Sure, we’ve all made fun of the way they wave and cry when they are crowned. But you’d be waving and crying, too, if you were getting all that college scholarship money along with the tiara and bouquet.

That’s right: Beyond the evening gowns and talent competition, the Miss America pageant is one of the largest scholarship programs in the world. Last year, over 12,000 contestants competed at the local, state, and national levels for a share of more than $45 million in cash and scholarship grants.

Makes you want to put on a swimsuit and strut around in stiletto heels, doesn’t it?

Don’t forget that beyond the mega-watt smiles and big hair are intelligent women who are trying to put themselves through college. Check out the alma maters of these recent winners:

Miss America 2008: Kirsten Haglund, Univ. of Cincinnati
Miss America 2007: Lauren Nelson, Univ. of Central Oklahoma
Miss America 2006: Jennifer Berry, Univ. of Oklahoma
Miss America 2005: Deidre Downs*, Univ. of Virginia
Miss America 2004: Ericka Dunlap, Univ. of Central Florida
Miss America 2003: Erika Harold, Univ. of Illinois
Miss America 2002: Katie Harman, Portland State Univ.
Miss America 2001: Angela Perez Baraquio, Univ. of Hawaii

*Deidre Downs actually gave up a full volleyball scholarship so she could focus on her studies. Looks like she was able to pay for her college tuition anyway!

Miss America is awarded a $50,000 college scholarship, but don’t think you have to take the title to cash in. Check out this list of recent winners. Cha-ching!

Are you thinking of competing in a pageant? Let BarbaraBlogger know. There could be a guest blogger position in it for you!

Does thinking about financial aid make your head spin? We here at CampusCompare feel your pain, and we’ve got the cure—our financial aid calculator.

Your math teacher might have tried to get you to stop relying on your calculator, but we hope you’ll use ours as often as you like. You can tote up the bill at your dream school, compare costs at a few different schools, or weigh your options of living at home versus living on campus.

After you try out our calculator, why not take a look at our other nifty tool, What Are My Chances? It can help you figure out the odds of your getting into school; sadly, it won’t help you determine the odds of finding a date for prom.

Have you heard about the tuition stabilization plans that many schools have adopted as part of their quest to make higher education affordable?

Schools such as College of the Holy Cross, University of Miami, and Vanderbilt University are enabling students to prepay anywhere from one to four years’ worth of tuition in order to lock in the current year’s cost.

So if you are entering college this year at a tuition rate of $30,000, you can prepay 60k to 120k and save thousands of dollars resulting from tuition increases over the next four years.

Aww, that’s nice.

Wait a minute. If one had the cash to prepay college tuition, it would seem that one wouldn’t have to worry about saving a few thousand in the long run, right?

So who does tuition stabilization benefit? Certainly not the little people. It does ensure that colleges get up to four years of tuition up front—as well as the assurance that it will retain students for the entire length of their degree program.

Can tuition stabilization even be considered financial aid? What do you think colleges and universities should do to help out instead?