Private school grants are an option you may not have considered because typically, the term "private school" implies an expensive, exclusive school reserved for the upper class. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Every one of us who has lived and grown up in America knows that tertiary education doesn't come cheap. All over the world, quality education comes at a large price, one beyond the reach of many average families. It has gotten even harder during this recession. Many families find it difficult to meet daily expenses like housing, transportation and other bills. There's simply not enough cash to go round for the basic things, much less funding a college education.

As of 2008, the average undergraduate student loan debt stood at $25,000. Approximately 15% of student loan borrowers graduated with $40,000 or more in debt. That's a very big burden to bear; and I haven't even factored in interest rate payments on these debts yet. The average debt incurred while getting a graduate degree is even more, and is estimated at between $30,000 and $120,000 depending on the course of study.

Frankly speaking, all this debt talk paints a very discouraging picture for anyone who's thinking about getting a degree. A large majority of students who are already getting some form of tertiary education are doing so through money from relatives and family members; and that is in addition to student loans. You just have to wonder if there aren't any other options out there; any ones apart from just piling on a huge load of debt.

You might feel the debts doesn't matter, some people would consider a student loan debt as good debt, and that might have been true in the past, but now it's not such a good thing for many reasons. These days a lot of students graduate from college and can't even find jobs. How are they supposed to pay up those debts?

Those that do find jobs that are lucrative often realize that the interest rates on the incurred debts are so high and they can't save for other important things like housing, furniture, starting up a family and even saving up for your kid's education also. The budget just seems way too tight for that. Oh, then there's the credit card debt to pay off too. Lenders are usually more than willing to give more money than an individual can afford to pay and that's true about student loans too.

A good option for making up the figures for your college education is to take a private school grant.

A private school grant is a gift, really, a gift from well meaning private organizations or individuals who see it as a social responsibility to provide you with those funds. You might be wondering how true that is, but it's real, these organizations and individuals give away millions of dollars in FREE educational funding each year. Yes, free, you don't ever have to pay it back. Most of these grants take into account the family background of the applicant, personal contribution, and any family contributions then decide to subsidize whatever may be left.

I'm sure you're already wondering where to find these grants; it's not difficult at all. A simple Google search will turn up a good number of results. The next stage would be to simply find which ones you're eligible for and which ones would be more suited to your needs.

However not everyone is eligible for these grants, and criteria to determine eligibility for each differs between different grant foundations.

Some of the criteria might range from:

Course of study
Some grant providers are interested in funding courses which they believe would be beneficial to their interests, for example a chemical company might want to provide grants for students studying industrial chemistry.

Ethnic origins, background, race
A provider might decide that a particular race or ethnic origin is underserved or educationally disadvantaged and so might give out grants to encourage young students from that background to attend college and eventually contribute more to society. If you fall into that category, you're a likely candidate for that grant.

High school - College GPA
A grant donor might want to encourage students he feels are exceptional and have bright prospects at whatever course they're studying. He would give a GPA average which any intending applicants would have to meet.

Gender
A few organizations base their criteria on gender, seeking to encourage members of a certain gender to attend college.

These are just a few of the criteria that might be used by individual providers to determine who grants are issued to. The criteria vary from between providers and its up to you to look these up and decide which ones you fit in with most.

When you decide which grants are available to you, the next thing you have to do is fill out your application. This has to be done as quickly as possible because there are always deadlines attached to each application. It is always smart to fill out each one thoroughly and as precisely as possible as any information given will be checked.

A large number of grants will require you to submit an essay as part of the application. It would probably be based on why you require the grant and what your plans after school are. This Part of the application is often crucial and helps decide the successful applicants.