How do I pay for college?
This is one of the most common questions students have and it is a good one. In the United States each semester of learning costs thousands of dollars no matter where you go. However, there is money you can qualify for from the government and many scholarships.
1
Federal Student Aid
​Depending on the income of your family you can qualify for a certain amount of aid from the government. You will fill out a form called the FAFSA which will then tell you how much you qualify for in grants (money you don't have to pay back) and loans (money you have to pay back after college).
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What is the FAFSA official video_https://youtu.be/NmEP38x-1Z8
2
State Financial Aid Programs
All states have programs which you will often be automatically enrolled in if you complete the FAFSA. However, some of them are only available if you go to a university in your state of residence.
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Learn more about the programs in your state...
3
Community Scholarships
Ask around the city you grew up in for scholarships. Often companies like banks, engineering companies, law firms, hospitals etc will give out a certain amount of money to college bound people from their community. These are often don't have many applicants because they can be hard to learn about so it is worth doing a bit of digging.
4
University Scholarships
When you have selected which colleges you want to apply for set aside a couple hours to scan their websites to for college wide scholarships available to first years as well as program scholarships if you know what you want to major in.
5
Loans
Unlike what you might have been told loans are not the end of the world and are often worth taking out depending on your degree field. You should exhaust the resources above first but taking out loans is normal (60% of people have student loans when they graduate) and often worth it and unavoidable for STEM careers.
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If you google how much you will make with your degree this calculator will tell you how much it is worth borrowing.
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