You may find yourself wondering how do you pay for college? Most students pay over $35,000 annually for college in the United States. This could leave you scrambling to pay your college debts. Luckily, you can use a few financial methods to pay for college. Many families pull the money together through financial aid from multiple sources.

Financial Aid | Get a Cosigner on a Private Loan

Cosigners might be a trusted friend or family member with a strong credit score and stable income. Especially when you can’t get approval for a loan because of your credit, low income or existing debt, you may find the cosigner method helpful. Having student loans with a cosigner often hand you a more favourable interest rate. Meanwhile, cosigning on the loan will help the cosigner’s credit score. Especially if you tried for a loan in the past and received a rejection, a cosigner can grease the wheels to have the loan approved. It can mean the difference between an approval and a rejection.

Fill out an Application for FAFSA

FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and they offer low-interest loans to students who qualify. As the largest lender in the United States, they would be worth checking out even if you believe that you won’t qualify. When you submit this application, it will qualify you for work-study opportunities, federal grants, student loans and school-based aid. You want to fill this out quickly because of how colleges work on a first-come, first-serve basis. Keep in mind, to receive FAFSA aid, you may need to complete a CSS profile to qualify for some schools.

Go After Scholarships

Don’t wait until you become a senior in high school to start looking for scholarships. You want to search early because of how some scholarships will require specific things. For example, the Evans Scholar Foundation, which awards full-ride scholarships, requires that you work as a caddie for a minimum of two years. That means you begin this work as a sophomore to qualify as a senior. Scholarships have an advantage in that you don’t have to pay them back. Another reason that you should fill out an application for FAFSA is because of how many scholarships will require that you have an application filled out. In some cases, they may require that you fill out additional information.

Try for Grants

You can’t understate the importance of filling out the FAFSA application. High school graduates who don’t complete the FAFSA application could be missing out on abundant opportunities for financial aid. You simply submit the application and renew it for each year you go to school. As long as you qualify for Pell money, you will receive the aid. They award this grant to students who don’t have enough money to receive financial aid. In particular, students whose families make under $50,000 per year may qualify for Pell grants. In most cases, you don’t need to pay back a Pell grant like you would for a loan. The Federal Pell Grant helps an estimated 10 million part-time and full-time students.