Pamela got accepted to Harvard University! Her family and friends were excited for her. Harvard was known for being hard to get into. Even if you got straight As in high school, you could get rejected. You have to also be very involved in school, do volunteer work, and write well. Pamela immediately knew that she wanted to go to Harvard, but she was worried about money. Harvard was a private school, so it was expensive. Two weeks later, she got an email from Harvard telling her what she got for financial aid. Pamela did not get as much aid as she hoped for. There are two types of financial aid: grants and loans. Grants are good because it is money given to you from the school that you do not have to pay back. For loans, you have to pay it back eventually. Harvard offered Pamela a lot of loans but not much grants. Pamela told her parents that she would not go to Harvard. Her parents told her that she should still go. Harvard was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After some thinking, Pamela agreed. She decided that she was going to apply for scholarships. She went to her school's college center and found several scholarships she was qualified for. She applied to a scholarship for history majors, one for violinists, one for Filipino-Americans, and one for female students. In the end, she managed to get $3000 from scholarships. This was a good start. She would get a job at Harvard while she took classes.
