The pressure of college... In today's world the idea of "college is the only way to succeed" begins to get drilled into most children's head quite early. Financing your education will be the 2nd largest amount of debt you take on in your life, besides housing, and we are expected to make an informed decision at 17 or 18? I will drop a few tips to help minimize the debt and allow you to start out not so far in debt.
1. College is an investment in your future, treat it as such! I am sure we all had a plan of attending the school of our dreams, then reality kicked in. Why would I pay 50k a year for a degree that I can get at a school that is 15k a year? At times we have to let that dream go and start looking at the ROI (return of investment) for colleges. If the state school gives similar ROI for your degree plan as a nice private school, why pay 4 times the price? You don't! I personally know of people who have skipped scholarships at "lesser" colleges to take out massive student loans at their dream college, That is an extreme fail in logic. I feel people who do that are focusing on the "college experience" and have forgotten about college is about receiving an education.
2. Community college - An under utilized part of our education system. The degree received at one of these two year schools is an "associates degree," it Is basically all of your basic classes (English, math, history). The beauty of community college is they are in a lot of small communities so it would be possible to obtain your degree while staying at home and working to payoff debt as you go. Most community colleges have agreements with the universities in their state that says they will accept the credits and count them towards your bachelors degree (verify for your particular school). By gong to college locally for 2 years, there could easily be a savings of $30,000 when taking into account tuition and room & board.
3. Scholarships - If there was every a such thing as free money, then this is it! There is no limit on how many you can receive or the amount of money, it only requires a little of your time for essays. The beauty of the scholarship essay is if you write the first essay really well it can be used multiple times since the majority of scholarships ask the same questions. There is money available for almost anything, it just takes research. The craziest case I have heard was for winning money for a duct tape prom dress.
With research, research, and more research there are multiple ways to cut down on student loans. Rarely in life is anything in life given to you, you must put forth effort! Of the three options, understanding the purpose of college is what I feel is most important and will not only help save money, but keep you focused while you are there!
1. College is an investment in your future, treat it as such! I am sure we all had a plan of attending the school of our dreams, then reality kicked in. Why would I pay 50k a year for a degree that I can get at a school that is 15k a year? At times we have to let that dream go and start looking at the ROI (return of investment) for colleges. If the state school gives similar ROI for your degree plan as a nice private school, why pay 4 times the price? You don't! I personally know of people who have skipped scholarships at "lesser" colleges to take out massive student loans at their dream college, That is an extreme fail in logic. I feel people who do that are focusing on the "college experience" and have forgotten about college is about receiving an education.
2. Community college - An under utilized part of our education system. The degree received at one of these two year schools is an "associates degree," it Is basically all of your basic classes (English, math, history). The beauty of community college is they are in a lot of small communities so it would be possible to obtain your degree while staying at home and working to payoff debt as you go. Most community colleges have agreements with the universities in their state that says they will accept the credits and count them towards your bachelors degree (verify for your particular school). By gong to college locally for 2 years, there could easily be a savings of $30,000 when taking into account tuition and room & board.
3. Scholarships - If there was every a such thing as free money, then this is it! There is no limit on how many you can receive or the amount of money, it only requires a little of your time for essays. The beauty of the scholarship essay is if you write the first essay really well it can be used multiple times since the majority of scholarships ask the same questions. There is money available for almost anything, it just takes research. The craziest case I have heard was for winning money for a duct tape prom dress.
With research, research, and more research there are multiple ways to cut down on student loans. Rarely in life is anything in life given to you, you must put forth effort! Of the three options, understanding the purpose of college is what I feel is most important and will not only help save money, but keep you focused while you are there!