I went to college for free without my parents paying for any of it
let’s talk about how I did it and how you can too
I graduated last May May 2023
with a bachelors of Arts and Strategic Communications
which now I think they call advertising in public relations
but basically marketing without the math
and a minor leadership
I graduated honors from the university of Central Oklahoma
so it’s the third largest university in Oklahoma
not typical state school
it’s mainly a commuter school
but I did live on campus
and that was also is paid for
before college
I went to public school
at a pretty small high school here in Oklahoma
I graduated 80 people
and my high school didn’t have any kind of AP classes
we didn’t have really any advanced programs
and I didn’t do any kind of concurrent or career tech in high school
I was very involved in high school
my senior year I was student council president
and I all always did all kinds of stuff
I was in pom for a few years
did some years of FCCLA some years of yearbook
some I did everything um
which is pretty normal at a small school
and it is easier at a small school than is at a larger school
but most of that is not why I got scholarships
so speaking of scholarships
that is how I paid for most of my school
most of my education and housing was paid for by scholarships
scholarships work differently at every school
but in most schools are different categories
so from the school
you can usually get an academic scholarship and or a leadership scholarship
then of course
athletics is different and then aside from school scholarships
there are outside scholarships you can get from external sources
so whether it’s from your high school
from local businesses
or nonprofit families who set up scholarship funds in memory of a loved one
or for something they care about
etcetera etcetera
so a little bit more background on me
I was a first generation college student
neither my parents graduated from college
and that is the definition from most scholarships
my mom did go to college for a couple of years
but she never graduated
and then my dad never went to college
until I was actually in college
and he went back and got his associates
so when I was applying
I could apply for first generation college scholarships
but that also was a minority of the scholarships I did receive
my family was very middle class growing up
my dad worked in law enforcement and my mom was an LPN
so we made enough money to always keep the lights on
I never had to worry about finances
I was very very fortunate as I got older
that my parents made plenty of money for me not to have to worry about it
however we did not make enough money for my parents to contribute
and they had me very young
they didn’t have any kind of college fund
for them to pay for any of my college
and I knew that going into it
from a very early age
I am so so fortunate
that they were very
very supportive
and would do anything they could
to help me get from point a to point B
trying to figure out all of it
so when I got to high school
I knew that I was gonna have to do everything that I could to get college paid for
because college was never really a question for me
my parents didn’t force me to go
but I always really enjoyed school
and all of the jobs that I thought about doing required a college degree
which ironically
I don’t do any of those anymore
um but I just always wanted to go to college
but I wasn’t sure how
and I never had any idea how expensive it was
so starting my freshman year
I took the act
I think I ended up taking it seven times
which was very normal when I was in high school
I know that not very many high schoolers take it that many times anymore
um but I got a 25
I think the first time
I ended up getting a 29
I could have taken it more times
I really wanted to get a 30
but I ended up getting leadership scholarships
and so that didn’t really matter anymore
I did try very hard in the act
and I know 29 is not very high for most schools and for most areas
but from where I was from
from small town Oklahoma that was a really good score
I took all of the courses and did all the studying that I could to get that score
and couldn’t really go up much from there
so after taking act several times my freshman, sophomore, and junior year
my junior year I started applying for scholarships
I didn’t know anything
I knew one girl from my church who was older than me
who had gotten several scholarships
and so she had given me some pointers
but I didn’t know much from there
basically I just started a Google Drive
which I suggest for all high school junior and seniors looking into scholarships
I started Google Drive and put all of my information into it
so I had everything in one place
my resume all my scholarship essays
any application that I did
I put all of that in one place
and knew how to access it
and I just started searching for scholarships
in Oklahoma
there’s a website called OK College Start
I started using that
looked on fast web and niche
I looked into every high school counselors page I could find
I looked into um
every nonprofit and local business that offers scholarships
and I applied to everything
