How to Pay for College

Here's a great comment left on my post titled Help a Reader: How to Get Started. I thought it was worth sharing with you all:

Here's how I paid for college, with only $5,000 in student loans after 6 years at a private college:

1. Got a full-time seasonal job as summer help at a factory (mind-numbing work keeps you wanting to stay in school).

2. Applied for every scholarship I could, even with my Life insurance company (Thrivent).

3. Lived with my parents during all my breaks (I know it's hard to put up with, but how much do you want a college education?)

4. Got a part-time job for during the school year, around 25-30 hours per week. The best job I've ever seen is babysitting at a group home for the mentally challenged for the weekend.

5. Give plasma twice a week. That's $50 per week, and you can study while you sit there being bled.

If you get an associate's degree at a community college, you are automatically exempt from taking your generals at a four-year college. I wish I would have done that because I changed my major a few times so I ended up 6 years instead of 4 at a private college.

I do have to say, though, that college is not always the answer. Neither my husband nor I are using our Bachelor's degrees. I'm an insurance agent and my husband is a mechanic (which is how he put himself through college).

I thought that there were some really good tips in here -- very practical. To see how I paid for college, check out How I Made Millions Off a $5,000 Investment. And for extra insights into how to pay for college, read How to Get the Most Financially Out of College and Go to Law School Without Racking Up Tons of Debt (this is not only applicable to law school, but any sort of schooling.)

Comments

[ekrabs]

I think there's one thing else above all else that should be mentioned:

Dedication.

Nobody would do all of what she did without some dedication. Kudos to her for that.

[Katie]

Any ideas on how to speed up the repayment of student loan debt already created? Problem is that most people (including myself) don't think of the cost until they've already racked it up in loans. With private loan consolidation extinct these days is there anything else that can be done? Especially when a part time job is not an option?

[ekrabs]

I was in the same boat as you are. I didn't think much about my student loans until it was too late.

I didn't have any secret tricks or magical formulas. I simply tightened my belt, scraped up as much determination as I could, set down a cold, hard budget, volunteered for overtime, and started plugging the loan away as much as I could.

Mine was 40k, and out of the 20 year term, I paid it off in 2 years.