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They say the best things in life are free...and though we don’t know who exactly "they" are, we couldn’t agree more: As a Scholarships.com member, you have access to a customized scholarship search, detailed financial aid information, an organized college search, standardized test study guides and more all at no cost to you. Think your friends might like these gratis goodies as well? Spread the word about Scholarships.com through our Tell A Friend Scholarship and you'll have a chance to win money for college – $1,000 for you and $500 for one of your buddies!

To enter, simply copy your personalized TAF referral link (you can get it here) and blog it, tweet it, email it, IM it or Facebook it. For every one of your friends who creates a profile on our site by clicking your link, you will be entered to win a $1,000 award; there’s no limit as to how many people you can send your link to and if you win, one of your friends who created a Scholarships.com profile using your link will be chosen at random to win $500. That’s WAY better than a friendship bracelet!

Remember, the more friends you refer, the more entries you’ll get until the June 30th deadline. For more information, visit our Tell A Friend Scholarship page and for additional scholarship opportunities, conduct a free scholarship search today. Good luck!

by Liz Coffin-Karlin, Scholarships.com Virtual Intern

Students around the country are finishing up finals, breathing the sweet scent of fresh summer air...and figuring out ways to pay for food and “Avengers” tickets this summer. Whether it’s a high-powered investment banking internship or making coffee at your favorite hipster hangout, finding a summer job is incredibly competitive but here are a few simple (though easy to overlook) tips that make you a stronger candidate.

First, do your research before making contact with a potential employer. Know what the company does, what your potential job entails and the names of most major staff members (including everyone you would potentially be working with/under). Now don’t be creepy – just because you recognize someone doesn’t mean you should shout out their high school GPA and prom date’s name (you’d be horrified what people can find on Google) – but use the info to tailor in-person and written responses to be relevant to what they’re interested in adding to the company. I recommend Glassdoor.com for good insider information on popular companies.

Second, take what you learned about Google and search yourself! I guarantee you that many potential employers are doing just that, as well as looking at your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. (You can probably leave your unupdated-since-2005 MySpace alone – even employers don’t care about that anymore.) I know I sound like a parent but I cannot stress enough that you should improve your privacy settings on everything. Worst case scenario, your employer doesn’t use search engines and you’ve frustrated that dude from freshman year algebra who still looks at your pictures. Best case scenario, potential employers won’t see that “awesome” happy hour/prank/streaking incident.

Finally, remember the benefits of networking. I know I’ve always felt embarrassed about using a friend or acquaintance to find a position – it feels like my achievement is less real – but a job is what you put into it, not how you get it. Talk to as many people as possible about your goals, set up informational interviews and even shadow someone for a day. Take friends or family members up on every opportunity – it feels like nepotism but they might be seeing something in you that would be an asset to their company. Don’t turn anything down just because you didn’t apply on Monster.

What’s that? You followed these tips and got the job? Great! Just don’t forget to take a minute to enjoy that feeling of success and achievement before you actually start working.

Liz Coffin-Karlin grew up in Sarasota, Florida, where the sun is always shining and it’s unbearably hot outside. She went to college at Northwestern University and after studying Spanish and history, she decided to study abroad in Buenos Aires. In college, she worked on the student newspaper (The Daily Northwestern), met people from all over the world at the Global Engagement Summit and, by her senior year, earned the title of 120-hour dancer at NU’s annual Dance Marathon. She just moved to San Francisco and is currently working on a political campaign on ocean pollution but will be teaching middle school or high school Spanish this upcoming fall and working on her teaching certificate.

Cost plays a huge role in many students’ college choices. Depending on their financial situation, some students dismiss the schools with high tuition in favor of lower-cost in-state schools because they think it will save them money. In actuality, they could be doing themselves an economic disservice in the long run.

Using data from U.S. News and World Report’s most recent student debt survey of 25 top-ranking public and private schools, Reuters revealed that, on average, 53 percent of students surveyed received financial aid and at least half of students at most of the institutions graduated debt-free...but it depends on what school they attended: Princeton graduates, for example, owed only $5,000 at commencement while University of Michigan graduates owed more than $27,000 despite Michigan’s in-state costs being less than half of Princeton’s. How is this possible? Numerous schools including Princeton, Caltech, Davidson College and the University of Washington have eliminated student loans from their financial aid packages and others like Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley have capped contributions for students from low- and middle-income families. (Check out the entire article here, including this handy infographic.)

