Using Twitter to Pay for College

One of the most stressful aspects of pursuing a college degree is determining how you’re going to pay for it. While UMUC offers plenty of financial aid options for students, it’s often helpful to search for scholarships from external groups. You’ll often hear that there’s plenty of money for school out there for those who search for it, but the scholarship search can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate, with countless websites and organizations offering help to those who qualify.

Recently, however, students have been turning to social media sites like Twitter for help funding their college degree. Some schools even offer social media scholarships for incoming students who have embraced and best utilized social media to meet their goals.

The University of Iowa took this idea even further by holding a contest that asks prospective students to submit a 140-character Tweet in place of a second essay. The applicant who submits the “best” Tweet will win a $37,000 scholarship to University of Iowa’s business school.

Similarly, CollegeScholarships.org is sponsoring “The 140 Scholarship,” which asks students to submit one tweet answering a question about how Twitter can be used to change the world.

In addition to using Twitter to apply for scholarships, it’s also a useful tool for the scholarship search. There are many Twitter accounts devoted to promoting both public and private scholarships. Check out and follow some of the accounts on the list below to stay up to date on scholarships being offered across the country:

@scholarships
@ProjectWorkingM
@ScholarshipsUSA
@FafsaHelp
@Scholarshipscom

It might also be helpful to regularly search for terms like “scholarships” on Twitter to see what fellow students and organizations are talking about. You may stumble across a new scholarship that’s perfect for you!

Many of our students use a combination of scholarships, federal and private loans to fund their education. As you begin to learn about your financial aid options, we recommend visiting http://fafsa.ed.gov and http://finaid.org to explore the best way to pay for college for you.