Paying for college with scholarships

Student loan debt is a burden that people carry through adulthood, making it tough for them to buy a home, buy a car, or pay their regular bills. However, there are ways you can avoid student loan debt, or at least reduce it, using scholarships.

With millions of students headed back to college, many will take on student debt. Consumer advisor Clark Howard met one young woman with no debt and found out how she did it.

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Kyla Marks is entering her fourth year of dental school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It’s physically taxing, mentally taxing and it is financially taxing as well,” she said.

That financial burden can add up fast. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of dental school is $296,500, but for Marks, her student debt balance is zero.

“I don’t owe nobody nothing,” she said.

Marks said she received over $700,000 in scholarships over the last eight years. She credits her mom for helping guide her path.

“I famously call her my momager,” Marks said.

Her mother, Trinity Chandler, says she heard stories about others receiving scholarship money and started doing her own research. They applied for scholarships at churches, sororities, and even a local night club.

“I thought, okay well, maybe this will pay for the first semester, and then they kept coming,” Chandler said.

Gabrielle McCormick with Scholarship Informer says you don’t have to wait until you’re a senior or until you’re in college. You can start applying for scholarships today, and there are opportunities for everyone.

“A big one is a Star Trek scholarship, and it is for Star Trek fans,” she said. “So anything and everything can literally be used.”

McCormick says applying every year is key, and that’s exactly what Marks did, using the same few essays and tweaking them for each application.

After paying off all her tuition, Marks still had $80,000 left over to pay for moving expenses and other school-related items.

She said she plans on having her own scholarship one day.

“I want to be able just to pay it forward,” Marks said. “I feel like that’s the best gift I can give someone.”

If you’re hesitant about applying for scholarships, Chandler says, “You can spend 30 minutes completing a scholarship application or you can spend 30 seconds writing out a tuition check.”

McCormick says never to use AI to write your scholarship applications because if somebody figures it out, you’re can be banned from applying for the rest of your college years.

Another suggestion — send a thank you note for every scholarship, no matter how big or small. It can go a long way toward renewing that scholarship the next year.

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