How to graduate debt free Recap
To Graduate college debt free is an ambitious personal goal. It’s challenging, but achievable. I’ve done a series of posts covering a number of actions—milestones, mini-goals—that could increase the likelihood of your success. The following article is a recap, graduate college debt free.
This is a collection of articles. If you want to graduate debt free read this
Start with the basics: How to graduate debt free recap
Too often people try to set goals without laying the groundwork. You need to really know your financial health. Keep a spending journal and make a budget. Incorporate practices that will make your funds go farther like using coupons or getting a roommate.
Find ways to cut expenses. Any single money saving practice may not have a significant impact, but a number of small changes do add up. Think about this from a negative viewpoint: If you go over budget a few dollars every week—say $5—that adds up a $260 loss in a year. Now, from a positive perspective, if you decided to tweak your budget and save $10 a week…How many sodas do you buy while you’re out and about? That gives you a sum of $520. Five hundred and twenty dollars approaches the national average cost of the credit hour at about $600. (I realize you’ll need considerably more than that, but if your other funding sources fall a little short?)
Time is another resource. Like money, time needs to be budgeted to your advantage. You need ample time for studying because failure and repeating classes is unlikely to be an option if you want to graduate from college debt free. But…there is life (and sleep) to consider, and you might need to work.
Test out of classes
Your school
To graduate college debt free needs to encompass every advantage. Testing out of a course costs just a fraction of the cost of the class, tuition, and books. Depending on the class schedule (and the fact that you don’t need to be there), you might even save money on transportation.
Most colleges have made provisions for students that are proficient in certain subjects to take the equivalent of a final exam. If they pass the test with an approved score, students are awarded credit hours for the class. Let’s say you’re good at grammar and writing, many schools it’s offer the possibility of testing out of your first semester of English class while receiving credit for it. English is not the only course you can test out of, but be aware that most of the classes for which this is available are at first and second year levels.
Check with your school administration to learn their policy for testing out of classes.
CLEP Exams
CLEP exams are a common test-to-credit series, there are, however, other testing agencies. It’s likely your school has its own program. Read my article “Test out of college classes and graduate debt free”.
Scholarships and grants
Grants and scholarships are free money, and a lot of money is available. Grants are largely based on financial need. Scholarships tend to be merit based and there are a great number of qualities that are considered worthy of merit. Do your research and you may find several that seem tailor made for you.
A lot of students apply for well known grants and scholarships, so it’s important follow the instructions for submission and to submit as early as possible (well before the deadline). If you submit your application late, you may lose the opportunity for award. That loss could put your goal to graduate from college debt free in jeopardy. It’s foolish to throw away money because you were not paying attention to details.
Veterans
If you are a veteran, you have the same opportunities as other students to save on the cost of your college education. In fact, you may have more advantages. In some cases you can receive college credit for military schools you attended or for your experiences. For more information read Test out of college classes and graduate debt free.
Housing
Housing can be very expensive, but living in expensive housing isn’t a requirement for graduation. The cost of housing can be detrimental to your goal to graduate college debt free. Two of my suggestions for keeping down the cost of housing are…
1. Don’t go for the glam. Shop around. You can find relatively inexpensive housing—maybe rent a room (with kitchen privileges) in someone else’s place. I live in a college town, and the price of apartments is all over the map. What can you afford? Don’t let a “nice place” undermine your goal of graduating debt free.
2. Instead of being the roommate, get one. Having a roommate can cut your rent in half. If you have two roommates, your housing costs will be cut by two thirds.
Food
Eating is another expense. You can choose to eat expensively, or reasonably, or cheap. Eating expensive is eating out. Also, meal packages purchased through your school are probably expensive. Eating reasonably usually means you eat most of your meals at home. You may make many runs to the grocery store to buy what you feel like eating at the moment. Eating cheap involves writing a meal plan for at least a week, shopping with a list, and using coupons correctly.
Get a job
You many have all your bills and living expenses are covered. So, why should you have to work a job in addition to doing everything getting an education requires?
Well, you want to be graduate college debt free. Your expenses may be covered right now, but what if a textbook gets lost or your laptop dies? Could you replace either without going into debt? Maybe those don’t sound like great expenses, but when you’re well into a semester and your grant money is running low, it might be different. When the goal is to graduate college debt free, everything counts.
Here’s another thought: Are you positive all your expenses for next semester are covered? What about next year? You need to know that scholarships and grants are not guaranteed. Until you have future expenses covered, it’s a smart move to have some supplemental income. Think about working a job and saving against future need.
Planning is essential if you want to graduate debt free.
Conclusion
I haven’t covered (and really can’t) all the ways a student can be frugal and work towards graduating debt free. Be creative. Consider all the things you spend money on. Always be looking for the means to cut costs. Graduate debt free is very achievable.