While it is difficult for many students to attend college without taking out some kind of loan – especially those attending state-run institutions which don’t have the fiscal means to eliminate debt – it is possible to avoid debt if you choose the right school. Thoughts?

by Angela Andaloro, Scholarships.com Virtual Intern

As college students, we make tons of important decisions every day. Our futures are constantly at the forefront of our minds and for some students, continuing their schooling after completing their undergraduate degree is a very serious option. Luckily, many schools recognize this and offer five-year programs that allow students to begin graduate work as an undergrad and have their credits apply to both degrees. So how can you tell if such a program is right for a student like you? Here are some things to consider:

• Are you positive you want to pursue a graduate degree? If so, then these programs can be great for you! You can finish both degrees in less time than it would take to pursue them separately. Financially speaking, this is also a good move because you'll be spending less money on school.
• Are you looking for a challenge? By senior year of college, some students start to question how much they’ve learned and how challenging their course loads are. If you feel like you need more of a challenge, beginning graduate classes as a senior could provide you with just that. You’ll also have the opportunity to warm up to a graduate course load.
• How much of a difference does it make? In some instances, a master’s degree does not make much of a difference in the type of job you get or how much you will ultimately make after college. It IS very important and almost necessary in some fields – yours just may not be one of them. It’s best to do research on your intended field and see what the pros and cons of getting a master’s degree are for what you want to do when you have your diploma in hand.

I hope these tips help you out but the truth is no one can decide for you whether or not a five-year combined undergrad and grad program is the right fit – it takes your willingness to research, consult with people in the right departments and get all the facts straight before making your final decision.

Angela Andaloro is a junior at Pace University’s New York City campus, where she is double majoring in communication studies and English. Like most things in New York City, her life and college experience is far from typical – she commutes to school from her home in Flushing and took nearly a semester’s worth of classes online – but she still likes to hang out with friends, go to parties and feed her social networking addiction like your “average” college student.

The academic year is winding down but so is the amount of time left to apply for Scholarships.com’s Short & Tweet Scholarship: Applicants now have just one week to enter to win a $1,000 scholarship or Kindle for college!

Whether this is the first you’re hearing about this award or you’ve applied multiple times since the contest relaunched on April 2nd, here’s a quick refresher on what you need to do to create a scholarship-worthy entry:

• Follow @Scholarshipscom on Twitter.
• Mention @Scholarshipscom in a tweet answering the question "What was the most important thing you learned this year *AND* why?" Once you do this, you are entered to win a $1,000 scholarship or one of two Kindles.
• You may enter as many times as you want until May 14th but please limit your tweets to three per day (and no tweeting in class!). Each tweet will be a stand-alone entry and tweets that are submitted by non-followers, exceed 140 characters, do not include @Scholarshipscom, do not answer the entire question or are submitted after the May 14th deadline will not be considered. On May 15th, the Scholarships.com Team will begin reviewing Short & Tweet entries to determine which tweets are most deserving of the awards.

Think you have what it takes to take the Short & Tweet prize this time around? Get thee to Twitter and wield those 140 characters wisely! For more information about this scholarship and others, conduct a free scholarship search today. Good luck, everyone!

Note: The Short & Tweet Scholarship is offered by Scholarships.com and is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Twitter.

Today is National Decision Day for college applicants and while determining where you’ll be headed in the fall is huge, knowing what you’ll be studying once you get there is just as imperative. With the economy the way it is, pursuing a growing job field would be ideal. With that in mind, check out some of the fastest growing jobs in America below:

• Home Health Aides: Expected Growth by 2012 - 56%
• Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts: Expected Growth by 2012 - 54.6%
• Medical Assistants: Expected Growth by 2012 - 52.1%
• Physician Assistants: Expected Growth by 2012 - 49.6%
• Computer Software Engineers, Applications: Expected Growth by 2012 - 48.4%
• Physical Therapist Assistants: Expected Growth by 2012 - 44.2%
• Dental Hygienists: Expected Growth by 2012 – 43.3%
• Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software: Expected Growth by 2012 - 43%
• Dental Assistants: Expected Growth by 2012 - 42.7%
• Personal and Home Care Aides: Expected Growth by 2012 - 41%
• Network and Computer Systems Administrators: Expected Growth by 2012 - 38.4%

Would you consider pursing any of the positions listed above? Will the current labor market impact your decision on what you’ll major in? Let us know in the comments section.

by Lisa Lowdermilk, Scholarships.com Virtual Intern

If you had to guess, what percentage of students start college and actually finish it? According to a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only 46 percent of students who started college earned degrees in 2010. Hefty student loans and interest rates, stress and being academically unprepared are amongst the many reasons college drop-outs cite; some students report being as much as $50,000 in debt before graduation with no viable means of paying it off.

