Many people want to attend school to develop or enhance their skills, but finding the money for an education is often a great challenge. Ideally, savings plans are started early, but even the best plans can fall apart in an economy like this one, when investments have lost value or our 'savings' are suddenly needed to support day-to-day life. As a result, students often have to find creative ways to finance their educations. So, where do you start? To begin with, a good idea is to start the search for financing with a call to the college financial aid department and ask about any options they provide. After that, the means of finding aid are quite varied.

Loans are a reality for most people attending college. The problem is that the interest rates on private bank loans can be quite high, with rates over 10% being common. One online business, GreenNote.com, offers an alternative to high cost private loans. This site uses the concept of microfinance to help students afford their educations, securing loans at a rate of 6.8% (June 2009 figure), far below the rate of private loans. Students sign up at the site and then solicit family and friends to support them with loans of $100 or more. Lenders get their money back after the student has completed his or her education and begins to pay off the borrowed money. Students pay a relatively small fee for the service, and lenders earn a 5.8% return (also June 2009 figure) on the money when it is repaid. Anyone can qualify for this service, even international students. There is no need for a co-signer or collateral, since lenders give money to the student based on what they know of him or her, and presumably 'character' is the most important factor in finding the funds. See www.greennote.com for more information.

Although it takes a bit more ingenuity and self-promotion, enterprising students can also raise funds by throwing a benefit party–for themselves! Arrange for friends to provide music, seek out donated food from local restaurants or supportive family members, and obtain some prizes from local businesses to award in a raffle. If the event includes any filmmakers, it can be fun to hold a mini film festival, screening work made by the attendees and giving out awards based on audience votes. With a $20 cover fee, a crowd of 50 raises a thousand dollars.

Students who manage to find the money for tuition and school fees often still face challenges with day to day living–paying the rent, and affording food and transportation, for example. Though it seems like it's as simple as saying 'get a job', employment is complicated by the time commitments of school, the difficulty of working jobs around class schedules, and the difficulty of getting any job right now. This is where real creativity comes in–finding income opportunities that are not only lucrative but also flexible enough to fit the students' needs.

An important step in securing work is to develop a website that promotes the individual's abilities. Ways to frame this self-promotion vary greatly, depending on the kinds of jobs being sought. Most students assume that they should have a sophisticated website that showcases their artistic talents. While this may be true when the goal is a long-term position or internship, complexity may not be useful in trying to meet short-term needs. Sophisticated sites take a long time to develop and generally require knowledge of advanced web design techniques. Actually, a simple website containing a list of skills and contact information, along with some photos or graphics, is enough for a start.

Freelance work in your field may sound appealing, but this type of work definitely has tradeoffs. For example, Dylan Hunter, a Canadian student who recently graduated from the Animation Mentor program, explains the pros and cons: "Freelancing can be a wonderful thing in terms of time management and flexibility, but also potentially very stressful due to the creativity strain. I think being proactive was the key for me, seeing opportunities in disguise, but carefully evaluating the commitment involved to try not to get in over my head."

It is surprising that students in financial need often do not consider work in more general areas, such as child or pet care, mowing lawns, or house sitting–all jobs that are highly flexible in scheduling, lucrative, and–let's face it–pretty easy. People can have well-paying part-time or full-time occupations as pet caregivers, making $50 for staying overnight with a pet and $20 for a half-hour dog walk. Another largely untapped area of income relates more closely to the skills of artists. Especially around the holidays, services such as drawn portraits of children and pets, or Photoshop 'greeting card' images, can be in great demand. Promoting these services is as simple as making a flyer and posting several examples on your website.

For really quick cash, don't forget the tried and true 'garage sale'. Unwanted stuff, clogging up closets and drawers, can bring in a fair amount of money, and a one-day sale is generally safer and much less hassle than using a service such as Craigslist to list items for sale. The downturn in the economy has encouraged many people to hold garage sales, and as a result shoppers also are becoming more plentiful. The trick to doing well is to start early in the morning and be prepared for buyers who want to make offers on whole lots of items, especially clothing. Books and specialty items that can be mailed will probably do better on sale via Amazon or eBay. Although these services take a percentage of sales as commission, look at it this way: It's unwanted stuff and selling it results in 'cash in hand'–extra money to help with school expenses.

About Maureen Furniss, Ph.D.

Maureen Furniss, Ph.D., is founding editor of Animation Journal, president of the Society for Animation Studies, and author of two books on animation, Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics and The Animation Bible. She is on the animation faculty at California Institute of the Arts.