Reduce Costs For Online Degree Programs By Exploring Back To College Grants
College and university enrollments might be up this fall, but how much students and families spend on back to school supplies has yet to be seen. This is the world of iPads, laptops, netbooks and webcams, a world where textbooks can cost $200 and more a pop. With many students enrolling in online courses as well, products such as these might also be more a part of back to school shopping than they have in the past.
Back to school shopping comes in the wake of a Fannie Mae public poll showing that families reported last year having to work more and pull together more financial aid in the form of scholarships and grants as a means of attending college. There’s no getting around the fact that new technologies are becoming more common among college and university campuses. Or that distance learning and enrollment in online courses is becoming more of the norm at the college level. Online courses particularly might involve use of products such as webcams, iPads and other e-readers, as well as smartphones or similar mobile devices.
Americans overall expect to spend some $55.12 billion on back to school shopping, including for students at the K-12 level, according to a National Retail Federation Back to School/College survey. Coupons, sales and promotions are this year more a part of back to school shopping, the National Retail Federation notes. While the average family, by the time the federation’s survey results were released in about mid-August, had completed about 43 percent of back to school shopping, those with college aged children were reportedly waiting for the last minute.
There are opportunities to save money and find the right back to school needs for college and university students, and newspapers and magazines have been doing their homework as a means of helping families find them. One of the most widely distributed on the Internet comes from the Louisville Journal-Courier. While this article doesn’t mention e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook or iPad, it does point readers toward stores where they can find USBs and other products priced between $58 and $350. The iPad, according to Apple’s website, starts at $499, while the latest Kindle might be purchased for about $380.
A university in Oklahoma is among those to have announced that it’s testing e-readers as part of instruction for some courses, USA Today reported. With e-readers, some textbooks from sites such as CafeScribe, Wikibooks and CourseSmart show that students downloading them can save around $35 to $70. A downloadable kinesiology textbook on CourseSmart, for example, is available for $45.75, a savings of $68.31, according to the site. On sites such as Valore.com, chegg.com and CampusBookRentals.com, students might buy used textbooks for as low as $1.30, a 99 percent savings, or rent textbooks in the $50 range.
Online retailers, along with department and electronics stores, are on the list for parents of college students planning back to school shopping, according to the National Retail Federation survey. More parents this year might also be more directly involved with back to school shopping, since regulations that are part of a Credit Card Act of 2009 apply to many college-aged students. Under the Credit Card Act, people younger than 21 need co-signers or proof of income in order to obtain credit cards, according to a recent Market Watch report.
That might be good news for parents in that they have more of a say in back to school shopping for college students. Many parents might also be heading back to school themselves, since out of work adults in this recession, as well as those who want to brush up on skills and acquire new skills, are contributing to enrollment increases at colleges and universities. Parents of K-12 students have also reported taking online courses, in many instances for personal fulfillment purposes.
Distance learning these days often involves podcasts and video and web conferencing, and many colleges and universities maintain channels on YouTube. Adults who participate in accredited degree online opportunities, or campus-based technologies, might enhance workplace-related skills as they study course subjects or work toward campus or online degrees. For these individuals and others, exploring back to school grants materials as a start and some wise purchases might actually be part of the investment that a college education is known to be.
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