To tie in with my last post about why I think college debt is (sometimes) worthwhile, here is an article that I found last month about adults who have unfathomable debt. These people each have somewhere around $185,000 in student loan debt which is insane!
None of these people graduated with a degree that lead to a job which they thought they would have.
Ways to save on college or lessen the burden of college debt include:
- Scholarship/grants/work study programs (of course)
- Research ways to get scholarships. Apply for all scholarships that your college offers. Remember to fill out your FAFSA before the deadline in order to be eligible for higher grant amounts. Most schools offer work study programs where you might be a residential adviser, work in the cafeteria, and so on. The work is usually very minimal but can pay off.
- Attending community college
- This way you can first get general credits out of the way.
- Installment plans
- Usually you can set up a plan to pay for tuition over a 4 or 9 month period, which will lessen the burden of having to pay tuition and fees upfront.
- Living at home at least some of the years while you are in college
- I got my own apartment at the age of 18 and bought my house at the age of 20, so I never lived in a dorm. Even though I didn’t live at home with my parents, I still saved a significant amount of money by not living in the dorms and having to pay for a food plan also.
- Only use student loans for actual tuition and fees
- A lot of the people in the article used their student loans to pay for them to live as well. They should have gotten a job and not have used loans to support them.
Your turn: At what point would you say that your college degree or debt would no longer be worth it? What do you think of these individuals who accrued so much debt? What would you tell them?