Not Just Another Scholarship Website
A Little About Myself
I started recruiting for Bob Jones University in March 1992. We are a private Christian college located in Greenville, SC. I’m a 1982 Business Administration graduate and I love my alma mater. That is why I made a decision to recruit for BJU and why, for the last 26 years, I have traveled the country talking with high school students about the importance of a college education and specifically Christian higher education.
As the years passed I became aware that more and more students were graduating from college with enormous amounts of student loan debt. Some college graduates I talked with had $5-10,000 in student loan debt which really isn’t all that much. That much debt is manageable. Some had $20,000 in debt. Others had between $40-50,000 in student loans and even a few had over $70,000 in student loan debt. One young lady I talked with at a college fair had brought her sister to my table and I began to talk with her sister about the opportunities available at our college. I discussed with her that our college was the #3 Most Affordable Christian College in the country (nearly 70% of our 2017 graduates had no student loan debt) and why it was important to graduate from college debt free. Then I proceeded to tell her about The Scholarship File that I offer to all high school students regardless where they choose to attend college. At that point her sister looked at me and said, “I wish I’d had that scholarship file before I went to college. My student loan debt when I graduated 2 years ago was $72,000.” She lamented the fact that she was now living back at home and couldn’t find a job. Her parents were helping her make her monthly loan payment of nearly $700. And she had 8 more years to go to pay it off. I had a student loan of about $3,000 when I graduated from college. I cannot imagine graduating with $72,000 in student loan debt! And the crazy thing was that this young lady did not do her undergrad degree in Biology, Accounting, Engineering, or any other major that would guarantee her a pretty high salary in a few years. Her major was History!
So as I began to talk with more of these college graduates who had amassed high student loan debt I wondered, “What can I do to help these students before they get to college so that they 1) Don’t become discouraged about how they are going to afford college and, 2) How they can plan before they get to college so that they graduate with as little debt as possible?” So around 2006 I started putting The Scholarship File together for high school students, parents, and guidance counselors. I’ve spent countless hours reading books on graduating from college debt free and planning for college. I’ve talked with hundreds of guidance counselors every year who have given me access to some great scholarships that they provide for their students. I’ve spent countless hours researching websites that provide information on scholarships. And much of what I’ve done is included in The Scholarship File. Over the last 12 years I have sent this file by email to thousands of students, parents, and guidance counselors who have requested it. Now I’ve created this website so that many more can have access to it.
The Purpose of This Website
When I lived in Indiana over 25 years ago there was a commercial that would come on TV about a gun store. I believe the name of it was Don’s Guns. And at the end of the commercial Don would always say, “I don’t wanna make any money. I just LOVE to sell guns!” I loved that commercial because not only was it funny but it really was true! This guy loved selling guns! He knew EVERYTHING about EVERY gun in his store! How do I know? I bought one from him! So with that commercial in mind, let me say this. “I don’t want to make money on this website. I just love helping college students graduate debt free!” How do you know this? Because everything offered on this site is free! Take it! Use it! Give it to your friends! Everything on here is in the public domain. I’ve just put much of it in an easily accessible file. There are books on a recommended reading list that will be of help to you. There are hundreds of scholarships offered on specific websites. There are scholarship search websites. There are articles about scams to watch for in your scholarship search. There are links to articles which warn of the dangers/opportunities of social media.
From time to time I will write a blog on this site about important issues of the day that have to do with college. Some of these blogs will be in answer to questions that I receive from high school students. Other times the blog will be about good books that I’ve read on important college subjects. Mostly, this site will be about graduating from college debt free. I will update the scholarship file every few weeks with new scholarships that have come my way. So come back to the site as often as you’d like to read my blogs and access The Scholarship File and other resources. You will find all of these things under the Resources heading on the home page. The Scholarship File is in PDF format.
Thank you for accessing www.collegedebtfree.org. I hope that this site will be of benefit to you and that you will determine to graduate from college debt free. And if there is any way that I can be of service to you, or you have suggestions for the website or scholarships that you think should be included in The Scholarship File, email me at ckittrel@bju.edu with those questions, comments, or scholarship information.
God bless,
Chuck Kittrell