Back when I was attending College, my parents pressured me to sign up with scholarships every year in college. Now, I see the reason why there always nagging me and expressing their concern. Scholarships are free money waiting to be thrown at you! Take advantage of that! A good amount of scholarships online is essay written about family matters or telling who you are. The amount ranges from 500 to help with a few books to upwards of thousands to help pay tuition.
Check out: http://www.fastweb.com/ or http://college.usatoday.com/2012/01/30/the-10-best-sites-to-look-for-scholarships/
I went to my college, but these websites even offer a bigger advantage in finding more scholarships to push out. The living stand in California is so high, that many students should take this opportunity but many don’t.