A lot of people are finding the rise in the cost of university education. Unfortunately, this is making it more challenging for people to afford to get a higher education.  If you would love to go to university but are worried about how you will afford it, you might want to mull over these three ideas.

Don’t assume that you’re ineligible for scholarships

Many young people are under the impression that only those with impressive academic records or those who come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds are awarded educational scholarships, and that these scholarships are also few and far between. As a result of this, a lot of people never even bother to apply for scholarships when they want to go to university.

However, the truth is that many types of organizations (including governmental bodies, charities, educational organizations, and universities) offer scholarships. Each organization will have its own specific criteria that applicants need to meet. These criteria can vary widely and will not always include evidence of exceptional academic abilities or of having grown up in an impoverished environment. Some may, for example, may ask applicants to write essays on a particular subject and award their scholarship to the person who writes the most poignant or insightful one.

As such, even if you are not the most amazing student, you could still be eligible for several scholarships. Even if you are awarded a couple of modest scholarships, the money you receive could help to cover your rent for a month or two whilst you’re away at university or could go towards purchasing some of your textbooks.

Find a source of passive income

When money-conscious young people want to go to university, they are often advised to get part-time jobs and use their earnings to pay for some of their educational expenses. However, not every young person can implement this advice. For example, if a person picks a university course that comes with a very heavy workload (such as medicine), they might not be able to also work part-time and keep up with their studies. Attempting to do so could result in them suffering from burnout. Furthermore, people who study abroad often have visas that do not permit them to work during the school year.

If this is a problem that you’re facing, then you should try to find a source of passive income, that will provide you with money whilst you study. For example, if you’re a vegan and you love to bake, you could sell an e-book that features recipes for vegan cakes and other desserts. The sales from this would be a form of passive income. Similarly, if you are artistic, you could create digital, printable pieces of artwork and put them up for sale on online marketplaces. Doing this could help to stabilize your finances whilst you’re at university, without forcing you to sacrifice the time that you should spend studying.

Start investing

When it comes to earning money, you may be wondering if investing is the right option. Investing has been a common way to grow money. There are a few options when it comes to investing, especially if you start in advance. There are investment funds for education funds that are similar to index funds except they typically include a monthly payment option instead of investing a lump sum. Other common options are typically property investments and stock investments. 

Back in the day, investing in funds like Certificates of Deposits (CDs), was a common option. However, since the interest rates of CDs are so much lower than many other options, it is less common. Instead, people are depending on the help of professionals to invest in stock options. You can hire a professional to personally manage your investment portfolio. This is one of the better options considering that they are typically paid based on commission and thus, the more money they make you, the more they make. This ensures that your goals are aligned when it comes to investing. Another option is personally investing in different stock options. You can also do a hybrid of both. For example, you can use online tools to help you decide what investments to invest in and what ones to sell.

There are different markets that you can invest in. Many people are only aware of NASDAQ or DOW. However, there are other markets that may fit your values. If you want to focus on companies that believe that investors perform better when they are enabled to focus on long-term strategies, then you may want to look into something like LTSE (Long Term Stock Exchange). This is a newer market and doesn’t have a ton of companies as part of it yet. However, it is a great example of another market that may better fit what you want to invest in. 

There are many ways to pay for a university education besides taking out student loans. Applying for scholarships, building passive income and investing in the stock market is a great start. Before counting yourself out of university education, take some time to consider different options and how you’d like to spend your money and time to invest in your future education.