Standard Ways to Pay Money for College

So you're going to start college, or you've already started, and you are thinking about how to pay money for college. What are the standard ways of getting this money?

Usually potential or current college students file something called the FAFSA. This is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It allows the government to access how much need you have. You can sometimes get grants and free money through this.

After filling out the FAFSA, you can try for grants, scholarships, and loans. Grants are based on financial need. If your family makes too little money to send you to college (based on what the government thinks is "too little money"), you can earn some cash to pay money for college through a grant. I personally find these hard to get. Usually people don't represent enough need to qualify.

There are also scholarships. These are free money rewards to aid you to pay money for college. Scholarships come in all different varieties. Some are need based. Some are based on race. Some are based on the first member in the family to go to college. Many are based on academic performance. Some can be for sports performance. There is a very wide variety to choose from. The competition, however, can be fierce. I personally received several scholarships, but still not enough to completely pay for college. I had to use some of my personal money as well.

There are also loans. There are two types: there are loans that you take out personally, and there are loans that your parents can take. Personal student loans generally pay much less money, as you are more "at risk" of dropping out. Parent loans can pay a lot more. While student loans generally will not cover all of college tuition, parent loans sometimes can.

So what if these three money-making avenues cannot earn you enough money to pay money for college?

You can always get a part-time job. While not exactly fun, they can earn some side change to help make some payments. There's also the full-time job as an intern or CoOp. As an intern or CoOp, you can work in a field related to your major and still be paid (some internships are paid). While CoOperative education will delay your graduation, it gives you experience in the field you are majoring in. I highly recommend it, as I am doing it now.

As a final note, if you don't want to take a job, or simply don't have time for it, you can always try to make some money off the Internet. Selling items on eBay is probably the best place to start. You can also try affiliate marketing. This is my personal favorite, and probably the most rewarding. If you become good at this, you can actually earn enough money to completely pay money for college!

So the next time you must pay money for college, consider the options listed here. All are possibilities and can be used to get that extra money to pay those high college costs.