Ok, Let’s be honest. These are the rare and unusual ways to pay for college, but there is money out there for those of you with unusual hobbies. I read an article about these some months back.

While these are not particularly large scholarships, the article listed things like Tall Club scholarship, Crossword Hobbyist scholarship, a scholarship for those who do duck calling, and even a Zombie Apocalypse scholarship. The author said that the first place to look for smaller money is locally at houses of worship, unions, and fraternal organizations. Some states also offer scholarships for students graduating from in-state high schools.

As I pointed out in my book, “Say No! To College Debt”, the idea is to put together a patchwork of money to pay for your schooling. Even the small scholarships would add to that fund. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be going for the big money grants and scholarships. But after you’ve done the work applying for the major grants and scholarships, you probably have most of the work done to apply for just about anything else that you can find.

If this seems like a lot of work, it is. But most of the graduates who have school debt have realized that it’s more work to pay off the easy-to-get student loans than it would have been to get these pieces of funding that can be used to shrink or eliminate the student loans. Be smart and get whatever you legitimately can.

Thanks for reading.

Source: USA Today, May 17, 2019, by Charisse Jones