Break out the duct tape, fire up the glue guns and get the sewing machine out of the closet, it’s prom season! Crafty, college-bound prom goers can win serious scholarship dollars for designing dream dresses and tuxedos — no fairy godmother required.

JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores is offering a $50,000 grand prize, $10,000 second prize and significant runner-up prizes for the winners of the Own Your Look Prom Contest 2010. Similarly, Duck Brand duct tape is celebrating the tenth year of its “Stuck at Prom” design competition to find clever couples with style and stick-to-it-tiveness in the US and Canada .

Part MacGyver, part Project Runway, entries for both contests will be judged by panels of experts looking at workmanship, originality and level of detail. For those whipping up a little something out of duct tape, contestants will also be judged on use of color (choose from pink, green, orange, yellow, silver, camouflage, aqua, red, blue, black and white, to name just a few), accessories and the quantity of duct tape used to create their attire.

In a reality-TV-style twist, Stuck at Prom’s top ten finalist couples will be judged during online public voting (June 18-July 26) to determine the grand prize winners ($3,000 for each contestant and $3,000 for the school whose prom they attend). Staying in the competition could prove tricky however, since couples with the lowest votes will be eliminated a la American Idol if they don’t get enough support from their fanbase.

Continue reading DIY prom dress competitions offer thousands in college scholarships

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Looking to send someone off to college next fall? Hurry, time’s running out to apply for a $2,500 Upromise Scholarship. Due by February 15, applications are being accepted for 2010-11 scholarships aimed at assisting 100 undergrads with financial need.

“Especially in this economy and with college costs increasing each year, it is gratifying to know that this program will help 100 bright and hard-working students,” said Suzanne Boozer, a Upromise employee who helped create the scholarship program which began in 2008. Natalie Alatriste, a freshman at the University of Central Florida, and recipient of a 2009 award said, “By helping to pay my tuition, the Upromise Scholarship has allowed me to pursue my dream of studying biology.”

Applicants, or their parents must be a member (or quickly become a member) of Upromise (joining is free), have a minimum 3.40 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or the equivalent), prove a household income of $80,000 or less, be a US citizen and a high school senior, high school graduate or current college student who plans to enroll in a two or four-year accredited college, university or vocational tech school.

Complete guidelines for eligibility and application can be found here.

You can also help the cause by becoming a “fan” of Upromise on Facebook. The company has pledged to donate $1 to the scholarship fund for every new fan (up to $25,000).

Although becoming a facebook fan is a whole lot easier than filling out a scholarship application, both are worth the effort and there’s still time. What, you thought you’d be watching the Superbowl? Get the scholarship now, the tailgating can come later.

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The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell this week, noting with little fanfare (subscription required) that the college degrees we’re told are a ticket to wealth and happiness aren’t all they’ve been cracked up to be.

The College Board, a glorified trade group representing the interests of colleges and universities, has long touted an $800,000 lifetime earnings advantage for college grads. Now other researchers, armed with more rigorous data, are suggesting that the lifetime earnings advantage of college may be less — a lot less. Mark Schneider of the American Institutes for Research calculated that the lifetime earnings advantage of a college degree is just $279,893.

Continue reading Lifetime earnings boost from college education smaller than touted

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In a word — Yes. Thanks to a combination of factors, Scitable, both the science website and the platform itself, has the potential to change the way students learn and, more importantly to students; how much they have to pay for access to up-to-date, credible, high-quality information.

Continue reading Scitable: Can this free website shake up the textbook industry?

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It’s that time of year again, if you have kids in college or getting ready for college: It’s time to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form, the tedious, repetitive, boring and mildly intrusive paperwork required to qualify for financial aid.

Everyone should fill out the FAFSA form: It’s free, and you have nothing to lose and tons to gain by filling it out and turning it in. But The Los Angeles Times reports that “students often limit their college search to institutions that they think they can afford — typically junior colleges and state colleges and universities, rather than high-priced private schools. The folly is that high-priced private schools often provide so much aid that they become more affordable than less prestigious colleges. . .”

