Remember, these are supposed to be some of the best years of your life, but you do not need to be paying for it on a monthly basis for 20 years. If you get a student loan, use it only for necessities, do not waste it on a spring break vacation. That will end up being an expensive vacation, once interest is compounding.
Comment if you thought this was helpful or if you have other suggestions you would like to pass on. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Ah – everyone should read this before going to college! Most people (at 18) can’t/don’t make logical financial decisions, but instead emotional ones. The ‘experience’ of college is more important than the financial debt side of it. I had grad school debt and ended up moving back home with my parents to pay down a significant chunk of it. Sucks doing it later in life. But good on you for taking an active financial approach to your college education and graduating debt free! That’s awesome!
Exactly, it should completely be a logical decision. Another thing I did not really recommend but it should be as well, is taking a gap year to do something else.
All three of my millennial kids got free four year degrees including room and board. They paid for everything by scholarships. That’s in spite of the fact their parents were high earning millionaires, none of them were need based. They all declared STEM majors, including the youngest who had no intention of being an engineer, because STEM majors are given preference when scholarships are awarded. She switched her major immediately after obtaining her scholarships.
None went to community college or had concurrent class credits. None had perfect test scores, just good ones.
That sounds a lot like the state scholarships that were downsized financially during the Great Recession (I received a similar one but it did not include R&B). But yes, there is more than 1 route to university.
They were primarily those, chancellor and governor scholarships but also smaller ones from my work and area organizations and the lottery. My youngest was eligible for a scholarship funded by a local company that pays free tuition and fees to every kid that goes through the public school system here. If you graduate from our school system you automatically get tuition and fees paid at the rate equivalent to the most expensive public university in our state. And you can take that money to any school in the country.
Oh wow! This really goes to show that there are many unique ways to get scholarships.
I graduated debt free but it took four years of hard work – in the military! It was a great experience and it was pretty great to get college (and now healthcare) paid for by the government. I highly recommend it!
Yes! I wish I could ‘love’ your comment. This is also an option. Although, only a few people I know that joined soon after high school took advantage of the GI Bill when they got out. I know the other option, because I looked into it, was join the ROTC during undergrad and then serve as an officer. However, I do not know many people who did that.
Many folks especially those from underprivileged homes incur a huge amount of debt prior to their graduation from college. This could partly be attributed to their lack of financial knowledge, budget discipline, lack of investment initiatives or sheer wasteful spending. Information such as these could help in no small measure.