“The Rules”
- Don’t go to University just to have “the experience”
- If you go, get a degree that has actual VALUE when you graduate. Spending 4 years painting is garbage
- Don’t just take loans for everything.
- Get a summer job and pay as much as possible out-of-pocket.
- Try to have some work during school months.
- Try to get good grades and apply for grants/scholarships.
- If parents can contribute some that’s great but shouldn’t be perceived as an obligation.
- Try to finish in 4 years, you’ll just get more in debt if you take longer.
- Don’t switch majors unless you’re really unhappy.
- Don’t go to a “top school”, that is way more expensive, when a “lesser” school will give you the same ability to get the same job. We all know that it’s what you do AFTER you graduate that counts, not what school you went to.
- There are MANY other ways to earn a living that don’t require a degree. Follow the right path.
You’ll still have debt but it’s manageable. It isn’t easy but that’s what is REALLY best for you during these years. Remember, 50% of freshmen never graduate, it isn’t in the best interests of everyone.
What friends of mine have done is tell their kids, cannot help BUT after graduation each kid was invited to move back in and work and put the bulk of their checks to their loan. They all cleared their loans out within a couple of years, some sooner. Then they each saved enough to move out. Cost the parents: food.
Fuzz,
You will find that often times critical classes required to complete in 4 years are unavailable. It’s very nice when you can increase revenue by 20% by making a 5th year mandatory.
Get what you can (especially the general education stuff) at a community college. The credits transfer and cost a lot less. You will cut down your graduation debt by 25% to 50%.
Yeah, it is nowhere near as glamorous living at or near home and commuting, but in addition to being a hell of a lot cheaper, you will get classmates and instructors who still have at least one foot in the real world.