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The question of how to pay for college is usually one with a complicated answer. Your own unique financial situation, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences all come into play. Some of the most important factors that come up center around your ability and willingness to take out student loans.

In this guide, I'll thoroughly cover how to pay for college without loans. This can help you pay for college without going broke, or at least graduating without a load of student debt.

Maybe taking out loans for college isn’t a good financial option for you. Maybe your parents can’t or won’t co-sign on the necessary loans. Maybe you just hate the thought of having student debt. Whatever your reasons, choosing to pay for college without loans is a completely valid decision. I won’t sugarcoat this—it might make paying for college more difficult, especially if you don’t have many other financial aid options available. That isn’t to say, however, that there aren’t some viable options available for almost any student who wants to avoid taking on debt.

Before going through all these options, I’ll briefly talk about college expenses and the reasons why some people choose to take out loans. Then, I’ll give non-loan aid options for students based on whether they demonstrate high or low financial need. I’ll finish off with info on how much aid you can expect to receive without having to take on debt.

Have you been significantly involved in community service or volunteer work? Will you be applying to college soon? Good news! You can use your community service experiences as a way to help pay for college or to fund future volunteer projects. 

Read on to learn what community scholarships are, how you can find one, and how you can increase your chances of winning one.

The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the one application you’ll need to submit in order to be considered for all forms of federal aid. If you’re interested in financial aid at all (even if you’re thinking about private funding sources or school-based aid), it’s of the utmost importance you submit one of these applications.

The application itself seems daunting at first, but with a little bit of forethought and a few hours of your time, you’ll be able to complete it successfully! I'll start off this post with some info about the FASFA, before moving on to step-by-step instructions on how to apply for FAFSA. Finally, I'll give you some tips on what you should be doing after your submit your FAFSA.

Ready to get some financial aid? We'll present everything you must know in order to apply most successfully.

Have you heard your high school counselor or other students reference the FAFSA, and you didn't know what they were talking about? What is FAFSA, and what do you have to know about it? Well, if you're hoping to get financial aid for college, then it's critical that you know about the FAFSA.

In this article, I will explain what the FAFSA is, why it's important, and the information you need to fill it out.

You’ve struggled all your life with scissors. You felt distinctly discriminated against during handwriting classes in grade school. And shaking hands feels downright unnatural.

In short, you’ve suffered. And everyone knows that for every challenge out there, there’s a college scholarship to reward those who have struggled through it.

Read on to hear about scholarships for you long-suffering lefties.

For many students, loans are vital to being able to afford an education. The cost of a college education in the US is cost-prohibitive for many families, and loans help to close the gap between what school costs and what families can actually afford. As of last year, over 40 million Americans are working to pay off student debt.

Learning how to get student loans sounds daunting and burdensome, but if you’re smart about how and where you get your loans, taking on debt can be a manageable option. Here, I’ll walk you through all the steps to getting student loans, including calculating your own need, finding loans, applying for loans, and managing repayment. 

First, though, I'll talk a little bit about how student loans work. 

When you take out a loan, the expectation is that you'll pay back all the money you've borrowed (plus interest, of course). It usually takes pretty catastrophic circumstances for a federal student loan to be canceled, like your school shutting down before you can get your degree.

The Perkins loan program is different, in a good way - it offers loan forgiveness/cancellation in a wide variety of other, happier circumstances. In an effort to encourage graduates to pursue certain public service careers, the loan program offers loan forgiveness, or cancellation, to borrowers in certain professions. If you have a Perkins loan and enter one of the fields I outline below, you could have up to 100% of your loan canceled. Read on to learn more about cancellation eligibility & the loan cancellation process!

If you're thinking about going to college, you probably know by now that an education is, well, expensive. It's not just tuition you're worried about—there are so many other costs associated with forging out on your own, especially if you'll be living away from home for the first time. The best way to tackle these expenses? First, you have to educate yourself about the reality of college costs.

In this comprehensive guide, I'll walk you through all the expenses you'll need to consider when you go to college, both obvious and not-so-obvious. Then, I'll discuss factors that affect how much money you and your family actually pay out-of-pocket—it's not as hard as you think to get a first-rate education for a bargain.

Looking to gain a little more independence and real-world experience? Hoping to develop some useful professional skills? Getting a job as a teenager is a great way to work towards these goals. In this post, I'll talk a little bit about why you should (or shouldn't) get a job, before telling you what you should be looking for in your first part-time position. Read to the end for tips & strategies on finding the best job for you!

If you're brainstorming different methods of funding your college education, you've likely considered working your way through school. The federally-funded Work Study program exists to make this option a little more viable. You don't receive a loan or a grant - instead, you get a job that exists partly because this program subsidizes your wages.

Work-study awards are unique components of many students' financial aid packages. Because these awards are so different from your typical loan, grant, or scholarship, you might have questions about how they work, exactly. In this post, I'll go over everything you need to know about Work Study.

There are a lot of great federal aid options out there, for every type of student. The Perkins loan may just be one of many types of federal loans, but it comes with a lot of perks that make it worth an in-depth look. I'll go through all the information you need about this loan program, before telling you how to get your own Perkins loan. 

You have a general idea of what it means to take out a loan, but calling a loan "unsubsidized" makes it sound a bit suspicious. What is an unsubsidized loan, and how are they different from subsidized loans? Are they good options if you're considering taking on student debt?

Here's the unsubsidized loan definition: a Direct Unsubsidized loan is one type of financial aid provided by the US federal government, or more specifically, the US Department of Education. You can also receive Direct Subsidized loans as part of your financial aid package.

In this post, I'll discuss why these loans exist, before talking in more detail about how loans usually work. With this information, you'll be able to get a full understanding of the details of Direct Unsubsidized loans and whether they may be a good option for you.

In looking over the financial aid packages that colleges provide, you might see some terms that are unfamiliar. You have a general idea of what a loan is—you borrow money now, and pay it back later (plus some extra)—but what's a Direct Subsidized Loan? As it turns out, subsidized student loans are pretty unique (in a good way).

So what is a subsidized loan? How do you define subsidized and compare it to unsubsidized loans?

A Direct Subsidized student loan is one type of financial aid provided by the US federal government, or more specifically, the US Department of Education. You can also get Direct Unsubsidized student loans as part of your federal financial aid package. Before we get into the specifics of subsidized loans, I'll talk a little bit about why these loans exist, and how loans usually work.

If there's a gap between what you actually have to pay for college and your school's price tag, you might be considering taking out student loans. What you might not know is that there are different types of student loans, with different terms and restrictions.

First, we'll cover the basics of what it means to take on student debt. Then, we'll walk you through the differences between two major federal loan types: Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized. If you want a quick overview, just jump to the end of the article for a side-by-side comparison!

You may have heard of Pell Grants, which can be really important in helping students fund their college educations. Although the Pell sounds enticing, figuring out how to actually get a Pell Grant may be overwhelming. How do you know if you're eligible? Where do you apply? How do you keep track of your application? 

As it turns out, getting a Pell Grant isn't too difficult if you know where to begin. Follow the steps in this guide to optimize your chances of receiving Pell Grant money.