Why You Need to Start Applying For Free Money in College Right Now

“All you have to do is fill out this form and you’ll get free money.”

I had a feeling that this was too good to be true when my buddy told me about it. I was new on campus and one of my classmates was telling me about how he was going to apply for a bursary. I came along for the walk since I had a four hour spare and time to kill. I filled out the form to see what would happen.

It turns out that I received a cheque from the school six weeks later. I was on top of the world. I loved receiving money from school for once. I was so used to spending thousands on tuition and textbooks.

This is why I wanted to write about bursaries and scholarships today. Making money in college is one of the biggest struggles, so why not simplify it?

Why do you need to start applying for free money (scholarships and bursaries) right now as a college student?

It’s available.

This is the main reason that stick outs to me. There are many scholarships and bursaries out there. There’s not just one type of fund out there. You have a few options:

• Look at ethnic-specific funds.
• See what your parents can do for you at their work (most companies offer help for employees and their kids).
• Private funds offered by companies.
• General scholarships for students.

Open your eyes and see what’s there. There’s financial assistance available out there. If you don’t take it, someone else will. I personally hate it when someone gets something that I could’ve had.

Free money beats working.

When you work you get paid an hourly wage. When you write an essay, you could find yourself with a thousand dollar cheque. I’ve seen this happen to friends. A friend was awarded a scholarship because nobody else applied. Do you believe that? Not a single soul applied. Sadly, I was one of the fools who didn’t apply.

A girlfriend of mine once received a $2,000 bursary because of her heritage. She wrote an essay (one hour of work) and was awarded the money. How long would it take you to earn two grand at minimum wage?

You need any help that you can get.

As a broke student, every little bit helps. Even if you get a $100 or $10, this will help you. Between tuition and textbooks and Thirsty Thursdays, you need to use all of your financial lifelines.

So stop complaining about how broke you are and apply!

Let’s look at some more information from one of the biggest companies around…

What is yconic?

yconic.com is Canada’s largest student help platform. yconic provides free scholarship-matching and peer-to-peer support for your life as a student.

Becoming a yconic member has its perks!

• yconic members enjoy free matching to over 170 million in scholarships across Canada and the USA.
• Membership gives you access to exclusive scholarships, contest and offers on yconic.com
• yconic has a safe peer-to-peer community where you can ask questions and get real world answers from other students who’ve been there. With over 125 new conversations started daily and over 800,000 active members, you will find the help you need in the yconic community.
• Since January 2015, yconic has awarded over $100,000 to students though member-exclusive contests alone!

Get out there and apply for that money. You’ll be thanking me when the money arrives in the mail. Hopefully, you at least take me out for a coffee.