So many people admire Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away last week, for his innovation and impact on our culture and even education. And though he didn’t finish college himself, he had a connection – through his wife – to helping students make it to college.

Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is a co-founder of College Track. College Track is an after-school program that since 1997 has helped more than 1,100 high school students in California, Colorado, and Louisiana get into college. The first group of minority students it worked with headed off to college in 2001, and hundreds have followed since then.

The organization even drew Justin Bieber, who performed at a College Track benefit concert in June 2011 (that event and other fundraisers helped College Track raise $2 million). Will.i.am also spoke in May 2011 to graduates assisted by College Track. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Jobs family provided “significant” financial donations to found and run College Track. Jobs’ wife remains chairwoman of the board.

College Track assists mostly low-income students who would be the first in their family to go to college. The organization starts working with students before their 9th grade year in these cities – California’s East Palo Alto, Oakland, and San Francisco, as well as New Orleans, and Aurora, Colorado. It provides all types of resources – academic, social, and financial (student earn up to $1,400 for each year they participate to go toward college) – to help students find a way to go to college. Here’s how it has succeeded:

• 100 percent of its seniors graduate high school

• 90 percent go to a four-year college

• 85 percent are the first person in their family to earn a college degree

• 70 percent graduate from college within six years

Many college students helped by College Track (see these videos with students’ stories) are serving as interns and volunteers, sharing their knowledge with current high school students.

Of course, many people are wondering which philanthropies or organizations will receive some of the billions of dollars that was part of Steve Jobs’ fortune. We’ll see if College Track is a beneficiary. In the meantime, if you know of someone in any of those cities in middle school who want to commit themselves to graduating and going to college but need a little assistance, they can apply online.

A student who graduated from high school in 2007 posted a comment on College Track’s website: “To succeed, you need to find something to hold onto to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. That place for me is College Track.”

–Lori Johnston

A company called Escuchame (“Listen up!” in Spanish), which bills itself as “a virtual, global, bilingual Community of Smart Latinas,” has released a list of over 350 college scholarships for Hispanic and Latino students.

The list is worth its weight in gold if you’re a Latino or Hispanic college-bound student looking for ways to finance your education, but it’s free when you register (also free!) on Escuchame’s website. There, students will find the name, award amount, description, eligibility requirements, deadlines, and contact information for each of the scholarships; the list is also available in Spanish.

Deborah Aguiar-Velez, Escuchame’s co-founder and chief executive producer, decided to gather the scholarship information after speaking to many Latino students and their parents. “Everyone kept asking the same questions,” she says. “‘How can I afford to go to college? How can I compete for scholarships when I don’t even know what scholarships are out there?’ [Escuchame] knew we had to step up and fill this need.”

Escuchame plans to update the list regularly, so if you hear of a new scholarship, feel free to give them a heads up by emailing the team at escuchame@escuchame.org.

Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Raquel Velez says, “People are spending hours online, looking for scholarships, when really they should be focusing on studying and applying to schools. Having a centralized list that’s freely available makes the whole process of finding money for college easier on everyone.”

Makes perfect sense to me. Buena suerte!

–Barbara Bellesi

Media slideshows are like the beach reads of the blogosphere–they’re entertaining, but they’re not exactly profound. I was reminded of this when I recently viewed CNN’s slideshow on the 10 least affordable colleges in the country.

I started the slide show with a smirk, expecting to see a series of Ivy League schools and the rest of the usual (and pricey) suspects in higher ed. But other than NYU, I was surprised by the other nine schools that made the list. Santa Clara University? The New School? Saint Joseph’s University? The schools are all excellent, but I never thought of them as sticker shock-inducing before.

Then I read the fine print. The information was retrieved through a new research tool from the Department of Education and it referred to a school’s “net price,” which is the average bill for tuition, room and board, and book fees–without taking financial aid into consideration. OK, that makes sense. But then I saw that CNN only included schools that had an enrollment of 5,000 students or more.

Ah, there’s the rub.

