3 A P P L I C AT I O N S T O F I L L O U T T H I S
Summer
BY ANTHONY ONEAL
About Anthony ONeal
You deserve to chill a little after a
long school year, but summer is
also a great time to take advantage
of financial aid opportunities, and
get college paid for (in between
trips to the pool, of course).
Since 2003, Anthony ONeal has helped
thousands of students make good decisions
with their money, relationships and
education to live a well-balanced life.
He’s the National Best-Selling Author of
Graduate Survival Guide: 5 Mistakes You
Can’t Afford to Make in College, and he
travels the country spreading his encouraging
message to help teens and young adults
transition into the real world. His latest
book and video kit, Teen Entrepreneur
Toolbox, was released in April 2018.
You can follow Anthony on Twitter and
Instagram @AnthonyONeal or facebook.
com/aoneal.
Whether you’re college-bound or
already in college and home for
break, here are the three most
important applications you should
fill out this summer.
J O B A P P L ICATIO NS THE FAFSA
Guess what your most powerful
wealth-building tool is? It’s not your
investments, and it’s not credit card re-
ward points (please tell me you and your
parents are staying away from those). It’s
your income. If you’re headed to college—or currently
in college—and haven’t filled out the FAF-
SA for the 2019–2020 school year, you
need to get on that now. Go to FAFSA.gov
to find the form.
That means in order for you to make
enough cash to get through college debt-
free, you NEED to have a job. It’s not too
late to find summer work as a server, life-
guard, theme park attendant—you name
it. You might even want to build your
entrepreneurship skills by creating a busi-
ness, where you can mow lawns, babysit,
walk dogs, or house-sit with a flexible
schedule. Maybe you don’t want seasonal
work because you want to keep your job
during the school year. That’s great too!
Just keep in mind that you might need
to cut back on hours. I encourage you to
look for job opportunities in your college
town, and get started on applications
while you’re home for the summer.
Colleges use the FAFSA to determine
how much money to offer you through
scholarships, grants, and student loans.
Just make sure you don’t accept any
student loan offers you might get. We’re
going to college debt-free, people!
Luckily, the FAFSA isn’t as confusing as
it sounds and takes less than 30 minutes
to complete. Every student should fill it
out regardless of your family’s financial
situation. There’s no income cutoff to be
eligible for aid, and you won’t know how
much aid you could actually get unless
you try.
www.potentialmagazine.com
SC H OLARSH IP
AP P LICATION S
The FAFSA form isn’t the only way to
get scholarships. There are thousands of
scholarships available to students for all
kinds of reasons (getting good grades,
writing a killer essay, or being a member
of a minority group). I’d encourage you
to set specific goals for the number of
scholarships you want to apply for per
week. Then, make it happen! There’s no
limit to how many you can apply for, so
you could potentially fund your whole
college education through scholarships
alone! Check out AnthonyONeal.com to
see my top recommendations for reliable
scholarship resources.
Summer 2020 |
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