I think that my between the end of my junior year and the end of my senior year
I probably applied to 200+ scholarships
and even though I got a small percentage of those
they really added up
my goal as a senior in high school
was to get enough money and scholarships
to pay for my freshman year of college
room, board, tuition
fees, books, everything
I decided that I’d just figured it out from there
and thankfully that happened and it worked out
what I ended up getting was a leadership scholarship at UCO
that’s why I decided to go there
the leadership scholarship was called LOT
it was like plc but their sister program
it ended up covering nine hours of my tuition every semester
plus a portion of my room board
I also received several local scholarships and national scholarships
that I applied for online
and then also through my high school counselor’s office
um one of the big ones was the National Honor Society scholarship
my national honor society m in high school was awful
we didn’t do anything but because I was in it
I was eligible to apply for the scholarship
and our advisor for NHS even told me like
there’s no way you’re gonna get it
we don’t really do very much
no one’s ever got it from here before
but you can try
so I applied
and I ended up getting one of the tiers of scholarships
and I got I think
$3200 from NHS
other big scholarship that I got was the McCasland foundation scholarship
it’s a local Oklahoma scholarship that was for my county
and that paid $2,000 semester
and I also got a lot of $500-$1000 scholarships
some less than more
so a few of those larger scholarships definitely helped
but the bulk of my scholarships were $250-$1000 scholarships
that really added up along the way
then whenever it came to looking into schools and where I was gonna live
and how I was gonna pay for all of that
I decided to live in one of the cheapest dorms on campus
at that point in time there were two dorms that cost same
the lowest amount
so I picked one of those and decided that’s where I was gonna live
I didn’t want anything fancy
I had a community bathroom and a roommate
and it was just fine
and I highly recommend all college freshmen
who are even worried in the slightest
about money
to the same
i definitely wanted to graduate in four years
because I could not afford any more than that
and because of my scholarships
I had certain requirements that I had to have
I had to have I think
a 3.5 GPA for one of my scholarships
and then I had to be involved in a certain amount of organizations
for my leadership scholarship
so I was a little bit strapped for time
especially as small town girl in the city
trying to navigate College never taking any current courses
so I had a hard time finding a job that would work with my schedule
so at that point in time I started selling clothes out of my dorm room
I had always thrifted and shopped second hand
and I just decided at that time
it was kind of trendy to sell second hand clothing
so I started doing that out of my dorm room to make a little bit of extra money
it wasn’t a ton but it was enough to pay for any extra food
um extra book expenses
gas that kind of stuff
so my freshman year I lived in a dorm that I shared with another girl
in a community kind of style hall
and I had enough scholarships to cover all of my freshman year
going into my sophomore year
I applied for more scholarships through uco
so most colleges open another scholarship portal
in like January or February of your spring semester
and you can usually apply for those after you’ve been there for a year
so I applied for several scholarships
and thankfully I did get a few
I also applied to be an Ra Resident Assistant
um basically I planned events and
I served on call and worked on campus
lived on campus I got free room board for that
so I didn’t have to pay for any of my room board
the following two years and again my sophomore year
I did the same thing applied to be an Ra
and then I also applied for more scholarships on campus
and I got those thankfully
it all worked out through that
I was a freshman in 2019 so going into my spring semester
Covid hit so I did have to deal with Covid
but it actually worked out to my benefit
because I did get to apply for more scholarships in that time
and take some online courses
that allowed me more time to work so I could save up more money
but thankfully my scholarships covered everything
I don’t think that I paid really anything whenever I was in school
and then I went a little bit non traditional my junior year
I ended up getting engaged
and getting married
between my junior and senior year
my husband was also in college
so thankfully because of that
we ended up qualifying for the Pell Grant
because we both were working only part time and going to school full time
so that was a huge benefit to pay for the rest of my senior year
and I also was involved in an organization
through my major called AAF
that had scholarships I applied for
and I got a big scholarship from that organization too
I was very fortunate
and I worked really hard
to get enough scholarships to cover all my room board
books tuition
fees housing everything
through all my school
let me know what questions you have
because I promise you can do it too