Initially, I thought that in order to be able to pay for college I needed to start at Tidewater Community College (TCC) since it would be cheaper to go through that route. Once I became a junior, I started to take AP courses, to alleviate some of the costs of tuition at TCC. I also started taking some courses through TCC while in high school. During my senior year of high school, I applied for many academic scholarships once I knew that I wanted to go straight into a university, instead of TCC. I went through my teachers, advisors, and ODU in order to find scholarship opportunities. Throughout the year I had to write essays, send transcripts, obtain recommendations, and participate in interviews in order a viable candidate for those scholarships. Also, I turned in my FAFSA early do that I could have a better chance of getting more money for school. College is very expensive, and unless students have an excess amount of money, students will immediately go into debt once they graduate. Thankfully, I managed to get my tuition paid off through careful planning, and using all my resources.
