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Here’s How to Get Paid for Good Grades (Without Tweeting Nicki Minaj)

Nicole Dow

by Nicole Dow

Senior Writer

Over the weekend, rapper Nicki Minaj lit up Twitter by offering to pay fans’ tuition and student loans.

It happened incidentally. Minaj was promoting a contest and mentioned how she had enough money to fly out winners from any country in the world. That’s when one follower decided to hit the rapper up with a request to pay tuition.

Hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Minaj’s response: “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 sparked fans to tweet Minaj with additional requests to pay tuition, plus pleas for her to finance summer courses, books, supplies and student loan bills.

Minaj responded to over two dozen tweets agreeing to cover the costs, or in some cases asking the fan to provide proof of grades or loan information.

She ended the whirlwind of giving by promising fans she’d be back to do more of the same in about a month or two.

Where Else Can You Get Paid For Good Grades?

But in case you miss the next sporadic Nicki giveaway — and if you’re in high school and don’t have a tuition bill to show just yet — you still can get rewarded monetarily for making good grades.

Raise.me, a micro-scholarship platform, partners with over 220 colleges and universities to help high school students prepare for the cost of higher education. Participating schools include Temple University, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, Northeastern University and more.

Students in grades 9 to 12 can sign up for the site for free, get information about schools they’re interested in and earn money for getting good grades or for participating in extracurricular activities.

The colleges and universities themselves pay for the students’ stellar performances. Students can rack up micro-scholarship offers from different institutions, but they will only get the money pledged from the school at which they end up enrolling. They also must be “following” the college on Raise.me to receive the funds.

Raise.me says the average annual scholarship earned via the platform is $5,000. The platform’s terms of use state that the funds awarded will be distributed evenly throughout the student’s first four years in college, unless the individual school makes alternate arrangements.

The amount given out for grades and extracurricular participation depends entirely on the participating colleges and universities. One might pay out $100 for an A in physics while another pays out $200.

Either way, that’s good incentive for making all As.

To be eligible to receive scholarship money, students must set up a portfolio after registering for the site. In the portfolio, they’ll outline the courses they’re taking and log the grades they make each quarter or semester. Students must include the name of their school and each teacher for reference purposes, the site says.

Students can also include on their portfolio what clubs, sports or other extracurriculars they participate in and whether or not they hold leadership roles. All that can equal additional scholarship funds.

Some colleges will also reward students for perfect attendance and for work experience or family service, like taking care of younger siblings, so there’s room on students’ portfolios to add those details.

Other Ways to Save for College

While you’re out looking for ways to fund your college education, check out this list of 100 scholarships, as well as this list of 12 scholarships that reward students for their community service.

And if you’re a parent looking to bulk up your kid’s college tuition fund, try these 32 legitimate ways to make money at home or this month-by-month guide to save up $1,000.

College is expensive, and every little bit can help!

Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She thinks kids these days have so many options when it comes to paying for school. Twitter wasn’t even a thing when she enrolled in college.