Over the past few weeks, many people have asked me if I received financial aid to pay for college and law school. People have also inquired whether the $197,890.20 in student debt I paid off was just related to law school expenses or if I had to pay for college as well. I will tackle this topic over the next few posts, and this article discusses how I was able to obtain around $150,000 in scholarships, grants, and financial aid to help pay for my B.A. and M.A. degrees from Brandeis University. As a result of this effort, I only needed to borrow around $21,000 to finance my college education.
I remember the first time I learned that I would have to pay for college all on my own. I always assumed that my family had saved some money to pay for my college education, but one morning around the kitchen table in my early high school years, my family told me that I was going to have to pay for college all by myself. At that moment, I resolved to do everything in my power to make sure that I paid as little out-of-pocket for college as possible. I knew that if I had too much debt from college, it could impact my ability to finance graduate school, and even as a high schooler I aspired to obtain an advanced degree. I briefly toyed with the idea of joining ROTC to pay for school (more on this in future posts), but I ended up deciding that I would be better off hunting for scholarships and grants to pay for college.
I soon discovered that many private colleges had robust need-based financial aid programs that would offset most of the cost of attending college. I had been told for much of my life that public universities cost less than private colleges, and those wishing to avoiding taking on too much student debt should consider attending a state school. However, many private universities were in fact cheaper to attend when considering the generous financial aid programs these institutions had. Indeed, one of the reasons why private colleges have such a high “sticker price” is because these institutions discount the cost of attendance for students with financial need. After conducting much research, I eventually decided to attend Brandeis University, since I knew that this school had a generous financial aid program that could benefit me.
I am one of five children, and four of us would be attending school at the same time. This fact, plus my family’s background, allowed me to receive around a 60 percent discount off the cost of tuition through Brandeis’ financial aid program. I had to fill out forms every year to remain eligible for financial aid, and I had to provide tax documents and other materials to support my annual requests for need-based grants. One year, I was even audited by the Department of Education, and that year I had to provide an unbelievable amount of information about my family’s financial situation and the enrollment status of my brothers. However, Brandeis University’s generous financial aid program was the primary reason I was able to minimize the cost of attending college and keep my student debt to a minimum.
Even after receiving financial aid from Brandeis, I still had to find $15,000 to $20,000 a year from other sources to pay for college. I eventually received $50,000 over the course of four years from an unexpected benefactor. One day during my senior year of high school, my marketing teacher told me that she met someone who was involved with the EJ Educational Foundation, an organization that provides scholarships to college students studying American history. I ended up applying for a scholarship and won $10,000 from this organization for my first year of college. I reapplied each year I was in college by submitting to the foundation my grades and proof that I was taking courses in American history. I was awarded scholarships by this organization each year I attended college, and for my junior and senior years, the foundation increased my award to $15,000 a year. I am truly grateful to this foundation for the help they gave me, and my story proves that you should pursue every lead when finding scholarships to pay for college. You never know if you will be successful, and if you are, you can defray a large amount of educational costs.
Even with Brandeis’ financial aid and the scholarships from the EJ Educational Foundation, I still borrowed about $10,000 a year for my first two years of college. However, Brandeis had a scholarship fund called the Brandeis Achievement Award that they offered to current students who had high grades and made an impact on the college community. I think the scholarship fund might have been aimed at keeping current students from transferring to other colleges since the award was only available for the last two years of college, and could only be won by current students who did not have merit scholarships. I ended up applying for the scholarship, and was awarded $10,000 for each of my last two years of college. This meant that I would pay almost nothing for my junior and senior years at Brandeis University.
For good measure, I became a Community Advisor during my last two years of college as well. Community Advisors at Brandeis got free housing, which I believe was valued at around $5,000 a year. This was around the remaining amount of financial aid I needed to completely pay for college, and working as a Community Advisor ensured that I would pay nothing for my last two years of college. Plus, Community Advisors received guaranteed on-campus housing, and I really enjoyed the work which were extra benefits to assuming this role.
Although some students needed to take out loans to pay for textbooks and other out-of-pocket expenses, I avoided this in order to lessen my student debt. I didn’t really need much spending money while a student at Brandies, since my financial aid covered my meal plan and I lived on campus. However, I gave tours of the campus to prospective students, and this gig provided me with enough cash so that I didn’t need to borrow money to pay for out-of-pocket expenses during college. Also, I worked every summer during college, and although I did not make much money at my summer jobs, this provided me with enough money to pay for textbooks and other out-of-pocket costs during the school year.
As a result of all these efforts, I graduated from Brandeis University with only around $21,000 in student loan debt. I also earned a Master of Arts degree in American history during my senior year of college, so I eventually earned two degrees for this modest sum. Considering I would have had to pay for food and housing even if I didn’t attend college, I am happy I was able to only spend this amount on college.
Of course, this website it not dedicated to how you can minimize the cost of attending college, and the blog is rather focused on how you can pay off student loans early. However, it is oftentimes better to treat the cause rather than the symptoms, and I just wanted to provide some insight on the topic of financial aid for those who might be able to lower the amount they must borrow for college. For everyone else who can’t turn back the clock and lower the amount they borrowed to finance their education, stay tuned, this website will soon discuss methods that anyone can use to tackle their student debt.