How to Pay for College

A big issue that a lot of students face, especially first gens, when it comes to college is the financial burden. Let's face it, college is expensive, and unfortunately the reality of being a first gen often means that we're coming from a family that will have a harder time paying for it. The good news is that there are ways around this. There are quite a few ways that you can find help paying for college, and this post will list a few of those resources as well as how to use them and when.

The most important resource out there is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). FAFSA is basically free money from the government. Here's how it works:

• The application opens on October 1st each year. Fill this out as soon as possible the year before you'll start college, because the sooner you submit it, the more money you could get. The application can be found at studentaid.gov

  • Keep in mind that you'll need to already know which schools you're applying to before you fill out the application, and you will need your parents around to help because you'll be filling in their tax information.

• The money will be awarded in the Spring, usually around March or April. The money that is awarded comes in three forms.

  • Grants: These are awards that do not need to be paid back, ever. This is the definition of free money, so you definitely want to accept these!

  • Subsidized Loans: These are awards that do need to be paid back, but not until you graduate. Essentially, the interest rates on these loans do not begin until your graduation date, which means that the amount you loan out will remain the same for the duration that you're in college. These are your second best options to grants, since you will have some time to save up before you need to start paying them back.

  • Unsubsidized Loans: These are awards that do need to be paid back, and as soon as possible. The interest rates on these loans begin accruing immediately, so you will want to make payments as often as possible. These types of awards are still helpful, but should likely be a last resort after you've exhausted all other options.

Another resource available to you are scholarships. Scholarships are great because, similar to grants, they are free money and do not need to be paid back. Scholarships are only awarded to a select few based on an application process. Many people think only about athletic or academic scholarships, but in reality there are a wide variety of scholarships that exist with different criteria. There are scholarships for tall people, left-handed people, racial/ethnic minorities, etc. Just a simple Google search will populate a long list of scholarships with diverse requirements, which means there are scholarship opportunities available for everyone! Here are some helpful ways to quickly locate scholarship information:

• Your local library

• collegescholarships.org

• collegeboard.org

One final thing to consider to help pay for college is an on-campus job. Of course, any job will do, but I recommend on-campus jobs for a few reasons.

• If you live on campus, or near it, you won't have to commute far for work!

• Most campuses set restrictions for how many hours per week a student employee can work. For example, my university only allows us to work a maximum of 20 hours per week. This is very helpful because there is no concern about being over-scheduled, and your boss works around your class schedule, so you'll always know that you'll have time to get your work done.

• When you fill out the FAFSA, you can select an option indicating that you are interested in being awarded a "work study" job. Work study jobs are on-campus jobs that are reserved especially for students who need more money for school. These jobs are usually easier to get than regular jobs, since universities set aside plenty of jobs just for work study students.

These are just a few resources that were helpful to me going into college. Of course, if you have a high school guidance counselor, you can talk to them and see if they have any more resources for you. You can also try to call the financial aid offices at the schools that you're interested in and ask them if that particular university has any special offerings for potential students that you could look into. Also, don't feel ashamed to choose a school based on finances. You're a first gen, the coolest part about you going to college is the fact that you're even going. You don't need to go to the fanciest, most expensive private school to make your accomplishments matter. If that's what you want, and you can make it happen, that's great! But it's also okay if you can't. At the end of the day, the important part is that you go somewhere, break that cycle, and be proud of yourself.