For all-freshman coming in the Fall watch for posters that will appear on campus in the winter quarter. They are for the Vincentian scholarship program. This program is 6,000$ each year for three years. You just volunteer once a week during the quarter and attend a few events. Some of these volunteering options include community gardens, grade school tutors, ESL tutors, and food kitchens. They are different days of the week at different times, so something is bound to work.

Admissions and tour guides will never say this, but it is completely cheaper to live off-campus. Single bedroom apartments around the city cost about 750-1000$. If you want cheaper go find the DePaul housing Facebook page, students are always looking for roommates and places split 2-3 ways can be around 500-800 depending on how fancy you want to be. Plus your tuition pays for a train pass! I recommend no more than 0.6 from the train. Either red-line or brown line. Purple if you're okay with being longer, but there is a rush in the morning and evening. But there is no reason to pay 1300+ to live on campus!

If you are a first-generation college student I recommend you join DePaul's program called Trio. Trio is a federally funded program and offers counselors as well as their own events. If you would like to learn how to research at the end of your freshman year you can apply for Arnold Mitchem Fellows, it is a sub-branch under trio. AMF runs for one academic year and offers students the chance to research and gain good skills. Whether or not you complete AMF, Juniors are able to apply for their highest sub-branch called McNair. McNair is for students who love research and want to go to grad school. They have funding to help you with the GRE, will pay for GRE books, grad school applications, and help fund a trip for you to see other universities all well giving you a chance to demonstrate your research skills.