Another possibility for meeting college costs is part-time employment while you are in college.

Federal Work-Study Program
You can indicate on your Federal Student Aid form (FAFSA) that you are interested in working part-time while in college. Depending upon your eligibility, your student aid package can include a dollar amount that you will be able to earn by participating in the Federal Work-Study Program.

Your college student aid office will have the rules you need to know to participate in the program. Some colleges have the available jobs online. Here is how the program works: you will be given a list of jobs available on campus. You'll then choose the ones you are interested in and make an appointment for an interview. You'll bring the work-study letter with you, and if you and the job interview work out, you'll have a job for the year.

The big advantage for you is that you can learn and earn at the same time. If the job is in your field of study, the work can even be valuable to your studies or your future.

Student Part-Time Employment on Campus
Colleges and universities hire their undergraduate students to fill part-time jobs. Large research universities will have more jobs than smaller schools, particularly if the faculty is doing government-sponsored research. This type of experience can offer much more than money. The chance to work in a research project related to your undergraduate major puts you in a position to experience the generation of new knowledge in your chosen field of study. It may even be the engine that drives you to a professional career. At the very least, you can learn more than you would in class alone.

Get an appointment with your faculty advisor and let your interests be known. Frequently, a faculty advisor will be able to refer you to faculty members who have research programs with an opening for a student employee.

Working Off-Campus
Explore off-campus possibilities as well as on-campus ones. Check with your campus student aid offices for job opportunities. The first consideration for off-campus work is time management. Your first priority is still your education. Learning to budget your personal time is an extremely valuable lifetime skill and a useful companion to a college experience. Don't let the short-term benefits of having extra spending money rob you of the long-term benefits of college graduation.