Alternative Ways to Pay

Looking for alternative ways to pay? When it comes to paying for college, there are many different ways to cover the cost. Here at Texas Southern University, our goal is to ensure you are educated on the alternative ways to pay. The Helen Giddings Grant, Alternative Loans, Outside Scholarships, and a Payment plan are all alternative options to assist with covering your cost if financial aid is not enough.

Helen Giddings Grant

The university offers 3 different Helen gidding grants that can assist with covering your balance. Depending on the need grant assistance the requirements differ which causes for three separate applications. To see which one you may qualify for click on the applications listed below. 

• Helen Giddings Great Start Grant
• Helen Giddings Unpaid Balance Grant 
• Helen Giddings Completion Grant

Alternative Loans

Alternative (private) loans are managed and processed by private lending institutions to be used for educational or housing costs after exhausting all federal and state financial aid options, or in conjunction with the financial aid award. 

 ELMselect is an online, lender-neutral, platform to display a historical list of lenders that students have used over the past five years. Visit ELMSelect to search for an Alternate Loan.

College Access Loan or the CAL loan program provides alternative educational loans to Texas students who are unable to meet the cost of attendance. Click here to find out more information about the requirements and qualifications of this program. 

Outside Scholarships

Outside scholarships are scholarships not offered by the university. These can come from a church, a friend, or a scholarship partner such as Thurgood Marshall College Fund or the United Negro College Fund. The newly launched scholarship software Scholarship Universe matches students with outside scholarships based on their majors, GPA's, and financial need. To get more information on outside scholarships, log in and explore today!

Payment Plans

If none of these options work for you and you see that you may have to pay out of pocket. The Student Accounting office offers a payment plan method. Once all your financial aid pays and you still have a balance, enrolling in a payment plan allows Student Accounting to divide the remaining amount by how many months are in the semester. The payment schedule will be emailed to your student email and payments can be made through your TouchNet portal.