9 Real Ways to Get Paid to Go to School!

How to Make Money Going to School

Here is a list of companies, government programs and schools that pay you to attend school.

1. Get tuition-reimbursement from your employer

Some employers offer tuition reimbursement programs. So, they’ll pay for your education. That’s like getting free money for college!

Employers that have been known to pay for college tuition include:

• Home Depot: Home Depot offers tuition reimbursement of up to $6,000 per year for full-time associates, up to $3,000 per year for part-time associates, and up to $2,500 per year for your immediate family members.
• Amazon: Through its Career Choice Program, Amazon pre-pays 95% of the tuition and fees for associates to earn certificates and associate degrees in high-demand occupations, like aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, and dental hygiene. Please check the page linked at the start of this bullet point to learn more.
• Chipotle: Work at Chipotle, and you could get 100% tuition coverage for select programs, and up to $5,250 for others. Learn more on the site linked earlier.

Corporate tuition reimbursement policies vary a lot from company to company. So, check to see if your employer offers this benefit. If not, consider finding an employer that does offer tuition reimbursement.

2. Join the military

If you are in the military, you may be able to get paid to go to school. If not, then you may want to consider this as a career path, if it suits you.

Of course, the military isn’t for everyone, but if you find the idea of signing up for the military appealing, then you can get lots of college finance options.

Here are some ways you can get paid to go to school:

• GI Bill: The GI Bill, which has been around since 1944, helps qualifying veterans and their family members to cover all or some of the costs of school or training. There’s also a Montgomery GI Bill for active-duty members, and a Post-9/11 GI Bill for those who served on active duty after September 10, 2001.
• Military Tuition Assistance Programs: The military also offers yearly tuition assistance. This varies but can be up to $4,500 a year. There’s no one site I can link to for more details, unfortunately. Instead, you’ll need to check with your military branch for specifics.

3. Get a scholarship

With a scholarship, you get money to go to school except that you don’t need to pay it back. You’re basically paid to go to school.

There are a lot of college scholarships available, and the qualifications for each one varies.

Some scholarships are sports-based, for example, and others are given to those who are gifted in mathematics. There are even state scholarships available to those who excel in high school.

• You can learn more about scholarships here.

4. Apply for a Grant

Grants are sort of like scholarships, where you get money for going to college that you don’t need to pay back.

It’s offered either as full tuition coverage or partial tuition coverage. There are lots of places that offer grants, such as government organizations, non-profit organizations, associations and so on.

Here are two main ways to get grants:

Federal grants

You can complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. And you’ll be considered for public grants. There are lots of different grants available, like the Pell Grant, which in 2020-2021, is up to $6,495 for the year.

Institutional grants

Some private universities offer grants. You can learn more about these grants on the enrollment pages of these colleges and universities. Or you can contact universities to enquire.

Some examples of colleges and universities that offer grants include:

• Manhattan College
• Cornell University
• Syracuse University
• University of Washington
• UC Berkeley

Make sure you visit this site to learn more about grants.

5. Attend a tuition free school

Consider attending a school where you can get a degree for free. With so many free online college courses, you have a lot of options for getting a free degree. And that’s a big way to save money in college.

Get Paid While in School

If none of the above options work for you, then consider making some extra money while in college.

Here are a few ways to do this…

6. Sell courses on Udemy or Skillshare

You could take your newly learned knowledge from your college classes and sell a course on it. If you’re taking a creative writing course, then sell a how-to guide on creative writing. If you’re studying business, sell a course on how to start a business.

• Sign up for Udemy here.
• Sign up for Skillshare here.

7. Sell books through Amazon Kindle

Again, you can take anything you’ve learned in college or just a topic that you enjoy and make a book about it. You can then publish it through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

You’ll earn up to 70% in royalties every time your book sells. This means that you could be making money while sitting in a lecture. So, you’re essentially getting paid to go to college.

8. Tutor others

You could also make money tutoring others.

Here are some sites that pay you to tutor people:

• Cambly
• Tutor.com
• TutorMe

9. Check out our posts

Here on MoneyPantry, we have a ton of posts that college students can use to save and make extra cash.

Check out these posts to learn more:

• 125 Ways for students to save money in college: Read it now!
• 100+ Freebies and discounts for college students: Read it now!
• 70 Ways to make money in college: Read it now!

Final Thoughts

College can be pricey. But, it doesn’t have to be. There are so many ways that you can actually get paid for going to school.

Sure, you may not qualify for all of them, but it’s good to know that there are options for getting paid to go to college, like companies that pay you to go to school and jobs that pay you to go to school.

And, of course, it’s always worth checking which grants and scholarships may be available to you.

Let us know in the comments section if you have any tips or advice on getting paid to go to college.