JobMonkey is not a college financial aid website, but many who visit us are thinking about going back to college. And for good reason: A college degree is an invaluable asset. Studies show that associate degree holders earn an average of $1.6 million over the course of their working life. Bachelor’s degree holders will earn $2.1 million, and doctoral and professional degree holders can make as much as $4.4 million. But just how much will those bumps in salary cost you? The average price tag for a four-year degree is $50,000, with annual tuition rate of inflation of more than 7% a year...

Welcome to part 3 of our series on distance learning.  You can check out past posts on whether online classes are right for you and what the significance is of accreditation for distance learners. Today, I am focusing on financial aid for distance learning. Here’s the good news:  As long as you are attending a nationally accredited program (here’s a link to a list of accredited online schools), you are eligible for the same federal and state financial aid as a student attending a brick and mortar school. This also applies to most private scholarships, although some scholarship...