Paying For College Without Running Up Loan Debt

The vast majority of students take out a series of loans to see them through college and often end up with a huge debt which then takes them many years to pay off. So, is it possible to pay for a college education without having to burden yourself with loan debt?

The simple answer is yes, but it does take a little bit of planning.

If you start thinking about college far enough in advance then you can begin putting money aside into a college fund and perhaps even enlist the help of parents and other relatives to make regular contributions to your fund. Now this is almost certainly not going to be enough to see you through college, but it can help a great deal.

The next excellent source of money for many students is scholarships and grants. Your own college can be a good place to start as many colleges will have grants and scholarships available just for their own students. Beyond this there are thousands of different sources of grant and scholarship funding available both locally and nationally and it is simply a matter of hopping online and searching for those which you are eligible to apply for.

Having got your pool of free money it is then time to start thinking about earning the money you need to meet your college fees and living expenses and, despite the fact that many people will tell you that you will not have time to fit in a job and that it will detract from your studies, evidence shows that the opposite is true. Most students who work a regular part-time job in college have to organize their time well to fit everything in and the result is that they usually end up carrying their work discipline across to their studies and frequently end up with better grades as a result. Another great benefit is that it also teaches you the true value of money and having to work for an hour to earn just a few dollars makes you far more careful about how you spend that money.

Think carefully however about just what sort of job you want and try to pick a job that you are interested in and that is going to pay well. There is nothing wrong of course with serving burgers in a local fast food restaurant, but if you have some skills then it is far better to put these to use if you can. Remember too that many companies in the area will probably be very happy to employ part-time students and the Internet also provides an excellent source of income, which also has the advantage of normally allowing you to work when it suits you.

Finally, do not forget that some colleges are a lot more expensive than others and will not necessarily provide you with a better education than a cheaper alternative. It might be thought that attending a particular college will provide you with better earning potential but this really is not true. In the vast majority of cases your future prospects have much more to do with how hard you work at college and beyond than they do with the name of the college you attend.