College costs an absurd amount of money. We all know that. We are all experiencing that, and that’s plain to see. Everything that you hear about during your final year of high school was “Apply for scholarships! Apply for them!” and even now you may hear that. Nowadays, you may be asking yourself, “Do I still count for those?”
The short answer is- yes.
It may be a little hard, but even in college, you are still eligible for scholarships. There are hundreds, if not thousands of scholarships that are available, from something as mundane as left-handedness and male nursing students, to as specific as children of military families only. Chances are, if you’re alive, you are eligible for at least one scholarship.
Where Can I See?
Several sites stockpile scholarships, but a few come up right off of the bat; ones such as scholarships.com and scholarships360. More rather than less involve writing essays, but that’s a very common requirement. In most of your classes, you’re most likely writing essays, so doing that will probably be a piece of cake.
Other quick searches along that line could be “scholarships in x area,” “scholarships for x individuals,” and “scholarships for x college;” x being whatever you need it to be. You could vary this in any way possible, as long as it gets you the scholarships you need.
FAFSA?
FAFSA- or Free Application for Federal Student Aid- is a widely-used system by which the government gives financial aid to students who qualify. Even if you don’t think you do, signing up for it is a worthwhile process. It could very easily be possible that you do qualify for it, and whatever you don’t wind up using to pay for classes does go directly to you.
Signing up for FAFSA is a mostly self-explanatory process, where it’ll guide you through each step and what you’ll need. You will need quite a bit of time to complete it, and some information that you may not want to relay over text. It would be best to do it at home or with the appropriate documents in hand and clear your schedule to be able to tackle that long, arduous task of giving your information to the government.
Why Should I?
Many people do look down on the idea of needing aid to attend college, or the unwillingness to be completely swallowed up by student loan debt- It’s nothing to be ashamed of. With the rising costs of college and the stagnation of minimum wage, it comes as no shock that student debt chases many people until the day they pass. I highly encourage you to take every step you can to avoid these debts, or at the very least, minimalize them to the highest extent. If the resources are given to you, there is no shame in taking them up on the offer. Even if you believe you will be well off, or you believe you’ll be able to pay it off without a lien being placed on you, it’s better to take whoever offers it up on that.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
E.MCALISTER
Student Author - Fall 2020
I’m just a small-town student.
