Thread by @michaelperrone

How I went to college and graduated in 3 years without any debt or parental assistance.

A thread.

My senior year in high school, I was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. That year (2002) my family's household income was less than $40k.

As an 18 year old, I had about $3,000 to my name.

Tuition was about $2,500 a semester. It would have been an immense financial burden on my family to pay for school.

I didn't want to take out loans.
I figured I could get a job, but I had no idea what would be available to me as a Freshman the next year.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

Every few weeks during my senior year, I went to the counselor's office where they had a filing cabinet with a list of every scholarship my school knew about.

I never saw a single classmate touch that filing cabinet.

Many scholarships I didn't qualify for off the bat.

I wasn't a minority.
My family didn't live in poverty.
I didn't have any amazing musical, academic or athletic abilities.

But many I did qualify for or could qualify for if I put time into it.

All I had to do was write essays

Creative essays
Personal essays
Historical essays

I wrote about the future of transportation in Austin
I wrote about the history of Texas Senators
I wrote about the civil war
I wrote a short story about a superhero
I even applied for a scholarship exclusive to Italian Americans & played up my (genuine) Sicilian connections.

You name it, I wrote it my senior year.

Writing dozens of essays was my most demanding class that year. But unlike most of my school work, I saw a tangible benefit.

I'll never forget when I won my first scholarship... the Papa John's scholarship for $1,000.

A pizza delivery guy came to my English Class w/pizza for the whole room & a giant paper check (the only giant check I've received thus far)

Next came a scholarship from a local Austin Optimist Club for $500.
Then a scholarship check from another Austin group for $2,500.

This is nice I remember thinking. Got my first year mostly paid for.

Then I hit the jackpot. One day in the mail I got a big envelope from Chase Bank.

Credit card offer?
Student savings account ads?

Nope, another scholarship worth $5,000 a year.

I don't even remember what I wrote to earn that one.
An essay about my goals and dreams?

It all ran together. I applied for so many scholarships, it wouldn't surprise me if at one point I sent someone the wrong essay.

After the Chase scholarship, I got a few other small ones.

One of the last I was up for was the Texas Exes Scholarship. Would have paid for my schooling all by itself.

I made it to the group of finalists and went in for an interview and the interviewer all but told me I would be one of the winners.

But then he said, "one last question, have you won any other scholarships?

Naive kid that I was, I excitedly told him about all the other scholarships I won.

His attitude took a 180. Financial need was one of the requirements and I didn't need this scholarship anymore.

I was politely but quickly shown the door.

On the one hand, I had a horrible success rate:

I applied for nearly 50 scholarships and won only a dozen.

But the ones I won made all the difference.

But scholarship money was just Part 1.

I also took as many AP classes as I could

History
English
Spanish
Stats
Economics
Government
Etc.

I got a 4 or 5 on every single one allowing me to enter college with over 40 credits, enough to be considered a Sophomore and taking one whole year off my time at school.

Because I would graduate early I was able to convince the Chase folks to reallocate my scholarship funds such that every semester not only did I NOT pay for tuition, I actually got a check for leftover scholarship money.

I also got an extra $1,000 at graduation from the University of Texas for graduating early.

My only regret is that I worked just 1 of my 3 years in school. Working paid for my other expenses but I could have banked a lot more if I had waited tables or something.

Anyway, that's how I graduated college with a bachelors degree and with no debt, family assistance or spending any of my own money.