Crazy Ways to Get a Good Scholarship

College is expensive. There’s no two ways about this. The ballooning costs of a college education are a serious problem in the US. While there are loans available for students, they’re generally not a great idea. The interest rates and penalties on private loans are downright predatory, and government loans don’t usually cover everything. To help you out, here are some crazy ways to get a good scholarship!

Great Websites for Finding a Good Scholarship

Collegeboard.org

This site has a great number of features for you to check out. The site is primarily aimed at being a college planning site, but it has a whole division set aside for scholarship. Fill out your profile as accurately as you can and it will help you sniff out great scholarships! If you’ve been in extracurricular activities, have a high GPA or were on a sports team, include that!

Even students who didn’t do any of those things might find good scholarships. Make sure you fill out all the info about your background, your family and where you’re from. There are scholarships for all kinds of things! You never know what types of markers you might have that make you a good candidate for a scholarship. That’s why it’s so important to fill out the paperwork as accurately and thoroughly as you can!

Scholarships.com

It should come as no surprise that a site called Scholarships.com can help you find scholarships. Jokes aside, this is a fantastic resource for college hopefuls. The site features scholarships from a wide variety of sources, and you’re bound to find something that applies to you.

There are a ton of search criteria you can use to try to find a scholarship for you. Everything from scholarships for academics, sports, clubs and even backgrounds can be found on Scholarships.com. That’s not to say you shouldn’t also make a detailed profile! Again, you can never know just how many great scholarships are just waiting for you!

Chegg

Chegg is a cool site for a few reasons. The first reason is pretty evident right away: they’re a great site for finding textbooks! While getting textbooks for your classes is going to be expensive, it’s well worth it. You’ll usually fall behind your classmates and fail the course if you try to wing it without a textbook. It can be tempting to try to find the book for free online, but that’s not always an option. Some books are hard to find, and others are far too big to parse in PDF form.

All that being said, Chegg is a great place to buy college textbooks from. They have good prices and a great search function. Whether you’re a freshman going in or a returning upperclassman, you should check out Chegg’s bookstore. As for the scholarships, they have a wide variety you can search on their site too!

Simply go to the homepage and select “colleges.” Then, in the drop menu, select “scholarships.” As you would expect, there are a number of criteria you can search through to find a scholarship that’s right for you. They even have a “top scholarships this week” filter to help you find some of the most popular options among other students.

As with the other sites in this list, you can also make a detailed profile. Make sure to include all pertinent information: it can help you get the best scholarships! Every little bit helps!

The U.S. Labor Department’s Free Search Tool

It’s good to check with this free search tool, as well. If you’ve already applied for FAFSA, this should be your next step. The government has a number of programs in place to help you figure out good ways to pay for college. Remember: people want you to succeed. Your success is important! Government programs like this is funded by taxes and made to help the people. That’s you!

If you still need help after checking all of these sites, consider speaking to your university’s financial aid office. It can be really difficult to find enough assistance to pay for school! Just remember that you can take government subsidized loans out relatively safely. Just be really careful that you don’t take out more loans than you’ll be able to pay back!