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Some states offer scholarship programs of a sort (Such as MI with passed MEAP test = $2500 for MI College, $500 non-MI).
There are scholarships all over. Go to your local library and grab a college financial planning book. (About 2" thick). One I looked at had everything indexed by intended degree. (i.e. Engineering, Mechanical Engineering: 86, 302, 303, 480... then Scholarships [in ABC order] with that number you can get for an M.E. master intention)
If you go now.. you may be too late for almost all scholarships. The majority of scholarships have deadlines (Usually in Feb or March) or they go until all the money is gone (Which is also Feb or March usually).
There's always next year though. January 1st each year send in that FAFSA and start hunting for scholarships. There is a lot of free money out there if you look hard enough. Try and find an internship at a business of the same field as you are going into, sometimes they will help pay for schooling if you agree to work for them for X years.
If the money is too tight, for you and your parents (or parents refuse to pay it all).. go to a community college for a year or two, get some low-cost classes while having a job then transfer to a normal 4-year college for the remaining 3 or 2 years. This is the route I'm taking. My family just edges out of a lot of monetary qualifications, and being that my sister is in college also, we are tight for money all around. For about $50 per credit, I can get a lot of pre-requisite classes taken care of as well as get used to "college life" (How to write college papers, get customed to show up to class when I don't have to, etc.). Going to Oakland Community College.. I can get an associates degree, then move on to somewhere else (hopefully Michigan Tech) and get a bachelors or masters.
But I stress again, look around for money before it's time to pay. (Especially a note to you Juniors out there). Turn in your FAFSA no earlier than January 1, 2004 and no later than January 10, 2004. (Best to do it before FIRST kickoff so you don't forget). Go to your local library and get as much information as you can. It usually won't cost a penny to get a scholarship for what you've done. Don't expect your parents to shell out college tuition, chances are they've been paying for everything in your life until you were 16 and can see it as begging or that you aren't taking an initiative to become independant.
All in all, it doesn't really matter how much work you do, it matters when you do it. Deadlines suck if you are past it.
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