Over the weekend, rapper Nicki Minaj set Twitter abuzz by volunteering to pay fans’ tuition and student loan bills.
The offer came up by chance. Minaj was promoting a contest and noted she had ample funds to fly contest winners in from anywhere in the world. That prompted a follower to ask if she would cover tuition costs.
Hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Show me straight A’s that I can verify w/ur school and I’ll pay it. Who wants to join THAT contest?!?!?? Dead serious. Shld I set it up? https://t.co/czH715u64a— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) May 7, 2017
Minaj’s reply: “Show me straight A’s that I can verify w/ur school and I’ll pay it. Who wants to join THAT contest?!?! Dead serious. Shld I set it up?”
That prompted fans to tweet Minaj with more requests for tuition assistance, along with appeals to underwrite summer classes, textbooks, supplies and student loan payments.
Minaj replied to more than two dozen tweets agreeing to pay expenses, in some cases asking the fan to provide proof of grades or loan details.
She wrapped up the flurry of generosity by promising fans she’d return to do similar giveaways in a month or two.
Where Else Can You Get Paid For Good Grades?
If you miss the next spontaneous Nicki giveaway — and if you’re still in high school without a tuition bill yet — you can still earn money for achieving high marks.
Raise.me, a micro-scholarship service, partners with more than 220 colleges and universities to help high school students offset the cost of higher education. Participating institutions include Temple University, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, Northeastern University and others.
Students in grades 9 through 12 can register on the site for free, learn about schools they’re interested in and earn cash for earning good grades or taking part in extracurricular activities.
The colleges and universities themselves fund the micro-scholarships. Students can accumulate scholarship offers from multiple schools, but they’ll only receive the funds pledged by the college they ultimately enroll in. They also must be “following” the school on Raise.me to collect the awards.
Raise.me reports the average annual scholarship earned through the platform is$5,000. The platform’s terms of use note that awarded funds are typically distributed evenly over the student’s first four years of college, unless a school specifies another arrangement.
The amount granted for grades and extracurricular involvement varies by participating college or university. One school might offer $100 for an A in physics while another offers $200.
Either way, that’s solid motivation to aim for straight As.
To be eligible for scholarship money, students must create a portfolio after signing up. In the portfolio, they’ll list the courses they’re taking and record the grades they earn each quarter or semester. The site asks students to include their school’s name and each teacher’s name for verification.
Students can also add to their portfolio the clubs, sports or other extracurriculars they participate in and whether they hold leadership positions. Those activities can translate into extra scholarship dollars.
Some colleges will also reward students for perfect attendance and for work experience or family service, such as caring for younger siblings, so there’s room on students’ portfolios to document those contributions.
Other Ways to Save for College
While hunting for ways to pay for college, take a look at this list of 100 scholarships, as well as this collection of 12 scholarships that reward students for community service.
If you’re a parent trying to grow your child’s college savings, consider these 32 legitimate ways to earn money from home or this month-by-month plan to save $1,000.
College is pricey, and every little bit helps!
Nicole Dow is a staff writer at Savinly. She believes today’s students have many more options for covering college costs. Twitter wasn’t even around when she started college.
