There are many ways to finance your college tuition, and if you used a combination of all of these things paying for college doesn't become as big of a burden as it might otherwise be. So, some things to help out are:

- Merit-based scholarships. There's two parts to this... the scholarships you earn from your work in high school and those you earn from your college achievements. In general, if you have a good GPA and a high ACT/SAT score, you'll get some sort of merit-based shcolarship, and may just need to have a certain college GPA to keep it. But after you get to college, if you perform well, there are always scholarships out there for specific majors and such, which are great to take advantage of.

- Need-based scholarships. In other words, get your tax forms and other forms like that in so you have a shot at need-based scholarships. Federal loans are nice, but it's really excellent if you can get any type of Grants, because you don't have to pay those back.

- Part-time jobs. Chances are, unless you're taking an incredible amount of credits, you'll have time for a part-time job if you so choose. There are plenty of good places to work on campus, and you can even work on your homework oftentimes. Heck, I'm writing this article write now from a campus library job! :)

- Student Loans. They're not preferable, but there are worse things than student loans. Generally they come with lower interest rates than a lot of loans, which can make them affordable.

Hopefully that can give you a good start on some of the best ways to finance your college education!

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