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Financial aid, scholarships and grants are available for online degree programs, just as they are for on-campus options.
Are you nervous about returning to school due to the poor economic conditions that seem to saturate the worlds news. If so, you should rethink your plans. This is actually an ideal time to finish your degree, or even begin to pursue your dream of a college education. Why? Because there is more federal financial aid available now than ever before. Men and women all over the United States are applying for federal grants and tax credit programs to help them get further education.
Federal Tax Credit
Even though the Earned Income Credit has helped a lot of people, there are other programs that will help directly with education. One credit is the American Opportunity Tax Credit program. It is intended to cover the first $4,000 of a U.S. citizen's higher education, and is calculated on your previous years income instead of current or future.
In addition, check tax credits for education at the state level. Some state tax credits are even specially geared toward working women, single mothers, or unemployed persons. For example, there is a program in Indiana that helps day care workers get an education.
Grants
The Pell Grant is probably the most well-known federal grant program today. President Obama's administration has recently expanded these programs especially for low income students, and increased the maximum allowable grant to $5,100, up from $4,050. Eventually the president hopes to raise it to $5,400, which will be a great boost to students.
But I Have to Attend School Online--What is Available for Me?
If you have to work and take care of your family, or if you have a busy lifestyle or have a great job now, you probably don't have time for traditional classes. Don't despair--the Federal Pell Grant is available for online degrees as well as campus-based course work! Many of the other financial aid programs are also designed to include online courses, which is an ideal program for single mothers, working moms, and busy working adults.
Obviously, there are a lot of financial aid programs out there, so this means a lot of money available for you. But it can be a time consuming task to find them--so you may want to consider using a scholarship and grant matching program
 . Many of them are free or very low cost, and they can help you find money you would never have thought possible or found on your own.
Need money for college? Use FastWeb's free scholarship search to find information on more than 600,000 scholarships!
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