Given this info, it’s really important that you consider if college is right for you before applying, especially if the field you’re thinking about going into doesn’t require a degree. There are still plenty of great job opportunities for people who think college may not be for them, including air traffic control and locomotive engineering. That’s not to say, however, that a college degree is overrated. According to a study conducted by Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, bachelor’s degree holders earn 84 percent more than high school graduates during their lifetimes. And while there are still plenty of jobs that don’t require a degree, virtually every employer will prefer a college graduate over a high school graduate.

My goal here is not to discourage anyone from attending college; instead, I want to present both sides of the argument so that you can commit 100 percent to furthering your education or, alternatively, seek out a job that doesn’t require a degree. It’s better to recognize now that you won’t be able to commit to college than be forced to drop out and pay back $50,000 in student loans later. No matter which path you choose, one thing’s for sure: You’ll have to work hard if you want to succeed!

Lisa Lowdermilk is a soon-to-be published author (her first novel is a murder mystery for young adults set in the future), an avid video gamer and an artist. She enjoys watching thrillers, trying different restaurants and attempting to breakdance. Lisa completed her Associate of Arts degree entirely online and is now majoring in professional writing at the University of Colorado Denver.

Many students think they know what it takes to get into the college of their choice but with record-low admissions rates, insufficient financial aid and increasing student loan debt, the path to higher education is not as clear-cut as it once was. Good grades and high standardized test scores aren’t enough anymore – the incoming freshman class at Berkeley, for example, includes an expert Ping-Pong player, an Irish dancer and a figure skater, as well as a TV star and a champion roller skater – but what if you don’t have the access to even that kind of basic information? The filmmakers behind "First Generation" hope to explain just that.

Adam and Jaye Fenderson's first feature film follows four students – an inner city athlete, a small town waitress, a Samoan warrior dancer and the daughter of migrant field workers – through as they apply to college and attempt to be the first members of their families to attend college. "First Generation" explores how, despite these students all possessing valuable attributes inside and outside of the classroom, the absence of college graduates in a family can result in a lack of financial support and a shortage of knowledge about the college admissions process as a whole.

Check out the trailer here when you have a minute and let us know what you think. If you are or will be a first generation college student, could you relate to the individuals featured? Do you think "First Generation" should be viewed by all students applying to college? Weigh in in the comments section!

Enrollment deposits are due at many colleges around the country in 11 days and while some students committed to colleges within hours of receiving their acceptance letters, others are still weighing their higher ed options. As the deadline draws closer, don’t choose a college by tossing a dart at a map or playing eeny meeny with your admissions offers – consider these tips from U.S. News:

Plan another visit. Sure you went on the traditional tour last time you visited Big State U or Fancy Private College but this time, skip the campus-sponsored activities to get the true experience of what it’s like to attend that particular school.

Contact former classmates. If you know a few students who matriculated to the school you’re considering, get in touch with them. It’s never been easier to do via the myriad social networking sites out there and they’ll provide insight you won’t find in the brochures!

Don’t forget costs. You may have been accepted to your first-choice school but you didn’t receive the grants, scholarships and merit-based aid you were hoping for. Minimize the amount of debt you’ll accrue from taking out hefty student loans by reconsidering your second- or third-choice school...and its more-than-generous financial aid package.

You can read the rest of U.S. News' tips here but we’re curious as to how our readers made their college decisions. Did you employ any of the strategies listed above? Are you still trying to choose your school? Let us know what worked for you!

When I moved into my freshman dorm at UConn, I was one of the few out-of-state students on my floor. It wasn’t a bad thing by any means – I made a lot of friends through conversations that began with someone asking "Hey, can you say [any word ending in R]?" because they wanted to hear my thick Boston accent in action – but it was certainly foreshadowing for today’s abundance of non-residents at state schools.

According to an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, the number of non-Californians accepted as freshmen to the UC system has nearly doubled in just two years. Twenty-three percent of all students admitted for this fall hail from other states or nations, partly because non-residents pay nearly three times the tuition and fees of in-state students – a huge boon for UC, which has had its budget cut by about $1 billion during the last few years. In-state students’ college costs are heavily subsidized with public funds and the nine undergraduate campuses simply don’t have the money to cover the cost of educating them, though UC officials insist that no eligible Californian is denied admission because of non-resident students.) In addition to funding woes, applicants also had to contend with increasing selectivity: UC admitted just 64 percent of the students who applied...and just 21 percent at Berkeley and UCLA.

There were some positive aspects to UC’s announcement (the Merced campus accepted 75 percent of applicants, more students of color were admitted systemwide and an additional 2,100 California graduates gained admission over last year) but what do you think of the influx of non-residents at state colleges and universities?