Saving for College

It wasn't long ago when I stressed out about college. I was determined to go to college. I had been since I was a little girl, but I knew my family's situation. There was no way they could pay any amount for my college experience. It didn't help that I was a twin, and we were both going to the same college! I remember actually pulling a notebook out in the seventh grade and trying to calculate things like the Pell Grant and how much I had to work to afford books and dorms. I messed up a lot because I didn't know how many scholarships existed, but I was determined to work hard. It came with many challenges, and I sometimes wanted to go home and cry. However, sometimes hard work pays off.

Right now, I am a freshman in college. I graduated high school in June since the whole country shut down schools around spring break. It was a crazy time for everyone, not just for preparing for college but even preparing for everything else in life. Right now, I have no debts, but my scholarships didn't cover everything. It didn't help that I am currently attending a private university, which means higher costs since it doesn't receive as much federal money as public universities do. Even with some out-of-the-pocket costs, I did well enough on my own that I didn't need to take out a loan for my first semester, and I am happy I could stay away from a loan as long as I possibly can. Now, I want to pass off some details that helped me along so far.

Maintaining A Decent GPA

Sometimes, we fall short when we talk to our friends in high school with grades and achievements. I cannot stress enough that whatever GPA you have now is important to either keep or improve. You can still improve your GPA depending on how much time you have until graduation. For those of you in your early years of high school, you have plenty of time. Do not slack off! Those minuses and other things catch up with you! Trust me. I was ever such a perfectionist with my grades, but I sometimes did not put in the effort to see the perfect grades I wanted to see in classes like Algebra. It was when I moved schools my sophomore year that I buckled down and saw less minuses and better scores. For those of you in the later years of high school, try to improve as much as you can. It may not change your GPA too much, but colleges will see the effort. That is what is important. Remember that colleges receive applications from valedictorians and high achievers. They are a dime a dozen for scholarship applications in general. Colleges and scholarship organizations want to see effort. They want to see students who won't just recline during their college years because they did so well in high school. They want people to feel passionate about what they are doing and why. Remember that there are loads of successful people who ended up getting where they are now not because of their GPA but because of their passions.

Apply, Apply, Apply!

I cannot stress this enough! My own sister learned her lesson because of this. She applied to one university our senior year together because she loved it so much, but they wouldn't get back to her on anything. They were doing an education program from another state, and she was trying to figure out if it would help her certification in our home state. She also wanted to know what she got in terms of Financial Aid, and it was in March. She applied in the fall, and they still didn't have her financial aid package ready. She freaked out because of lack of communication and ended up running to me to help apply to the college I decided to go to. She did end up with a sibling scholarship, so I guess that was a bonus out of that ordeal. As for me, I knew what I wanted to do, but I did not know my resources. So, I applied and got accepted to around eight colleges. Public and Private. I then waited to see what financial aid packages they would award me, and I would try to contact students of those colleges and talk to those in my major. If I could, I would try to meet the faculty, but financial aid was a big thing to me. If you apply to just one college or university, you may not be able to see all the other colleges that would love to have you and support you more than the first college would have. It is always good to be able to sit down and evaluate your options before signing any scholarship contracts because certain scholarships require that you did not sign any other contracts from other schools, such as my vocal performance scholarship required. Auditioning and signing up for scholarships was still allowed, I just had to be wary of accepting them before I chose my future college.

Be Involved!

A community will not support you if you do not support them. Many communities have scholarship opportunities, but the chance of getting a local scholarship is low if they simply don't know you. I am from a small town, so sometimes it felt like the popular crowd would get scholarships, but I was able to snag a few because the general population knew I was hard-working, and I cared. I volunteered on mission trips, I helped out with local branches of Rotary and others, I was involved in different clubs in my school that helped the community, I donated clothes and food, etc. My main motivation was to glorify God, but I was able to get scholarships because I was involved with the community. Never feel alone, either. There is a club that will probably fit you best, and your general outlook will be better when people see you volunteering and being an active member of the community. It doesn't matter if you will live there all your life, they just want help. I even volunteered on a stream team where we watched water levels and cleaned trash off the land near highways. People knew my name simply because I tried to be kind and help out as much as I could. Whatever your purpose is when you volunteer or help others, this would be a strong benefit so long as you are motivated to do the work.

