Are you getting ready to go to college? Or if you are like me, you have a child that will be entering college. If this is the case, you are most likely looking for free money for college. With the cost of a college education increasing every year, it is a good idea to look for alternative methods of paying for college.

Being a recent college graduate myself, I am going to talk about some of the things that saved me money on tuition. There are a number of ways that you can get free money for college.

There are many companies that offer tuition reimbursement as an employee benefit. If you are a full time employee (not all companies require 40 hours for full time status), these companies pay a maximum of $5,200 per year towards tuition. This can go a long way towards paying for a college degree. There are normally 2 stipulations that go along with this money. You have to be majoring in career that can be used at the company that is paying. If you are working for a finance company, they are not going to pay for a nursing degree. Also, a company paying for tuition will require you to continue working for them for a designated period of time following graduation.

AP and CLEP exams are another option for saving money on tuition. These are exams that will give you college credit for the class by taking and passing a test. When I was going to college I did this with more than 10 entry level classes and it is very easy. It is as simple as getting a study guide (about $20) and registering to take the test. This can be done at the university you are attending, among other places. The cost of the test is about $100. Passing this test will save you the cost of taking the class and buying the books for the class, not to mention the time that it takes to take the class.

The other way to save money is to get a scholarship. Today there are databases that list a large number of scholarships that are available. In most cases, you will have to take the time to write an essay, but the money is free. It is as simple as going online and searching for scholarships. You will probably get more results than you will be able to apply for in a reasonable amount of time.