By Evelin Cabrera

Any student interested in going to college needs to be interested in scholarships. Unfortunately, hardly anyone has a parent so wealthy that they can just pay the entire tuition bill for us, making college too expensive. If you do, that’s a blessing but if you don’t that does not mean college is going to be expensive. While there is financial aid out there, scholarships are also available.

Think of scholarships as a rich relative that will help you get some money to help you go to school. You don’t have to be a full time athlete or an A+ student to get a scholarship. Honestly, there are scholarships for almost anything. You just need to go out, find them and apply! You can get a scholarship for the smallest things and many students do not realize that.

Ever since we walked into PHS as freshmen we have been dreaming of graduation and then going on to college. We have not been thinking about how to pay for it, or how to go about getting a scholarship. Now it is our senior year and we see how much our dream school costs. The sticker shock of college is heartbreaking.

Luckily, you can apply to college for as long as you are in school but sadly not many students get a head start in scholarships when they are freshman. Some students realize while others don’t care.

Getting an education is an expensive proposition, but it is not impossible. Students also do not need to be in debt for the rest of their lives. Financial aid is out there, make sure you get that, but you must also take it on to get as much free money as you can. Scholarship possabilities are limitless and, who would not want a free or lower cost tuition to college.

Now that your interest in getting a scholarship is piqued, you are probably asking, “Now what do I do?”
Luckily there are a great many resources provided by PHS to help you get through this complicated procedure. Counselors are there and are happy to help you apply to schools, get the financial aid you need, and also help you get any scholarships you qualify for. They live for that.

If you are already accepted to a school and know you are going there, good for you and congratulations! Talk to the financial aid office there about aid and scholarships that might only apply to that school. Every school has this service.

Applying for scholarships is not a hard process and it will be worth it at the end. There are some scholarships that you may have to write an essay, but that is not the end of the world. There is also tutoring to get help writing it, and your English teacher can help you out.

Others request that you do community service and still others that you do not have to do anything to qualify for. Reality check, we are doing essays in school all the time, why not put one of them to good use and get some money for college?

As a high school senior, I wanted to go to college out-of-state, however, even though getting accepted, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to afford it and I did not want to risk going and not getting any scholarship money. This made me regret not applying for scholarships sooner, because I decided to leave it at the last minute or did not really care to do it.

Now I am still going to go to a great school and it is more affordable, but that’s not stopping me from applying for scholarships. Nobody wants to pay for school and you should not have to.

If college is your plan after high school, realize that it is an expensive proposition. Additionally, parents will not or cannot pay for it. That means that college will be full time as a student and possible working at the same time. The more you get in aid and in scholarships, means the less you will have to work during school.

So by getting scholarships it is kind of like working a job. So, put in the time, punch your time card, get that money, so that you can study harder and longer in college, and spend less time working a job.

Applying for scholarships early gives you more chances to get more and more scholarships. It is important to do research. It is not worth going to college and being in debt when you could have applied for scholarships.

So if you have not started already, I suggest you start now, search up any scholarships and apply, apply, apply. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get half of your tuition free or maybe your whole tuition free.