Paying for College

Paying for college has grown to a national concern as people are beginning to fear whether their ability to afford college is no longer a possibility. I've spoken with people who have upwards of $50,000 worth of debt and have to take breaks from college in order to try to save up enough money for the next semester. Granted, the cost of colleges around the country vary greatly and my college is most likely one of the cheapest besides a military school, but based on my conversations with others and observations about what they have done to prepare for college, I feel as though some things are worth noting though they may seem like obvious solutions.

Look Ahead and Start Saving

It seems like the principle of College funds for families has dwindled over the years and this is why students feel unprepared when they start college when massive costs are placed on their shoulders. Sometimes families are able to help along the way, but they're generally not going to be able to, or want to, pay for all of your costs. One of the smartest things you can do is to look for opportunities to start saving up for college. While you're in high school, this is a great opportunity to learn how to juggle work and school. This will be a good life lesson, but also keeps you from having heavy debt throughout your career. It will also help you to cover the costs of applying for different colleges. This isn't free and can take people by surprise. I spent roughly $500 and applied to four different schools and other people spend much more.

Colleges of Prestige and Colleges of Degrees

One of my concerns when I was first going to college was finding one where the school was well-known in order to get special recommendations when I graduated. For some places, this can be a valuable asset when applying for a job, but at what cost? When you decide to go to a renown school with a king's ransom for tuition costs, you may be subjecting yourself to an unnecessary cost that you can't afford. This is a risk and you need to account for it. If you are counting on getting a cushy job after graduating, you may have high debt which you'll be paying off for the next ten or fifteen years as you struggle to get through the entry-level jobs and internships, affording rent and other expenses for living day to day.

The alternative: Go to a school you can afford and do a good job. Being able to do good in college is significant when you are applying for jobs and you really need to consider how much prestige actually has in terms of getting a job in general. As long as you can at least match your competition with diligence and ability, in the end and in my opinion, a good manager will recognize that you fulfill the job requirements. Many people have to work their way up from the bottom, but if you are willing to work hard, it won't matter after a couple of years where you went to college.

Growing Debt and Finding Grants

One of the reasons I've been able to avoid debt is being able to find loans which have been able to pretty much pay for my entire tuition, leaving me responsible for rent and food throughout my schooling which is easy to do. Most government grants cover a little bit of your tuition costs if you're eligible, but if you aren't, there are many scholarships out there that are available. These may be hard to find and will take a long time to fill out, but something which takes you about an hour to fill out may have handsome rewards. Sometimes we need to think about the benefits of taking the time to sit down and fill these forms out. I've been able to claim just about $3000 dollars in the past two years of college by finding grants that help me.

An alternative: Low-to-No Interest Loans. Obviously, no interest loans are ideal, but they have a clause. Normally they are only free up until graduation. I've known people who take out every loan that they can each semester. This poor individual had about $100,000 dollars worth of debt without graduating college and was unable to come back because of the weight of the interest. In my opinion, he hadn't thought about the consequences of what he was doing and took out what was available. When we try to exceed our ability, we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

Find a Job and Don't Waste Your Money

I find that many people squander their money in college that they could use to fight down loans and put into emergency savings. This includes extravagant parties, smoking or drinking, or even playing too many video games. Generally, when it comes to living, rent, tuition, and food are the necessities and is pretty easy to calculate. It is when you start adding to this with other costs, such as eating out everyday which can easily start exceeding $30 dollars a week on food for only a few meals.

For some people, this is not something that they are willing to give up. In my opinion, when these people complain about not being able to afford college I can only roll my eyes. There are many opportunities which you can do to pay off the necessities and if you don't have your priorities straight, you get lost in your expenses.

My solution: Find a Job. It's hard to do in small towns where everyone is looking for the same things as you, but there are opportunities out there. If you can't take classes and work at the same time, then you may need to think of alternative solutions, but hopefully you can work at least part-time while in college. This means that you could at least pay your rent and food each semester and fill your savings. Get rid of things that you don't need such as high cost subscriptions. Invest in your future, don't take a loan on it.

I've worked every semester when I've been at college, whether as an Art Model, Custodian, or working in IT. The benefits far outweigh the costs. I've made sacrifices, but in the end I've only had to worry about tuition when there were many unexpected costs that came up at the same time, but in the end, I was able to take care of it. Most of the time, it seems like our expectations for the college experience is what we're spending money on. If that is the case, I believe you should re-evaluate your goals and plan accordingly. There may be some situations where we just can't keep up, but if you've done everything you can, in my opinion you are one of the people that should get a scholarship.