Many people–including yours truly–have gone to “small” schools with enrollments under 5,000. And boy, have we paid the price. Sure, our professors know us by name, but there aren’t as many of us students to help pay their salaries. So even though we don’t have nearly as many resources as the kids at the “big schools” do, we still have to pay quite a bit. And yes, there are some “small” schools with tuition rates that rival the ones included in this slideshow.

My point is this: Don’t make a do-or-die decision based on partial facts. CNN’s post clearly states that only part of the research was used, and as a result, dozens–if not hundreds–of excellent schools across the country were left out of the mix. Granted, you might be very happy that your school of choice is left off the least affordable list, but you see what I’m getting at.

The lesson to be learned is this: There are plenty of colleges and universities out there that don’t make the “right” lists–whether for better or for worse–and that shouldn’t stop you from visiting or attending those schools. College is a personal choice, and that is why no algorithm or Magic 8 Ball should ever have any power over you when making that decision.

–Barbara Bellesi

International students who attend Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada aren’t exactly feeling the love for the True North these days. What’s all the fuss about? Oh, just a 10% tuition hike for students who don’t have Canadian citizenship.

Yup, you read that right. A 10% “differential fee increase” for non-Canadian students who attend Dalhousie, which is IN ADDITION to the 3% increase that Canadian students will face (corrected from earlier version).

Disgruntled Dalhousie students (including those in the photo above) have taken to the social media universe to express their concerns. One online petition states that international students feel “abandoned and discriminated against by our own university.” One affected student actually reached out directly to me on Twitter with the following plea: “Consider letting the world know what a ‘reputable university’ and ‘leader’ in North America is doing to their Intl Students!”

In Dalhousie’s defense, the school is justifying the increase by saying that there will be improvements in services for international students. But those same students are calling out school administrators, saying that most of the changes that are proposed are “trivial and unspecific.” Hmm.

There will always be at least two sides to every story. But when it comes down to it, a 10% increase in tuition for ANY reason is rather hard to swallow. So if you are so inclined, please pledge your support for those international students at Dalhousie who are blogging, tweeting, and petitioning their way to lower that increase. Good luck!

–Barbara Bellesi

Incoming college freshman in Georgia got a shock recently when a popular scholarship program that had allowed any student with a 3.0 GPA to get free college tuition was drastically changed. Many students were relying on the HOPE scholarship, a program that was suffering financially, to attend a Georgia college or university – now they’re scrambling to figure out how to pay for college.

My family was able to benefit from the program, which began in 1993, when my smart sister, Heather, attended Georgia Tech, and I know they were glad to have that extra financial help. The program has helped more than 1 million students pay for college, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia isn’t the only state with a college scholarship program. Other programs, which are funded by the lottery, are in states such as Florida and Tennessee.

In Georgia, the state scaled back the number of  HOPE scholarship recipients, which raised the bar for students, making it tougher to get the full amount for tuition. Students who are the high school valedictorian or salutatorian will get a full scholarship, as well as those with at least a 3.7 GPA in high school and a 1200 on the SAT’s math and verbal sections. Students must keep a 3.3 GPA in college to keep renewing the scholarship money, but there’s no money for books and fees for anyone.

Students with a 3.0 GPA will get some scholarship money, but the amount could vary from year to year. The AJC reported that students this fall will get 90 percent of current tuition – and that doesn’t account for expected double-digit hikes in tuition on some campuses.

The changes reiterate that the most worthy students are going to benefit from the largest amounts of financial assistance. This time, being worthy doesn’t mean based on your financial background, your college essay, or your extracurricular activities. While those are factors that some scholarship programs weigh heavily, the changes to this Georgia scholarship program points out that you have to do your best in school.

The good news for Georgia students? Being the smartest and most successful students in the classroom come with rich rewards.

–Lori Johnston

There are many ways Facebook can be a distraction, whether by checking friends’ relationship statuses or playing Farmville. But yes, some Facebook efforts are for good, like the recent campaign to save student aid.

Art students, teachers-to-be, nursing students, members of the military, and others all have posted on the Save Student Aid Facebook page their objections to legislation that would chop federal student aid next fall. A bill going through Congress proposes cutting 2011-2012 the maximum amount of Pell Grants to low- and moderate-income undergraduate students by $845, from $5,550 to $4,705.

