A community focused on career, finance, education, and lifestyle advice for twenty-somethings and young adults.
How are you paying for college?
I'm sure that the biggest expense for most of us right now is either paying for school or paying off student loans. How have you been paying for school? did you get scholarships? Find a good job? Maybe your parents are helping and paying for a chunk.
I took two years off after highschool and worked as a facilities technician at a national department store and saved enough to pay for my first year of school. My parents are helping me with the next year but my dad recently left his job so I will liekly have to take out loans for the 2 years after than unless he finds something else quick.



Hi Bagel! It sounds like you're managing your expenses very responsibly. In my case, it was a combo of scholarships, working, and living at home that allowed me to graduate debt free.
In my home state of SC, anyone with a 4.0+ GPA (honors and AP are weighted on a 5 point scale so many of us actually had 4.5s or more when we graduated), 1300+ SAT score, or a certain class ranking was automatically given a scholarship called Palmetto Fellows for $7500/year at an in state school. If you major in STEM it goes up to $10000/year. You're also guaranteed that your choice school will give you $2000+/year from their own pool if you were Palmetto Fellows. My college's program was $4500/year for fellows.
In state tuition for a school in my town - the College of Charleston, one of the oldest liberal arts universities in America - was $10,000/year. So I actually recieved a $4500 overage in cash each year. I used that and a restaurant job I worked at for 3 years to pay for books, food, and the $1000 year in parking fees, along with building up my savings. I could not have done that if I lived in dorms, however, as CofC has astronomically high dorm costs. I would have broken even or taken a loss easily. I also could not have done it without majoring in chemistry and getting a $2500 boost ever year.
I have also seen people go to tech school for their generals and then transfer to a pricier university for their major requirements. That's a good way to save money and ease into college. I can't emphasize enough how much living at home saves money if you can stand it, along with staying at an in state school (paying triple the cost for being in a different border? Pfft! Save that for grad school - maybe.) Keeping some kind of job, even a minimum wage job for 10 hrs a week, doesn't hurt either. I eventually plan on creating a database of scholarships much like Palmetto Fellows, but for ALL states. I just started the community though, so it'll be awhile ;)
Speaking of jobs, I am currently actually working on campus over the summer setting up for events. My little liberal arts school offers my free housing (I'm still responsible for my own food) as well as compensation. The pay isn't going to be a whole lot, but it should at least give me a chunk of spending cash for the coming school year.
That sounds great. If you can get some kind of in-college job,or work study, it's a GREAT deal. Usually it's easy work for a lot better compensation than you'd make as a retail worker. I was considered "too rich" to qualify for work study though, as my single mom who made 50k was apparently the determiner of my income due to me still living with her. Honestly I hated FASFA's definition of the word "afford" in general. They told my mom she could "afford" 20k a year tuition for me. Despite the fact that she was not going to pay for my college even if she was a millionare, that's almost half her gross income a year. Who can throw away half their money to a kid's tuition every year?!
But yeah, jump on that every time you can. My best friend basically paid her way through NYU by working in college offices and on their summer programs.