Scholarship Databases

There are some legit databases that award scholarships for many different things. There's bound to be a scholarship for just about everything nowadays. You can always ask a counselor or teacher for databases they would recommend because there are some scam-filled ones out there. Good databases would include any that has valid reviews on scam finding websites, databases related to a college, databases from Greek life organizations, and memorial databases, like the Reagan scholarship. Clubs and organizations that are related nationally may have a scholarship or even a scholarship database where you can apply through your school's chapter, like the National Honor Society. If a scholarship asks for your financial information more than most scholarships such as your tax information or any cards, alert a counselor or trusted teacher to seek their advice because most legit scholarships would never ask for that information, especially card information. If it asks for card information, automatically decline.

Work

You need to find some type of job to help with other finances. You can work at a part-time job, or find yourself a job like babysitting or lawn work. Either way, it will help you in the long run. I worked at a restaurant my senior year, and it was my first job because I had a hard time trying to get hired on because positions filled up fast, and I didn't drive. I still work when I am on breaks from college, especially since my college had us go home during Thanksgiving break until next semester, so I am able to rebuild my finances. When you go to college, consider keeping an outside job or apply for work study or on-campus jobs. With my major, it would have been hard to find a work schedule I could keep to, so I worked in the music office because they were flexible and understanding, plus I could study for exams and other things when I had the time. Also, I got paid extra for working concerts and recitals I was required to attend anyways.

Practice Budgeting

Practice budgeting by learning how to budget! This is very important because if you do not set limits on how much you spend in places, you will pay for a lot more than you actually thought you were paying. A good resource I use is Dave Ramsey. My school actually had the program, but he has a lot of free resources and articles you can read, not to mention a radio station to listen. Write down current things you have to pay, or items you are expected to pay for soon. Circle the ones that reoccur and are important. You need to figure the money out for these first each month. Then you can figure in how much money you have left on other items. One-time purchases such as books can be figured in that way. Another popular method I learned from Dave Ramsey is the envelope method. Set up envelopes where you put in a certain amount of money dedicated to a certain store or spending habit. Once that money is gone, you don't have any more for that month. If you use cards, try gift cards. That way, you can easily upload money onto it from your debit or credit card online and reuse every month without hauling envelopes around. These are things to consider, but remember: Budget what needs to be paid first, not the things you want to pay.

Rent!

I cannot stress this one enough. Unless you are required to buy something digitally or need digital codes to a book, rent. It is so much cheaper and besides, you'll never get how much you paid for a book when you sell it online or in a bookstore. Never. Especially if it is a leaf-page book because a lot of stores will not pay you anything once it is opened. You can also compare your campus bookstore's rent prices to other bookstores or even Amazon! Amazon can have your books to buy for cheap or rent for cheaper. I know one book I had was only $17 to rent on Amazon, and if you bought it, it was $125. Same book but cheaper to rent. I also looked up different college bookstores that used efollet like my bookstore did because I was already used to that interface. I found some colleges had books cheaper than others, and I bought books from different colleges across the United States where shipping wasn't much added onto it compared to the price my college bookstore wanted. Keep your options open! Plus, you can sometimes borrow a book from upperclassmen if you go to college events.

I hope these tips will help you achieve your financial goals like they helped me. I don't know if I will have to take a loan out in the future, but I at least saved myself one semester so far by following all these tips. I also talked to other students who said similar things, and they all came from different backgrounds regarding race, financial background, and grades. I hope the best for you in all that you do. May your passion and dedication for education see you through all your challenges.