Amid news of tightening budgets and declining endowments, several colleges and universities are putting a greater focus on shoring up financial aid programs and helping their students find money for college.  While reports of hiring freezes and halted construction plans has come from numerous institutions, keeping students in school has remained a priority.

This focus on student financial aid is reflected in recent fund raising shifts, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.  Several schools are introducing or ramping up fund raising efforts directed at providing college scholarships and grants for their students.  Among the private colleges increasing fund raising efforts are Cornell University and Barnard College.  State universities, such as the University of Texas at Austin, are also increasing effort to meet students' growing financial needs.

College presidents at multiple institutions are even dipping into their own salaries and savings to help their schools.  A recent news post in the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis has taken a voluntary 10% pay cut to help reduce operating costs, and the president of the University of Pennsylvania has donated $100,000 to help fund undergraduate research at her university.

All of this goes to show that despite economic trouble, scholarship opportunities are still out there.  Keep plugging away at your scholarship search and you can still afford a college education.

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