How to Get Money for college

Let's get this bread

You’re probably wondering: If I get into college, how will I even pay for it?

Luckily, this week we’ll be talking about one of students’ biggest deciding factors in going to college—how to get those big bucks! Although it might feel daunting to discuss, we’re here to make this process as painless as possible.

how do you even pay for college?

When we talk about paying for college, we usually start out with the sticker price. This is that hundred- or thousand-dollar price tag you’ll usually see in a college’s website or brochure, and it will differ from school to school.

How easily you can lower those sticker prices using financial aid can also depend on the type of school you’re looking at.

2 Year Plan

If you’re leaning toward 2-year programs, college is actually something that can be paid for pretty easily! Many students may opt to go to a 2-year college because of the affordability. From there, you can either think about transferring to a 4-year institution OR you can choose to just do your 2 years!

4 Year Plan

When we look at the initial sticker price of a typical 4-year institution, it might look a little intimidating at first. You’re probably thinking: “I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend each semester, much less a year.” However, don’t let that sticker price scare you!

secure the bag, for free

Even though financial aid might look different for the various schools you’ll be applying to, there’s one place that’s very important to kickstart this process.

To qualify for most forms of financial aid, you will have to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, otherwise known as the FAFSA. The most important part of that is FREE application! The FAFSA opens for graduating seniors every October 1st, but it’s not too early to learn about how the process works.

It’s especially important to learn what aid the FAFSA offers. Financial aid is split up into several different parts, like:

Federal and state grants
Work study funds
Subsidized and unsubsidized loans

You can watch this video for a deeper explanation of all these types of aid.

it's all about the money

You might ask, “Well, why should I even do FAFSA? I might not get any money!” And that’s a great question!

Every year, billions of dollars are left over because students don’t fill out their FAFSAs. Even if you’re considering doing other things after high school, we highly recommend that you fill out your FAFSA application, if you can.

What do you need to prepare?

Now you’re probably wondering what you’ll need to fill out the FAFSA! The application doesn’t open up until October, but you can see from the list below that you can collect a lot of this information already. There’s even a step you can get started today as a junior!

You AND your parent(s) will BOTH need to make an FSA ID, which is your FAFSA login (you can start this step NOW at the FSA ID website)
Your Social Security Number and your parents’ Social Security Number
Your parents’ 2020 W-2 AND tax forms (if you’re a dependent student)
Your driver's license (if you have one)
Your Alien registration card if you are not a U.S. citizen

What if you're undocumented or you have DACA?

If you’re undocumented or you have DACA, you unfortunately can’t submit the FAFSA. But don’t worry!

There are definitely still ways for you to receive funding. Although you may not qualify for federal money from the FAFSA, there might be a few state or school-specific funding opportunities that will be available to you depending on the institution. For some schools, they might require you to fill out the FAFSA on paper and mail to the institution to qualify for aid. You can check out which Michigan schools are friendly to undocumented or DACA students in the guide here.

There are also many scholarships for students such as yourself, such as:

The Golden Door Scholarship
TheDream.US
And other national and local scholarships that don’t require citizenship, like QuestBridge, some “promise” scholarships, or maybe your local community foundation scholarship

you get a scholarship! and you get a scholarship! everyone gets a scholarship!

Most of your financial aid will probably come from turning in the FAFSA and getting scholarships or grants from your school. You might even qualify to get your tuition fully covered, like through Michigan State University’s Spartan Advantage Program, the University of Michigan’s Go Blue Guarantee, or Wayne State University’s Heart of Detroit Tuition Pledge. What about other costs and fees, though?

That’s where outside scholarships come in. And like the FAFSA, they’re free—as long as you apply for them.

Many students think you have to have a great GPA or SAT score to get scholarships, and there ARE scholarships for that. However, there’s ALSO scholarships for nearly everything—if you have red hair, if you’re left-handed, if you’re a certain race or ethnicity, if you like sleeping, if you would survive a zombie apocalypse, and many more.

Even if a scholarship is due in your senior year, starting on your essay now is a great idea!

Where to start searching

Start by checking out this list!

College Board: You can get entered into a scholarship for doing simple things like creating your college list, studying with Khan Academy, taking the SAT, and more things you should already be doing! You can also search for other scholarships.

Fastweb: This is a scholarship site that will find you scholarships based on different interests, hobbies, and more that you may have.
College Greenlight: This will help you not only find scholarships, but it will compare different colleges and universities that you might be interested in. It’ll show you what’s unique about each school and estimate how good a fit it will be, too.
MI Student Aid: This is where you’ll find all the information about scholarships and grants offered by the State of Michigan! This site will be really important for TIP, which we talk about below.

Where to find some money from the state of Michigan

One source of funding we definitely want to emphasize is the Tuition Incentive Program (or TIP for short). The State of Michigan has several scholarships and grants for students within Michigan, and the largest one is TIP.

The full eligibility criteria can be found on their site, along with which schools TIP can be used at. In summary, a student must:

Have (or have had) Medicaid coverage for 24 months within a 3-year period between the ages of nine and high school graduation.
File the FAFSA.
Obtain their high school diploma before age 20 ( or 21 for early/middle college students).
Begin using TIP within four years of high school completion.
Student must be a Michigan resident as determined by institutional criteria.
Student must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or approved refugee.
Student must be enrolled at a participating institution at least half-time.

Many students qualify for TIP, and it’s an easy way to get more money if you’ll be attending college in Michigan. To find out if you’re eligible, you can call 1-888-447-2687 or make an account at Michigan Student Aid.

This is especially useful if you’re going to community colleges, where TIP can cover most of the cost for 2 semesters each year!

Where you'll need to apply early

For those of you wanting the big bucks, here are a handful of scholarships due early senior year—early as in, probably the first two weeks of school. Put down these deadlines in your calendar now so you’re prepared to turn them in ASAP your senior year:

Where do "promise" scholarships fit in?

If you’ve heard of “promise” scholarships or programs, you might live in a “Promise Zone.” Usually, this means that students who have attended schools in the area can get scholarship money toward certain colleges (as long as you’ve turned in your FAFSA).

If you attend school in one of the cities below, check to see if you qualify! And keep an eye out for the application next year, since this is one of the easiest ways for you to get money for college.

it costs nothing to get started

There are plenty of things you can do now to chop down the price tag for whatever colleges are on your list. Whether you’re creating your FSA ID, writing your scholarships essays, or just searching for new scholarship opportunities, these are all ways to begin minimizing the cost of college.

Although financial aid might be daunting, taking it one step at a time and starting early are ways to avoid getting overwhelmed in October. And don’t forget: as always, your advisor or counselor is ready to help with any questions or issues you might have. All you have to do is ask!

Good luck making that money!

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