Students should consider other financial aid choices

Eduardo Alvarez/Contributing Writer

Paying for school, although still a hefty challenge, has become easier in the past few years.

Unfortunately, many incoming freshmen are ill-informed on the topic, and end up wasting money they might have otherwise saved with the proper guidance.

When one looks at prices for higher education in the United States, it becomes hard not to appreciate our university’s low price, especially considering the high quality of its instruction.

Even still, thousands of dollars in debt are a reality for many students, and for others, the compulsion to drop out leads to dreams cut short.

With just a few basic tips, you may be able to find the solution to the financial headaches faced by far too many panthers.

Federal Student Aid should be applied for by everyone who has access to it. And the burden could be further lightened by the many private scholarships which are available locally, statewide, and even nationally.

For undocumented students, with no access to FAFSA, these scholarships are usually the only options.

A useful database for these private scholarships is a website called Fastweb.com, in which you input information such as your GPA and year and are directed to a list of scholarships for which you are eligible.

They range from essay and video contests that chip off two or three grand from the tuition bill, to others which completely cover expenses for four years.

For those of you who work to pay for school, the Federal Work Study program may be a good alternative to working at an off campus retail store.

Basically, you get hired to work within the university, be it in the library stocking books or as a tutor, and are paid modestly with no benefits.

The money that would have been spent on those benefits then goes towards alleviating tuition charges.

With all this in mind, no college student, much less a panther, should even consider dropping out without exhausting all of these options, which aren’t themselves a complete list.

They also should not force themselves into massive amounts of student loan debt, as it can fill you up with regret in
the long run.

Paying for tuition is stressful, but it can be done, and will in the end be worth it.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash.

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