You CAN afford your education! But it takes focus and work...
You might be looking at schools that cost upwards of $60,000 a year.
That is ridiculous.
But what's even more ridiculous is how clueless young applicants are as to what that amount of debt means when they graduate college.
I went to Juilliard. Tuition alone is in over $40,000 a year, and living in New York City is like living in a city that pulls money out of your pocket as you walk down the street.
It's expensive.
BUT, fortunately you have an antidote! Your ability to get financial aid from a multitude of sources will offset (and maybe even FULLY PAY) that college bill.
So put on your "cash cap" on and whip out your "financial flashlight". It's time to afford college...
People don’t realize how many scholarships there actually are out there.
There’s tens of thousands.
Organizations. Corporations, Churches. It’s endless.
And yes, it can be tedious to go through and apply to a lot of scholarships but you’re basically doing it for like 6 months out of your life, and it could make you tens of thousands of dollars that you can put into your education.
And if it’s going to save you thousands of dollars then you should be putting in that work.
Look for Less Competitive Scholarships
It’s actually not as competitive as you might think for some of these scholarships.
Organizations are required to distribute funds for philanthropic purposes, like helping students with college, and they might not do a great job of advertising that opportunity for students, so if only five people apply and yours is decent you have a good chance of getting in the hundreds or thousands of dollars here and there which can add up quickly if you put in the work.
Scholly
Scholly is a site created by Christopher Gray who won $1.3 million in scholarships through grit, sweat and hustle.
In realizing how broken and time-consuming the financial aid and scholarship search processes were, he created Scholly to make things much easier.
It's $30 to get access to Scholly and it's worth it. There's a free trial on the app, so you can see for yourself risk-free before buying.
It's organized by due date, which is great. If you want to apply to a specific scholarship, it takes you straight to the website of that organization so you can apply right on the website.
Scholly relieves a lot of stress and time-zapping searching.
Negotiate
Negotiate and appeal for more aid.
Multiple friends of mine who got accepted into multiple schools received WAY more aid from the school they wanted to go to because they shared their story with the Office of Financial Aid and got offered more in order to attend.
You've got to let the Office of Financial Aid know...
"Hey guys, I’m really debating between these 2 schools, and the other one is offering me more money. Is there any way my financial aid package can be re-evaluated?”
Get a Job and make money like a real person.
A summer job for minimum wage makes you thousands of dollars over the summer, which can really help with tuition, supplies, and spending money when you go back to school.
I know I couldn't personally hold a job down during the school year at Juilliard. The training is too time-intensive and rigorous, but classmates of mine made it happen because they HAD to, and I respected that.
There are flexible jobs in the area of your school if you want to make extra money working for someone around your school schedule.
Offer something valuable and make that entrepreneur money.
My brother does photos for people to make extra money, and he recently raised his rates. Nice bro!
I offered coaching and produced plays for next to nothing over my winter and summer breaks from Juilliard to entertain the people. Pat on the back for me!
Turn your skills and passions into a business and get all your friends to hire you. Make extra money on your own time.
Work-Study Program
Each school will pay you to work for them. It's called the "Work-Study Program" because you can study while you do basic work. For example, I put in a bunch of hours just filing paperwork and helping organize office admin stuff.
It's not much pay, but you'd be a fool not to take it.
Inquire about your school's work study program and start raking in that dough asap.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but my goal with this post was to get your mind going and hopefully you feel inspired to start accumulating a bunch of ways YOU can make money to pay for YOUR college.
There are ways you can help finance your own education, and this is the time to do it!