How to Pay for College with No Financial Aid
Overview
Rather than shed tears that your parents can’t afford to pay for your college education, explore some financing options on your own. You may look for a tuition free college, start a small online venture, look for student loans, scholarships, apply for every student grant available, join a branch of the Armed Forces, and much, much more. So, let us take a look at some of these options in detail.
1. Find a Tuition-Fees Free College
You may be pretty happy to hear the fact that there are some tuition-free colleges afterall, who don’t require you to pay any fees upfront. The students work in lieu of the education that they receive, and it’s a win-win situation for the institute as well as students seeking a college education.
The top 5 tuition-free colleges are listed below –
a. The Cooper Union in New York City
b. Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, KY
c. Webb Institute in Glen Cove, NY
d. College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO
e. Berea College in Berea, KY
2. Student Grants & Scholarships
Well, luckily there are several student grants and scholarship programs that offer enough funds to pay for your college fees. Therefore, it is advisable to apply for every damn student grant you know about, and also to find as many opportunities as you can.
You can consult your high school guidance counselors, friends, relatives, and browse through the various handy government websites such as grants.gov.
Remember, there are countless grants and scholarship programs, so you’ll have to continue applying for scholarships and grants until you find one or more that covers all your college expenses. After all, nobody will give you money, unless you ask for it!
3. Look for On-Campus Jobs
A federal work-study program provides you with an opportunity to work on campus to pay for your college fees without any financial aid whatsoever. This simply means once you enroll in college, all you need to do is to find a suitable part time on-campus job, be it in the library, cafeteria or elsewhere.
Remember, every job is worth considering and your first priority should be to pay for college with little or no financial aid
4. Work Online
The internet presents a plethora of options to make money online. You may write for elite ‘get paid to write’ communities’ online in your spare time and generate enough money to cover your college expenses, including fees and other miscellaneous expenses.
Initially you may want to start off with smaller communities to earn credibility and then apply for writing communities that offer higher compensation.
Moreover, you can also start a personal blog on a free blogging platform like Blogger or Wordpress, and generate substantial funds too. Remember, Alex Tex was just a college student when he almost became a self-made millionaire at the age of just 21 years. If Alex can do it at that age, so can you!
Furthermore, if you manage to get your blog enough fame to be noticed in the blogosphere, there are several ‘get paid to blog’ communities like PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, and the like that offer handsome compensation to blog, or post reviews on your own blog.
You can also earn a great deal of money with contextual advertising programs like Google AdSense on your blog, and the ways to make money online are almost countless.
Last but definitely not the least, you may also consider eBay marketing to make money online.
5. Guaranteed Student Loans
Guaranteed student loans should be your last resort as working in college may render you ineligible for student loans. Therefore, if you take a student loan, and start working in college after few weeks, you may not be eligible for the loan in the subsequent semesters.
Usually students who realize how to pay for college without any financial aid, and start working in second or third year usually find themselves loan-less during the final year in college.
In a Nutshell
So, there you have it, plenty of ways to pay for college without financial aid. Bear the in mind that for students love to be independent and cover college expenses on their own, there are many creative options!
You may also find it useful to read more on financing college, and handy ideas to Pay for College Online
