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Realize that to get a free ride, you either have to be:
1. Poor and willing to go to Berea College, a Christian college that accepts only poor students and gives them free rides.
2. Poor and so stellar that you can gain acceptance to places like Harvard.
3. A Harvard-quality student of any income level who's willing to go to a 2nd or 3rd tier college that offers merit aid.
4. A Harvard EA (no, Harvard doesn't have EA any more, but if it did, you'd need to be of this quality) quality student who is so amazingly wonderful -- far, far above the normal outstanding student-- that a first tier place like Duke, Wake Forest or University of North Carolina would give you a free ride. You have to be so amazing that people are predicting you'll be a Rhodes Scholar some day.
Unless you are in one of the above categories, don't even dream of a free ride. Realize that you'll probably be like the majority of college students and have to take out close to $20 k in loans to pay for a total of four years of college. You also will be like the majority of college students and have to restrict your dream school to a place that you know you can afford -- which for most people means some in-state public school, not a gorgeous private reach school on the other side of the country.
Also expect to have to work summers to help pay for your college education.
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