How did you finance your way through college??? So far I’m only a year through my scheduled four and I’m already in debt. It seems as if my parents are in just the wrong tax bracket. After filling out my FAFSA the government claims we have enough money and that need-based grants/scholarships aren’t necessary. My parents on the other hand would beg to differ. I have looked through scholarship books in the library and have been a registered FastWeb user since Junior year in HS. So far, a whopping $50! It seems to me that being a 19 year old, white, middle-income student is a horrible thing when it comes to going to school. So, to expand on my original question…What interesting/unique methods did you come up with to put yourself through college???
I worked!
I got married and moved out. i’m not joking. My freshman year, I was still considered a depenedent by the Government at FAFSA filing time. I needed an extra 4000 parent loan just to get my full tuition. The past two years, I haven’t needed any loans at all, because my husband makes about 70,000 less/year than my parents did.
So, the moral of the story is, if yo udon’t want to get married, figure out another way to get yourself declared independent from your parents.
Oh, just for apoint of reference----tuition at my private university is $20,000/yr.
Ahhhh…One I forgot to mention Violet! I have worked part time since turning 16. I worked right up until I left for school and then transferred to a store there. This summer I am working a full time job and also plan on working again once I’m back at school. Theres no doubt in my mind I will have to work college off for quite some time. Thanks for the post Violet!
I’m only attending a state school where tuition works out to be about $10,000-12,000 a year.
Rayray what state would this be in?
Land of Lincoln! Illinois State University to be precise.
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DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
Depends how much of a hurry you’re in to finish college. Two friends of mine got through college with no support at all from their parents (very slowly, but they did finish) and no loans by working full-time for the universities. (One was at U. of I. in Champaign, BTW.) Many schools will allow you to take a class or two at a time for free if you a FT employee, even in a low-level admin or staff job.
Of course, this alternative takes bloody forever. I can ucertainly understand wanting to remian debt-free, but most people without filthy-rich parents take on at least some student loans to finish school. The earnings differential with vs. without a degree means you can egnerally pay them off very quickly if you’re disciplined about it, providing your loan obligations aren’t completely insane.
If you’re tuiton is that low, I suggest work study and an outside job. I waited tables through most of college and paid my tuition with the money I made from that. I also had a job on campus at the same time.
So, you’re not eligible for scholarships/grants, does that mean you’re not eligible for student loans? I got financial aid my first year, but didn’t apply again when I figured out I can do it myself.
Or there are always private loans. The law school I’m going to be attending in fall doesn’t accept FASFA (I’ve got no clue why) and requires you to take out a seperate, private bank loan (if you need one, which I certainly do). If you don’t qualify you can get your parents to co-sign (which I’m also doing).
Just some suggestions.
The first couple of years I worked and saved money to go to school. I also qualified for a grant (only $450 though). Of course tuition was only $1200 a semester then.
Now I take out loans. Tuition has doubled and I don’t qualify for any more grants. I’m not sure how that works.
University around here costs 120 Euro / Semester. I pay a rent of 114 Euro / month at the dorm. With living expenses and everything, I think my whole outlay is probably less than 5000 Euro a year.
So… Come to Europe 
For a little over a year, before I went to school (state school - The University of Texas), I worked as a reactor operator in a chemical plant and saved enough to get through my freshman year without working.
And then the summer came and the bucks were skinny, and I started driving a taxi. During the course of the summer, I got a bank loan to buy a taxicab, and come fall I started working my own cab full time on graveyard. I soon had two other guys driving it when I wasn’t, so it was producing almost all of the time. The bank loan was paid off pretty quickly.
While I thought it was a perfect student job, with a schedule as flexible as you needed it to be, and very low drain on the brain, I never met another UT student driving a cab. When tuition time was approaching, I could maximize my driving efforts and round up more cash, and the whole endeavor taught me some basics of running a business, particularly with regard to bookkeeping and taxes.
Most of the time I made the Dean’s List, I graduated with honors, had planty of time to party, actually was a little more flush than most of my friends who were on the parental dole and got out with no student loans.
Good luck!
And I remember my Marxist/Maoist Chinese organic chem lab instructor inviting me over for tea (I went) and attempting to explain to me how I was stealing my employees’ labor from them. He never could get around the capital expenditure/risk thing.
I hate to sound like a recruiter but consider joining the IL National Guard. In Ohio the NG pays 75% of your state tuition (as I recall). I was in the reserve and received Cpt 106 benefits and loan repayment. Not quite as good a deal but I got through school no problem and had money to party, pay rent and travel to Europe 4 times. I also had a part time job all but my last year of school.
If you enlist for something that does not require a long training period (say infantry or artillery) you can be in and out of basic and AIT in 12-15 weeks. If you work it right you can do that over the summer. In addition to getting some or all of your tuition paid, your weekend drill pay will be an additional $175 to $200 a month as an E-1. And when you get out of college you’ll have something on else to put on your resume. You’d be surprised how many doors just serving the Guard or Reserve can open.