Ways to Get Paid to Attend to College

College is quite expensive and getting more expensive by the year, but there are ways to get paid to attend college. These payments will help avoid debt. They will also offset the increased expenses that arise because higher education has gone up in cost more than the regular inflation rate over the past few decades. Here are a few ways to get paid to go to college.

One of the best ways to pay for college that does not involve going into debt is through the use of scholarships. There are literally scholarships for just about anything. There are scholarships for left-handed people. There are also scholarships for single parents. Just about anyone can qualify for scholarships if they look hard enough.

The best thing about scholarships is that they can go toward educational expenses and do not have to be paid back. Some scholarships can even be used to pay for basic living expenses while going to college. Of course, the best scholarships are the hardest to get, so a person wanting to pay for their entire college experience in this way will need to be sure to spend tons of time finding the best funding sources.

Many colleges allow students to earn a few dollars to pay for their schooling while getting experience in doing various tasks around the school that need completed. The most fortunate recipients of work-study opportunities will have the chance to work at jobs that are related to their majors. Others will be given jobs that are not as beneficial to their ultimate career goals, like working in food service or building maintenance.

Of course, those working on campus will be limited in the amount of time that they will be able to work each week, so they may need to find other funding sources to make ends meet without taking out loans. Those who are able to mix work-study opportunities with scholarship and other funding might even be able to exceed basic living expenses during their college career.

While this benefit is not as common as it once was, many companies will pay their employees to earn a degree, as long as the degree is related to the job description. There are sometimes stipulations to earning college credit and getting an employer to pay for it. One of these would be getting a certain grade. Most businesses require a grade of at least a C (or higher) to get full reimbursement.

Another stipulation that businesses will require when they are footing the bill for a class is prepayment. Employees will have to pay for the class up front and then be reimbursed based upon satisfactory completion. Employees should check to see if their employer will pay and what the requirements are. Some employers will also offer scholarships for students, so this is another avenue to explore.

The most common way to get paid to go to college is the assistantship. This opportunity is usually relegated to graduate students, but it can be a great way to both get a free ride to school and experience in a given field of interest.

For example, a student might be interested in taking a master's program in Chemistry. They would apply for admission and funding to a graduate program at one or more schools. The best funding packages will come back with an offer of a tuition waiver and an assistantship with a stipend.

These stipends are usually quite modest. Few will exceed $20,000, especially in fields like the humanities, and some will be less than $10,000 per year. Of course, it is important to remember that an assistantship is usually in addition to a tuition waiver, so the actual benefit might exceed $30,000 or more, depending upon the school and residency status.

Graduate admission and funding is very competitive, so it is important to do well in an undergraduate program and to get high GRE scores. With a little persistence and luck, it is possible to succeed in getting a graduate degree with full funding and a modest stipend.

It might be difficult to achieve for many people, but getting paid while going to school and avoiding student loan debt is a great goal to try to achieve. The application process and finding funding sources can be quite difficult at times, but the results can definitely be worth the effort for those who are able to achieve them.