Applying to college is one key piece of going to college. But ultimately, finances is a key deciding factor for attending school in the first place. In this guide, I will break down the types of financial aid for financing your undergraduate degree.

Types of Free Financial Aid

State Aid

This is aid provided by the state you reside in. For example, if you reside in the state of California, you could be eligible for Cal Grant A/B/C (amount depends on your income and GPA). This creates incentive for students to attend school in the state they reside in. The main way to apply for state aid is to fill out the FAFSA application. The amount of aid and eligibility will vary by state but use this tool to see what type of grants are available by your state.

Federal Aid

This is free aid coming from the federal government. Depending on your income, you could qualify for the Pell Grant (maximum award is up to $7,395 for the 23-24 school year). Once again, you can qualify for this grant through applying on the FAFSA application. You can be eligible to receive the Pell Grant every year for up to six years. Keep in mind that students must fill out the FAFSA application annually in order to qualify and potentially receive aid.

Institutional Aid

Institutional aid refers to free money coming from your school. This could include school specific scholarships or grants. Some schools will automatically consider you for these scholarships just by applying by an earlier deadline while others may require a supplemental application.

Make sure to check if internal scholarship deadlines coincide with their college application deadlines. Start on both college and scholarship applications simultaneously. You’ll need to do a lot of research early and manage your time effectively.

Private Aid

Private aid refers to any form of aid outside the latter three mentioned earlier. This could include external scholarships such as the Coca Cola scholarship or a local merit-based scholarship. Applying for outside scholarships is highly underrated and not taken advantage of. Millions of dollars go wasted as not enough students are applying to scholarships.

One recommendation would be to go to your school’s College or Counseling center office to see if they already have compiled list of scholarships to apply to. Start there and work your way down the list. If you keep applying to scholarships, you are increasing your chances of earning free money to go towards your education.

*Honorable Mention – Work Study

While work study is technically part of institutional aid, I wouldn’t necessarily factor it when calculating your free aid. Work-study helps students qualify for certain jobs on campus. Some work-study jobs may include working at a student office, dining hall, campus store, tutoring center, or such.

Some schools will allocate a certain amount (say like $1500) for work-study in the award letter. This can be a bit misleading as you will not receive the stated amount immediately. Students will still have to go about finding a job on campus first, and THEN they can earn the stated amount throughout the year.

Students can save up the money they earn for their next tuition payment and use it towards tuition but realistically, it would be helpful to have some pocket money throughout the semester to spend on books, supplies, snacks, etc.