We are emerging from a credit crazy era in American personal finance, where maxing out your credit cards and leveraging your house seemed to make financial sense. This trend carried over to college financing, where many found it easier to get easily available student loans rather than go after grants and scholarships.
So you should be thinking of making your own way through school, at least as much as you can. Here are a few things to remember.First, don’t count on student loans. Remember, they have to be paid back, even if you don’t graduate. Leaving college with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off can make your life very difficult.
A better option is to find one or more scholarship programs that can help you make your way through college without a lot of expensive student loans. Finding scholarships takes a lot of effort but there are some things that can simplify your search.
Your financial aid office is familiar with a wide range of programs that are currently being used by other students at your school, many of which you may qualify for. It is worth checking out.If you are still in need, there are a variety of specialty scholarship programs out there targeted to specific segments of the population. If you match their criteria, you may be in line for an award that can help you get your degree.
By searching on line, you can find a number of programs that you could qualify for, some from organizations that you may never have heard of.By submitting an accurate personal profile, you will be given contact information for search committees that could be looking for someone just like you to receive free money for college.
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