Night and/or weekend classes.
Some schools offer extensive work/study such as College of the Ozarks.
It is actually tuition free. But you have to work.
All kinds of possibilities are out there. Hey, this is America.
I took most of his advice decades ago when I went:
Went to college locally so I could continue to live at home.
Applied for every scholarship I could.
Worked while I studied.
No debt.
My kid made it all the way to a Ph.D. with no debt.
I paid for the first two years, only.
Never un9why folks pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to become more stupid. A lobotomy is far cheaper.
Storefront higher education is a possibility.
Professors would sign students up online and rent former retail space for a couple of hours a week.
School district higher education is also a possibility. Affluent towns like Scarsdale might offer college level courses in K-12 school buildings after hours. Affluent families don’t get financial aid. In district students might have highest priority, associated district students would have secondary priority, and any spaces left after say two weeks would be open to all.
Here in Florida, my county school board runs a technical institute to teach the trades.
Get as many college credits in high school as possible .
But college needs to be reformed.
Strip all the glitz away to cut costs.
Mostly good advice:
— Go to community college for the first 2 years and transfer the credits. You lose a lot of the “college experience” this way, but you will avoid a lot of debt too.
— Go into the AD military first and get the GI bill. Join the National Guard and go to state college tuition free. Getting an ROTC scholarship is another alternative — and maybe the best one as you get a guaranteed 4 year job on graduation.
— Work for a company that offers tuition assistance (some still do) and go part time.
— Don’t major in a useless degree program
But, perhaps the best advice is to make sure you are ready for college first. Many 18 years olds are not. If you take the SATs are your scores are below 500, you are probably not ready for a 4 year university. So do CC first.
My friend took CLEP exams at $120 a pop and received 75 hours of college credit before he even enrolled in college. He went on to get his masters in business and is now gainfully employed.
My parents have 6 grandchildren. When the last one finishes college, the combined total out of pocket cost is less than $100K. That includes 6 bachelors degrees and 4 degrees.
The 4 who graduated are all employed in their fields and supporting themselves.
We stressed decent grades, above a 3.5 and high test scores. Three were National Merit Finalists and went to schools with automatic full rides. One got an almost full ride based on a competitive college scholarship. Two received full tuition scholarships. Those worked and used savings for the room and board. They all had some kind of job for their own spending money.
There are literally thousands of schools to choose from. There is no reason they pay $40-90k a year.
Anything ending in “Studies” is bound to be a useless degree. Stop scholarships for useless degrees, the ones that do not qualify the student to be a useful member of society. Let ‘em pay their own way.
Anything ending in “Studies” is bound to be a useless degree. Stop scholarships for useless degrees, the ones that do not qualify the student to be a useful member of society. Let ‘em pay their own way.
Parents these days are indoctrinated to believe that they are obliged to fund their children's college education.
As a result, they defer savings that would otherwise go into their IRAs or 501ks into 529 type accounts instead. In many cases, the parents find themselves well into their 40s and even 50s before they are allowed to focus on saving for their own retirement. Often by then, it is too late to properly fund a retirement.
As well, even with parents saving and scrimping, it is usually not enough, forcing the children to take out student loans to cover the rest, which puts them in a disadvantageous situation with regard to saving for their retirement as they first need to pay back those loans. Then if they have children of their own, the situation described earlier with the parents is compounded.
It's a tragedy because in order to build retirement savings to the $2-3 million you really need for a solid retirement, it is crucial to start saving when you are in your 20s and have decades of compounding returns to get yourself to that savings goal.
Meanwhile, the colleges get wealthier than ever, sitting on endowments worth billions, while raising tuitions annually way in excess of inflation rates, forcing their students to put themselves in debt for higher and higher amounts just to go their indoctrination centers.
If I was a young person today, I'd learn a trade and forget about college entirely.
I had a full time job to pay for college. I never thought about taking loans.
I got one. From the North Avenue Trade School. All it cost me was 8 years in service and the GI bill. And working part time as a tech on campus. Finished in 12 straight quarters...