If you’re finishing up your senior year of high school and looking at moving on to college, you may be panicking a bit. Yes, it’s true that college expenses have gone up a lot in recent years. Yes, it’s true that you as a high school student aren’t exactly loaded just yet. In fact, the situation may start looking pretty hopeless, especially if you’re trying to stay out of debt. What’s a well meaning, studious high school senior to do?

As it turns out, there are quite a few ways you can pay for college without going broke, and the best possible option is to get some scholarships. Scholarships, unlike loans, are money that you will not have to pay back. This makes them the ideal source of college funding, if you can get them. Unfortunately, many high school seniors find that a lot of the scholarships out there are meant for people who are already making progress in their specific degree. If you’re fresh out of high school and haven’t settled on a course of study yet, how in the world are you supposed to find a scholarship?

As it turns out, there are plenty of scholarships out there for seniors in high school. You might just have to a look a little harder. First of all, think about what you’re currently involved in. Any nationwide clubs or honors societies? Many of these groups offer scholarships to their outstanding members. Research these and apply for as many of them as you possibly can. You never know what you might get.

Turning your attention towards the colleges, give their financial aid departments a call. Many of them will have lists of scholarships that incoming students might be eligible for. Digging deeper, if you’ve already picked out a major, contact people in your department and see what scholarships might be available in your future field. You never know what you might find. The more sources you check, the better your chance of actually getting a scholarship will be.

I want to share the biggest secret of getting yourself a nice sum of money for college with scholarships: apply. You would be shocked out how few people will apply for scholarships in the first place. Let me give you a real world example. I was in a niche focused scholarship program at my university. An e-mail was sent out by the administrator of the program to people in my small major, basically stating that there were open slots and that anyone who applied and met the minimum requirements would very likely get the money. With these amazing odds, guess how many more people signed up? None. Zero. For a $5000 dollar a year scholarship with some great networking opportunities included. Really a hard deal to beat, yet nobody could motivate themselves to write a few essays and apply.

Don’t let this be you.

So, you can see that there is no special secret for getting college scholarships. Simply apply for as many as you can, and dig deep to find ones that work well for you. Trust me, if you are a decent student and are diligent about doing this, you will do quite well. Best of luck to you in your future college career!