In order to pay for college, you are either going to have to pay out of pocket (your parent’s pocket most likely) or could get by on grants and scholarships.

Finding scholarships has never been easier with the advent of the internet; however, with so many competitions, getting a guaranteed is a different story.

The following will highlight the right moves to gain a fighting chance to get your education paid for.

• Talk To Guidance Counselors

Every high school has a guidance office. Become friends with the counselor. Do not think that this is “weird” or “square.” Befriending guidance counselors means that they will remember you by name, and will seek out scholarships for you to apply.

If you’re already in college, you will have academic advisors and other offices that can help you with finding scholarships. Meet with them and ask for assistance. They may not reach out to you often, so you have to constantly visit their office and ask.

• Become A Member of Educational Societies

Look for educational societies, clubs, and anything that has a national standing ovation. There are writing societies, volunteer opportunities, non-profit organizations, and many other solutions to help students with scholarships.

As a member, you will receive their newsletter that will highlight opportunities for you to explore. Becoming a member of educational societies will help you find guaranteed scholarships.

• Sign Up For Newsletters

Look online for scholarships. Go to your favorite search engine, search for “college scholarships.” Once you do that, you will run into a lot of websites that offer newsletters, updates, and information about scholarships.

Use your email to sign up for all of these websites, and bookmark them. Visit them on a weekly basis, and read through the information carefully. Scholarship updates are sent out weekly.

FAFSA is a very popular site that you should just go and sign up now.

• Use Google Alerts

Google has an “alert” feature that can help you find a lot of scholarships, fast. Go to google.com/alerts. Once you are there, you can create alerts on keywords related to scholarships.

One of the best ones to use is, “scholarship available.” You will be sent an email daily, weekly, or however frequently you choose. The updates you will receive will have the keywords “scholarship available,” and other sorts of that nature.

You can set alerts for scholarships, grants, and much more as they occur, and you can follow the news across nearly any field and school you choose.

Explore this all of options now, and to locate scholarship availability – it’s as simple as that.