And the proposal sure isn’t getting the “like” button on Facebook.

The Facebook page is set up by a variety of groups including National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the United States Student Association. It has a ton of information about the proposed cuts and even a form that you can fill out to send to your senator from Facebook asking them to save student aid.

Even school officials, like those at Emory University in Atlanta, are suggesting that students visit the Save Student Aid Facebook page. One expert, Rich Williams with U.S. PIRG, puts it like this: “The proposal to cuts Pell aid for next academic year couldn’t come at a worse time. The proposed cuts will discourage millions of students from pursuing college training and graduating at a time when our economy demands more highly skilled workers.”

Can you afford college without student aid? If you’re in the same situation as students who have shared their heartfelt stories on Facebook about not being able to afford college without every cent of financial aid possible, what happens to this proposal in Congress is definitely worth speaking out about and watching what happens.

–Lori Johnston

The next time you go to shopping, think about how one of the stores could be paying you to go to college!

As it keeps getting more expensive to attend college, retailers like Wal-Mart, Kohls, and Nordstrom are among non-academic organizations who are lessening some students’ financial burden of going to college.

Some of Wal-Mart’s scholarships are for family members of employees, but at least one – the Sam Walton Community Scholarship – is for people not connected with the store. It gives $3,000 to graduating seniors with at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA and a demonstrated financial need. The company awarded $9 million in academic scholarships for the 2010-2011 school year.

The Kohls Cares Scholarship program celebrates students who are doing a great job volunteering in their communities. It plans to give more than $415,000 in scholarships and prizes to more than 2,100 kids this year – regional winners get a $1,000 college scholarship and national winners get $10,000 in scholarships.

Even more expensive retailers, like Nordstrom, are giving back to students. Nordstrom has awarded college scholarships of $10,000 to hard-working high schoolers since 1994. You need to be a high school junior with at least a 2.7 GPA,  have participated in community activities, and plan on attending a four-year college or university in the U.S.

Esmeralda Jimenez, one of 40 students year who earned a Nordstrom Scholarship by writing a 500-word essay on how she could improve the community, state, and world, says she had to be honest with herself and recognized that she couldn’t change anything without first helping her family. She says on Nordstrom’s website: “I needed to give my family financial help so they could have a better life and be OK once they retired.”

Beauty retailer ULTA is also giving more than $100,000 in scholarships this year to female students in 13 U.S. cities through the 2011 Enrich, Empower & Enlighten Scholarship program. Each winner – chosen based on community involvement, academic success, leadership qualities, and commitment to continuing their education – will receive an $8,000 scholarship.

But hurry! A lot of these and other scholarship deadlines are in May, so you’ll need to work hard for that money! And if you catch a sale along the way, even better!

–Lori Johnston

I stopped by a pizza place in my college town recently and ran into a high school junior who, despite being a strong local tennis player, was not being highly recruited by colleges. Although he lives in a town where there’s a major state university, the high schooler mentioned that he is looking at a couple of smaller colleges elsewhere in Georgia.

Why? Because there’s a greater chance of him being able to actually play tennis and receive financial assistance to do so at those schools. He and other students who run track, play softball and baseball, and compete in other sports recognize that larger universities often save their scholarships and funding for top players in the country and international students.

If your dream is to compete athletically in college, you’re probably also making your college choice based on who will give you the greatest chance of playing and getting financial aid for athletics.

The reality is that few students get enough in athletic scholarships to cover their entire college cost. A New York Times analysis a couple of years ago found that the average NCAA athletic scholarship was $8,707, while annual tuition at NCAA institutions can be more than two to five times that much.

How many students receive athletic scholarships? Only 2 percent get a Division I or Division II scholarship, according to CBS MoneyWatch.com. The MoneyWatch.com expert also provides six tips for pursuing a sports scholarship.

Do an Internet search and you’ll find plenty of websites set up by recruiting companies who make money helping students get athletic scholarships. You’ll want to be careful about paying one of these companies too much and not getting the results you desire. You will want to research these companies’ reputations and those of  the schools, too, to learn where you could have the advantage as an athlete.

–Lori Johnston