Continue reading Financial aid tips: Sticker price still does matter

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The New York Times reports on the ease with which a few small colleges are boosting applications with clever direct mail marketing campaigns — that look a lot like credit card offers.

The mass mailings are designed to make the prospective applicant feel special: envelopes marked “distinctive candidate application” contain letters offering a waiver of application fees and essay requirements — and in some cases, a decision can be yours in just three weeks.

Continue reading Colleges recruit students with credit card-inspired mass mailings

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So what if that dude in the cubicle next to yours decides to get a masters degree, then grabs the promotion you wanted — but the degree turns out to be fake? A number of high-profile cases over the years demonstrate that some people in middle and senior corporate, government and non-profit management are not above using a bogus credential to get ahead.

There’s Sven Otto Littorin, for instance, a Swedish government official who got caught in 2007 boasting an MBA from “Fairfax University.” (The degree has since disappeared from his CV.) Or Laura Callahan, a U.S. government executive who in 2003 stepped down from her job after claiming a doctorate in computer information systems from “Hamilton University.” Two things are interesting about these two cases: One, anyone doing a background check could have discovered Fairfax and Hamilton are questionable alma maters. Two, Sven happens to be Sweden’s minister for employment. And before the incident cost her career, Callahan was deputy chief information officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Degree mills have been around a long time. Obviously they have allure. Who wouldn’t want a real credential, for instance, for life experience? How many of us have earned the equivalent of a Ph.D in psychology just dealing with bosses and co-workers for a decade or two?

Continue reading Bogus online degrees may be more widespread than you think

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A friend who recently graduated from college explained his problem to me: He doesn’t have a job and no longer qualifies for his parents’ insurance plans.

So now, in addition to the difficulty of making student loan payments without any money, he doesn’t have health insurance. Unfortunately, his situation is not rare: a report from the Commonwealth Fund found that 34% of college graduates spends some time without health insurance in the year after graduation — a roll of the dice that puts a third of recent grads one medical emergency away from financial ruin at worst and a a lack of access to needed health care at best.

But what can be done? Without a full-time job in most cases, students will have to cough up their own cash to get covered — and without a full-time job, that’s not so easy.

Licensed insurance counselor Bruce Finsilver suggests that recent grads check with their state about their eligibility for Medicaid, which varies from state to state. If that doesn’t work, the next best bet may be high deductible plans, which are also known as catastrophic insurance policies. Finsilver told me in an email that these policies keep premiums down. “Many of these plans offer a limited number of doctor office visits that are not subject to the deductible,” he added.

Continue reading Unemployed after college without health insurance? Here’s what to do

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Yesterday was my first day of classes for the semester and with that came the syllabus for one class with a list of three books I needed. On Amazon, the three titles would have cost me a total of $103.52.

Instead, I’m getting them for free.

How’d I do it?

As soon as the class was dismissed, I made a beeline for the door and ran — literally ran — to the library, pushed several people out of the way to get access to a computer … and put in requests for all three books from the library before another cheap classmate had the same idea.

I got copies of all three books, saved a hundred bucks, and managed to avoid subsidizing the evil textbook cartel.

If you have a student who’s starting classes this week, please: send him this post, and you might be able to avoid demands for textbook money.

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Ken and Daria Dolan, America’s first family of personal finance, answer your questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Parents and students looking for pay for college face an incredibly challenge. Tight credit, rising tuition costs, investing losses on college savings… Today, Ken and Daria help a WalletPop reader find the best ways to pay for college, and offer up a stiff warning to all parents and students alike about going deep into debt to pay for college.

Dear Ken and Daria,

I have one child in college and another starting in the fall. I am unemployed and have to find need-based and deferred college loans. Any pointers?

– Francine

To learn more about the best ways to pay for college, visit Dolans.com.

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