Paying for College

Going to college can be expensive. There are two main categories of expenses:

Tuition for college
Living expenses; often when going to school, you cannot also work a job that sufficiently covers your living expenses.

Obviously, the basic first step is knowing your own financial situation as well as the financial/moral support that may be available to you from family/friends etc.

After that, you need to know tools are available out there to help you pay your way through. There are two main types:

Grants/Scholarships: This is money for free, where either the school or some other entity will give you money to help you.

Loans: You can borrow money in many ways. You can borrow from the government, you can borrow from schools, you can borrow from private lenders, or you can borrow from interest-free communal Chesed funds etc.

Resources below:

Government loans:

FAFSA - https://fafsa.ed.gov/
- These are government loans which can take years to pay back, depending on the payment plan, etc.

Other Loans/Scholarships:

Each school may have their own private loan or scholarship packages available
The Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) helps eligible New York State residents pay tuition at approved schools in New York State; grants are given up to $5,165. See here for more: https://www.ny.gov/services/apply-new-york-state-tap
The Hebrew Free Loan Society - Interest free loans for those that qualify: https://hfls.org/loan-programs/.
- The Hebrew Free Loan Society also offers scholarships (free money) to those that qualify, http://hfls.org/scholarships/apply/
There are certain grants available for certain education courses, see https://www.ecetp.pdp.albany.edu/
Another option is to borrow from family/friends; this is breathtakingly situation dependent.