Step 4: Finance Your Education

NJIT tries to offer financial support to its online students. But as professionals know, there is a big difference in support between undergraduate and graduate level study, especially if you are attending part-time.  NJIT, however, does provide updated financial aid tips to students.  You should, for instance, contact the NJIT Financial Aid office about private loans as well as graduate financial aid packages.  And there are other less well known programs that adult students can apply to for financial assistance.  Such programs include the Lifelong Learning Accounts, The HOPE Scholarship Tax Credit, Montgomery GI Bill, and the New Post 9/11 GI Bill.

In addition, if you are collecting unemployment and want to return to school, you should contact your State’s Department of Labor. Ask that office about 599 Training Programs, which allows students to have their unemployment benefits extended up to 2 years if you are studying subjects like those NJIT offers which are with employable fields.

Although not endorsed by NJIT, another possible funding source is GradeFund, a private web-based initiative. GradeFund helps others support your education based on academic merit.  Another program, GreenNote, helps students obtain loans via social networking rather than through traditional lending methods, while CollegeDegreeFund.com helps students and graduates with debt find individuals and corporations to sponsor them.