marketing by private companies.
“There are a lot of employer scholarships that major corporations have for their employees’ children, but a lot of people don’t know they exist, so the budgets aren’t exhausted,” Henderson says.
There’s also a misconception about eligibility.
“A lot of people don’t understand that over 50 per cent [of available scholarships] aren’t merit-based,” Henderson notes. “A lot of students don’t even look because they think ‘I’m not an athlete,’ or ‘I’m not an A-plus-plus student,’ so they say ‘Why bother?’ But the reality is there’s money out there for them for school.”
He points to some of the more unusual scholarships that have appeared on the Studentawards site. There’s one for tall people attending their first year of college (from the Tall Clubs International Foundation; to qualify, men have to be over 6’2” and women over 5’10”).  There was one that asked candidates to share their prom story: whoever had the worst night got the prize. There’s even one for D students.
“Another reason [scholarships go unrewarded is that many people don’t realize that they’re offered throughout the academic year, not just in September. “There’s a bit of a spike in August and September, but scholarships are awarded 12 months out of the year,” Henderson says.
Don't give up on free money
Darran Fernandez, associate director of enrollment services at the University of British Columbia, urges students not to be discouraged if they don’t receive money from the institution they’re attending.
“Outside of the institution, there’s much more in terms of external awards provided by banks and other organizations,” Fernandez says, noting that UBC gave out nearly $78 million in scholarships for the fiscal year ending in 2013. “We know anecdotally that those [external] dollars are not maxed out on an annual basis.”
Fernandez suggests students visit websites such as CanLearn, where they have access to comprehensive resources related to free money.
“We encourage them to visit the site for half an hour a week and set up their application and scan for awards,” he says. “Having a conversation about money is not easy, whether it’s with yourself or friends and family or an adviser here on campus. But seeking scholarships provides an opportunity to have that conversation so that they can more easily have a conversation with a financial adviser for the long term.”
Not all awards are worth thousands, but as any student knows, every dollar counts. Henderson recalls one heart-warming story of a recipient who won $250.
“We got this unbelievable thank-you video because she explained that she had run out of money, and her parents didn’t have any money, and that $250 allowed her to buy groceries that month to get her through exams until she got a job,” he says.

2013年10月4日 星期五

世界最優大學 加4學府擠進百大

[世界日報 10032013] 英國泰晤士報高等教育專刊公布2013-14年世界最佳大學排行榜(World University Ranking),加國共有四所大學擠進百大,包括多倫多大學、卑詩大學、麥吉爾大學和麥克馬斯特大學。 在這項排行榜的前百大當中,加國以多倫多大學表現最佳,排名第20(去年第19),卑詩大學居次,排名第31(去年第30),麥吉爾大學排名第35(去年第34),麥克馬斯特大學第92名(去年第65)。 滿地可大學去年仍在百大之內,排名第88,但今年仍落到第106,加國還有另外兩校排名也前200大之內,包括亞伯達大學(第109;去年第121)和渥太華大學(第185;去年171)。 加國其他幾所著名大學排名在第201至225之間的有:卡加利大學、拉維爾大學(Laval University)和維多利亞大學;排名在第226至250之間的則有皇后大學、西門菲沙大學和滑鐵盧大學。 泰晤士報指出,這項排名是根據教學、研究、知識傳播和國際名望等領域,訂出13個標準評分後得出。另外,該報也廣邀學界人士參與意見調查,訂出世界大學聲望排名(World Reputation Ranking),加國有三校進入百大,包括多倫多大學(第16)、卑詩大學,和麥吉爾大學(並列第31)。 百大排行榜上名校多半歷史悠久,泰晤士報高等教育專刊特別針對建校不足50年的大學訂出百大排行(100 under 50),羅列有潛力成為學界明日之星的學校,加國共有四校入榜:維多利亞大學(第20)、卡加利大學(第23)、西門菲沙大學(第26) 、貴湖大學(第55)。