Student money comes from three different places, and confusing them costs people thousands. There is aid you apply for and never repay. There is aid you are already entitled to and have simply not claimed. And there is money you earn, which arrives faster but in much smaller amounts — which is why a fair number of students get paid to play games in the gaps between lectures.
Sixteen options are below, all of them money you do not pay back. Fifteen are grants, waivers and awards; the first is different in kind and is listed first because it is the only one available this week rather than next term. Everything after it is a United States programme, and almost all of them start with the same form. Filing the FAFSA is the gateway to federal aid, most state aid and a large share of institutional aid, and every year students skip it on the assumption they will not qualify. Many of them would have.
Start here: money you can have this week
1. TesterMax. Not aid, and worth being clear about that — this is earning rather than applying, and it is pocket money rather than tuition. It is listed first because everything else on this page runs on an academic timetable. FAFSA processing, committee decisions and disbursement schedules mean money awarded in March may not arrive until September, and none of that helps with a textbook needed in a fortnight.
The app is on Google Play and the App Store, and it works on a coin system: pick a task, complete the goal stated in advance, and coins post to your balance. Tasks include games with milestones, app testing, surveys, video and ad tasks, product testing and one-off jobs, which makes it usable in fifteen-minute gaps as well as free evenings. New accounts receive a welcome bonus, level and achievement bonuses follow as you progress, and a daily check-in streak carries a multiplier that grows the longer it runs.
Two details matter for students specifically. There is no minimum payout, so a balance built over a slow fortnight is available rather than stranded — which is the usual reason people abandon apps like this halfway through a term. And coins redeem into PayPal or Venmo cash, game credit, or gift cards for Amazon, Google Play, Apple, Steam, Roblox, Netflix, Spotify, PlayStation, Xbox, Cash App, DoorDash, Starbucks, Target, Uber Eats, Walmart and Visa. That last route is the practical one for anyone who would rather earn free amazon gift cards online than pay cash for a required text.
Federal programmes
2. Federal Pell Grant. The foundation of undergraduate aid, awarded on financial need and never repaid. For the 2026–27 award year the maximum is $7,395 and the minimum $740, effective July 2026 through June 2027. Eligibility and amount both come out of the FAFSA, and the award scales with enrolment intensity, so part-time study reduces it rather than disqualifying you.
3. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant. Additional grant money for students with exceptional need, administered by the college rather than the government. Each institution receives a fixed annual pot, which is why filing early genuinely matters — the money runs out rather than stretching to cover everyone who qualifies.
4. Federal Work-Study. Part-time work, often on campus, subsidised by federal funds and arranged through your financial aid office. The earnings are yours; the subsidy makes it easier for departments to hire you. Positions are limited and allocated from the same campus-based pot.
5. TEACH Grant. For students planning to teach a high-need subject at a low-income school. It converts into a loan if the service obligation is not met, so read the terms closely before accepting anything.
6. Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant. For students whose parent or guardian died in military service in Iraq or Afghanistan after 9/11 and who are not Pell-eligible on need alone.
State and institutional programmes
7. State grant programmes. Every state runs its own aid, and the rules vary enormously — some need-based, some merit-based, some tied to staying in-state after graduation. Deadlines are frequently earlier than federal ones and are missed constantly. Your state’s higher education agency publishes the list, and reading it is the highest-value ten minutes in this article.
8. Institutional grants and departmental awards. Colleges distribute their own money, sometimes more of it than the federal government does. Most is awarded from your main aid application, but individual faculties also hold funds that never appear in the aid portal at all. Ask your department administrator directly; those pools are small because almost nobody asks.
9. Emergency and completion grants. Most institutions hold hardship funds for students facing a sudden cost — a car repair, a medical bill, a housing gap. Small, fast, and designed specifically to stop people dropping out over a few hundred dollars. They are rarely advertised, but the money exists and asking costs nothing.
Programmes for specific circumstances
10. TRIO Student Support Services. Federally funded support for first-generation, low-income and disabled students, often including grant aid alongside tutoring and advising. Run through participating institutions.
11. CCAMPIS. Childcare Access Means Parents in School subsidises campus childcare for student parents, and is badly underused relative to how many student parents there are.
12. Chafee Education and Training Vouchers. Annual awards for students who have spent time in foster care, administered by state child welfare agencies rather than by colleges.
13. Bureau of Indian Education higher education grants. Need-based grants for enrolled members of federally recognised tribes, applied for through your tribe’s education office. Many tribes also run separate scholarship funds of their own.
14. Veteran and military-connected benefits. GI Bill entitlements, Yellow Ribbon matching, state veteran tuition waivers and dependants’ benefits. Worth checking even if you did not serve, since dependant programmes are widely overlooked.
Money from outside the college
15. Employer tuition assistance. Your own employer or a parent’s may fund study. Retail and hospitality chains commonly offer it to part-time staff, and take-up stays low because people assume it applies only to full-time managers.
16. Community foundation, union and professional association scholarships. Local awards with tiny applicant pools — a county foundation, a trade union, a professional body in your field. Individually modest, thoroughly unglamorous, and far easier to win than national competitions precisely because they are not advertised nationally.
Where to start this week
File the FAFSA if you have not, even if you are certain you will not qualify. Then book fifteen minutes with your financial aid office and ask one specific question: what money does this institution hold that I have not been considered for? Emergency funds, departmental awards and institutional grants frequently sit outside the automatic process.
After that, work outwards. One local foundation, one professional body in your field, one employer scheme. Small applicant pools beat large award amounts almost every time, and four modest awards are considerably easier to win than one famous one.