Kristina Ellis was awarded a full scholarship through her PhD. How she managed to get that kind of a scholarship offer is revealed in this book. Raised by a single mother, Kristina appeared to have everything stacked against her -- years of living below the poverty level, imperfect grades and sub-par SAT scores. Yet Kristina discovered the secrets to effectively presenting herself as a unique and desirable scholarship candidate. And she's sharing her secrets for scholarship success with students (and their parents) so that they too can obtain money for college.

98% of scholarship applications end up in the trash because of a couple dozen common mistakes. And if that weren't bad enough, it turns out scholarship judges are just as tired, frazzled, cranky and prejudiced as the rest of us. If you actually think you're gonna win scholarship money, you'd better know EXACTLY the kind of stuff that guys like Judge Josh hate to see in a scholarship application. Josh Barsch has given over $100,000 of his own money to scholarship winners since 2003, and he wrote this book to help you join the 2% of applicants who actually win scholarship money. **Includes over 100 pages of real-life essays with instructional commentary by the author.**

Nearly 70% of students graduate with close to $30,000 in debt. But you don't have to be one of them! In these pages, acclaimed author Kristina Ellis walks you through the wide world of college-finance options, presenting tips, secrets, and strategies so you can develop a personalized plan. A plan to overcome obstacles and get your degree debt-free. With Kristina as your mentor, you'll discover how to: -Establish a winning money mindset -Save up and cut costs before you get to campus -Figure out the dollars and sense of financial aid -Secure your share of free cash for college -Earn money to pay as you go -Choose a school and a major that's worth it -Stretch your funds when every penny counts With determination, the right information, and a well-planned strategy, you can earn that career-advancing degree and graduate from college debt-free. #NotGoingBroke

Presents a step-by-step guide for prospective college students that shows students of all ages how to find and win scholarship prizes and cut down on student debt.

From Pulitzer Prize–winner Garry Wills, the story of Augustine’s Confessions In this brief and incisive book, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills tells the story of the Confessions--what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one-and-a-half millennia since it was composed. Following Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unparalleled introduction to one of the most important books in the Christian and Western traditions. Understandably fascinated by the story of Augustine's life, modern readers have largely succumbed to the temptation to read the Confessions as autobiography. But, Wills argues, this is a mistake. The book is not autobiography but rather a long prayer, suffused with the language of Scripture and addressed to God, not man. Augustine tells the story of his life not for its own significance but in order to discern how, as a drama of sin and salvation leading to God, it fits into sacred history. "We have to read Augustine as we do Dante," Wills writes, "alert to rich layer upon layer of Scriptural and theological symbolism." Wills also addresses the long afterlife of the book, from controversy in its own time and relative neglect during the Middle Ages to a renewed prominence beginning in the fourteenth century and persisting to today, when the Confessions has become an object of interest not just for Christians but also historians, philosophers, psychiatrists, and literary critics. With unmatched clarity and skill, Wills strips away the centuries of misunderstanding that have accumulated around Augustine's spiritual classic.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, some 84,500 Jews in imperial Russia converted to Christianity. Confessions of the Shtetl explores the day-to-day world of these people, including the social, geographic, religious, and economic links among converts, Christians, and Jews. The book narrates converts' tales of love, desperation, and fear, tracing the uneasy contest between religious choice and collective Jewish identity in tsarist Russia. Rather than viewing the shtetl as the foundation myth for modern Jewish nationhood, this work reveals the shtetl's history of conversions and communal engagement with converts, which ultimately yielded a cultural hybridity that both challenged and fueled visions of Jewish separatism. Drawing on extensive research with conversion files in imperial Russian archives, in addition to the mass press, novels, and memoirs, Ellie R. Schainker offers a sociocultural history of religious toleration and Jewish life that sees baptism not as the fundamental departure from Jewishness or the Jewish community, but as a conversion that marked the start of a complicated experiment with new forms of identity and belonging. Ultimately, she argues that the Jewish encounter with imperial Russia did not revolve around coercion and ghettoization but was a genuinely religious drama with a diverse, attractive, and aggressive Christianity.

Every parent wants the best for their child. That’s why they send them to college! But most parents struggle to pay for school and end up turning to student loans. That’s why the majority of graduates walk away with $35,000 in student loan debt and no clue what that debt will really cost them.1 Student loan debt doesn’t open doors for young adults—it closes them. They postpone getting married and starting a family. That debt even takes away their freedom to pursue their dreams. But there is a different way. Going to college without student loans is possible! In Debt-Free Degree, Anthony ONeal teaches parents how to get their child through school without debt, even if they haven’t saved for it. He also shows parents: *How to prepare their child for college *Which classes to take in high school *How and when to take the ACT and SAT *The right way to do college visits *How to choose a major A college education is supposed to prepare a graduate for their future, not rob them of their paycheck and freedom for decades. Debt-Free Degree shows parents how to pay cash for college and set their child up to succeed for life.

"...provides a guide to improving your GPA, gaining college admission, winning awards and fellowships, and networking for academic and career success"--Page 4 of cover.

"This narrative of the first half of Augustine's life conjures the intellectual and social milieu of the late Roman Empire with a Proustian relish for detail." -- New York Times In Augustine, celebrated historian Robin Lane Fox follows Augustine of Hippo on his journey to the writing of his Confessions. Unbaptized, Augustine indulged in a life of lust before finally confessing and converting. Lane Fox recounts Augustine's sexual sins, his time in an outlawed heretical sect, and his gradual return to spirituality. Magisterial and beautifully written, Augustine is the authoritative portrait of this colossal figure at his most thoughtful, vulnerable, and profound.

Travis Gardner lives to play quarterback. He's a standout QB by middle school, and he's prepared to put everything he has into the game. Then Gainesville University's head coach makes Travis a promise: Travis will have a place on the team, and a scholarship to go with it. He just has to get through high school first. As Travis starts ninth grade, he'll have to earn his teammates' trust and dodge opponents aiming to sack the star quarterback. But his biggest challenge might be staying focused in the face of sudden fame. Because now the pressure is on, and Travis has to prove himself with every pass. "Travis' love for the game . . . seems absolutely authentic. This engaging read will resonate with middle schoolers, especially aspiring athletes."—Booklist