The price of higher education is much more than an average household can afford. In recent decades, the cost of college has increased. In order to limit debt, many college-bound students turn to options like community college. The California promise is a state program which offers two free years of comunity college for California students who are studying full time. Another option is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which offers financial aid to cover some college expenses.

An often overlooked option for students to save money is scholarships. There are different types of scholarships offered to students at school. Some are selected based on sports or academic excellence, but students can also sign up to be on the radar for available scholarships without being an elite student. There are over 40 scholarships available for seniors listed in Naviance, which they can access through their naviance account. There are tools scattered around the campus that help students follow their post high school plans.

Students can also look for online scholarships that are often open for all grades. Some reliable websites recommended by Andrea Magallon-Loredo, FHS college and career advisor, are Fastweb.com, Scholarships.com and additionally there are scholarships that can be accessed through Fremont’s school website’s college and career tab. Students should be vigilant when applying for scholarships on other, lesser known websites, especially if the websites require a social security number or other seemingly unnecessary information.

For more information, students can attend scholarship workshops offered on March 11 during FLEX and another on March 29 via Zoom. There are also informational posters scattered around campus about scholarship workshops.

AVID, a class at Fremont, also helps students with the college admissions process and scholarships.

One of the AVID teachers and coordinator, Geoffrey Wen, advises students to work hard and be smart when approaching college scholarships.

“Sometimes students only go for the big ones, but 200 to 400 dollar scholarships can stack up too,” Wen said.