It’s that time of the year College applications are over and done with for first-year students, but are just beginning for some transfer students. More importantly though, it’s time to fill out your FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov) and CSS profiles (www.collegeboard.com)! For most first-year students, financial aid applications are due Feb. 1st! Following that is the deadline to update your financial aid applications with accurate information from your IRS 1040 statements and the hassle of sending in copies of your tax forms to your school(s). Students re-applying for financial aid should check-in with their school for respective financial aid deadlines.

Fill out all your applications for financial aid for aid consideration. Don’t miss your opportunity to snag free money for college!

Let’s start with scholarships. There’s free money out there waiting for you to claim it! Apply to anything and everything if that’s at all possible. But since you’re not a supercomputer that can easily whip out scholarship applications, I would suggest applying to a few scholarships that offer large monetary prizes, and many that offer small monetary amounts. Your chance of winning $500 is much higher than winning $10,000. Also, small monetary scholarships really add up! Although, one benefit to winning a scholarship that has a large award (besides the obvious financial benefit) is its prestige. To be able to tell prospective colleges that you’ve won a $10,000 scholarship or even a $100,000 scholarship makes you the type of student they’re looking for (not that you aren’t already)!

Also, don’t forget to look at colleges that offer in-school scholarships! They’re the greatest ways to fund your college education. I’ve got a Bentley scholarship worth $33,030!!! A school that really wants you will try to buy you by giving you lots of money to attend! But don’t count on them literally paying you to go to school (i.e. giving you enough money that you can collect personal checks from them without giving them a dime).

Lastly, working your simple 10hr minimum wage job isn’t going to significantly help you finance your college education unless you attend a public school. You get more money, in the long run, if you win scholarships instead of wasting your time flipping burgers. Let’s do the math: you work 10hrs/wk for $8/hr to make $80 a week for 10hrs of work; instead, you can write a strong essay for a scholarship worth $500 within 5hrs and there you go! You’ve just made $100/hr. Simple huh? Now go out and apply for some of those scholarships that are waiting to be awarded to you. Doesn’t this look more appealing than flipping burgers, standing behind a register, or mopping the floors at a fast-food joint?

To start your scholarship search, check out our myCollegeSTAT homepage for our special offers and opportunities for cash-for-college.