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What if I don't receive enough student loans in my financial aid package to cover the cost of college?

My family may not help pay and my loans leave a small amount to cover. #money #financial-aid #loans

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Christina’s Answer

Hey Dylan,


If you haven't already applied for every scholarship that you are eligible for - I'd start there. If scholarships haven't worked out, you're past your deadlines or you don't qualify for grants, there's a few other options. One would be to take the minimum full time credits (12) for the first semester and work as many hours as you can to cover the difference for the following semester at regular full time. See how that works out. Another option would be to add more debt to the pile and apply for a PLUS loan (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/plus).


My family did not help me pay for school and would not share their tax information. So, I basically couldn't apply for FAFSA on my own until I was 24. In the meantime, I worked full time, saved, and paid for classes as I was able. I'd take winter and summer session classes to try and get some credits knocked out, but I'll be honest - it took a really really long time. Once I hit 24, I was able to apply for my own loans. Now that I'm 31, I'm a bit glad that I had to do it that way as I don't have any student debt while so many people around me are going to be paying on it for at least the next 30 years, if not or more.


It comes down to how quickly you want to get your degree and how much debt you're willing to take on. If you can be patient, working and taking fewer classes can really pay off. But, with the PLUS loan, you should be able to cover anything above and beyond your initial student aid.


Whatever you do decide, please know that it will work out - it always does if you keep trying! Best of luck.
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Simeon’s Answer

If you don't have enough money to cover it still and want to avoid debt, you could try going to community college for the first two years to knock out your introductory classes. Generally, you just want to apply for as many scholarships as you can. If a scholarship has many essay requirements or applies to your demographic specifically, the applicant pool should be smaller, so those will increase your odds of getting the scholarship. Beyond applying for scholarships and grants, I'd recommend seeing if you qualify for work study. Work study is a bank of grant money that you can pull hourly wages from like a normal job, usually part time. Assuming the same hours and pay, work-study is way superior. You can get study time back if you work in a dorm lobby or a library. You can get lots of free food if you work at the cafeteria. I was able to do both and it was a big boon to both my undergraduate and graduate studies. It helped me connect the dots financially while living in college as well. Plus, you save yourself hours of time commuting to and from campus and don't have to deal with quite the same stress/pressure from having a real job off-campus.
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