My sister is currently a sophomore at a community college here in Kansas. She is playing volleyball and is a Resident Assistant for her dorm. She has an academic scholarship that pays for books and tuition (which, if she didn't have this scholarship, her volleyball would pay for the same thing), her RA position pays her $300 a month to walk the hallways and lock/unlock doors a few times a week, and she gets the full Pell grant because my parents are poor.

She said after applying the Pell grant, she had to write a check for $10 in tuition/fees/room/board for this whole year. She did have to pay $130 in books that were workbooks instead of books that you could sell back, or those would have been included in her scholarship.

There are so many scholarship opportunities out there that most people would be amazed are offered. Sports (and if you are a girl, can walk and chew gum at the same time and WANT to play, there is a college somewhere that wants to give you money to play for them. Guys have a harder time finding these scholarships. Sorry to be politically incorrect, but its true), band, singing, art, cheerleading, drama, athletic training, rodeo, judging (like animal judging or plant identification), debate, etc., etc., etc.

Couple this with work study, and there is no reason you can't knock off at least two years of college with no student loan debts.

For my work study, I did a lot of different things. I worked for the publications office at our school, laying out posters, booklets, pamphlets, the college catalog, etc for print. I also graded papers for our lower level math classes once I got to be a junior and senior, and even taught some classes when the teacher had to leave on an emergency one time. I was a line judge for the volleyball team a few times, and washed our practice jerseys after every practice when I was a senior (I played basketball). I had friends that vacuumed hallways, worked for maintenance painting lines on the football field, worked in the cafeteria (the worst job ever, in my opinion), were office workers in the business office, librarians, ran the scoreboard and stat charts for games, worked in the athletic training room, etc. We got paid minimum wage for these things, but it was easy work, and the RA's were paid more.

These are just scholarships and money the school will give you. There are other, private scholarships as well. 4-H scholarships, community scholarships, church scholarships, Elks, Kiwanis, Lions, etc, they throw money at kids if they are hard working and community orientated.

Anyway, if you are willing to work at it, you can get money for school. Especially if you are poor. I admit, if you have parents that are more wealthy, the work study money might dry up and the Pell grant might dry up too. But the scholarships would still be there, and so would the RA positions.