text: Many grants are for a check, to do with what you will.  If you spend it on books, you may not have it for rent.  If you spend it on rent, you may not have it for food.  Ain't college life grand!  \n\nActually, when I went to college in the 1970s, there was a thing which was a federal program, later called Pell Grants, I think, and is now named after some other politician.  The financial aid office would figure out a minimalist cost of survival kind of budget for freshmen, and the feds would come up with the whole thing; I used to joke that they were even paying for my tampons.  The program then assumed I would work and save money over the summer (work yes; save?), and accordingly reduced the grant the second year.  They also expected me to work part-time during the school year, so the grants kept getting smaller.  I got loans to make up the difference.  If you have no money from your parents at all, and no savings, such a program is probably still available.  Ask the financial aid office about grants to "disadvantaged students."  That's minorities and what we used to call po' white trash (me).