I told you I would write a post about how to cut costs. I lied. I’m going to write multiple posts on how to cut costs in college. The first post will deal with the most expensive parts of paying for college: tuition and housing.
How do you reduce the cost of tuition? Scholarships and grants are one way of doing this…but we already went over that. Let’s start with the beginning. Go to an inexpensive, or free, college/university. Other blogs and news articles have covered free colleges and universities many times. It is really pretty easy to do a short Google search and find many of these tuition free institutions. A short list of free colleges/universities can be found in the Useful Links tab.
Just like any other college/university not everyone gets in to the free schools mentioned above. So what about those of us that are going to have to pay for our higher education? How do we reduce tuition costs? One way is to choose the college/university with the best financial aid packages. Apply to schools that interest you, but are also varied by the type of institution. Sprinkle in a private school with the public four-year schools or a small college with a large well-known school. Fill out the Expenses Worksheet for each school that you get into. Compare the total cost of your education to your offered financial aid packages and you can find the least expensive school.
Of course, you won’t be making your decision solely on cost. There are other important factors such as degree programs, location, campus culture, etc. Determining the best financial aid packages in this way can eliminate choices that you weren’t sure about in the first place, or alert you to the realization that you can’t afford to attend a certain school.
Another way to cut the cost of tuition is to find a full-time position at the college/university you want to attend. For certain full-time staff positions free or reduced tuition rates are offered as part of your benefits package. I had one friend that became a police assistant for my university’s police department and was able to finish their degree for free (the job only required a high school diploma and passing a physical test, as well as a background check and other criteria related to the job). This free tuition can also extend to children and spouses of college/university employees. If you are a parent or spouse who is looking for a job anyway, you may want to consider finding a position at a local college/university to help your loved ones pay for their education.
So what else can you do to cut costs? The second most significant cost reduction will come from your housing expenses. The best option is a free place to live. If you choose a college/university that is close to home the obvious choice is to live at home (especially if your parents are willing to let you live there rent free).
You might be thinking that you can’t live at home (because of distance or your desire to remain sane). There are multiple ways to find a place to live for free. Certain jobs on and off campus include housing as compensation. Resident Assistants are the most well known free housing jobs on campus, but some schools also provide free room and board to campus tour guides and student security officers. Much of the time these positions are not open to freshmen, but if you can swing it, potentially you could get three years of a free place to crash. Caretaker positions are also excellent ways to get a free place to live while attending school (especially if you attend school during the tourist off season) as well as housekeeping and in-home nanny positions. During the summer sleep-away camps are also an excellent source of free room and board (plus they are fun jobs where you can get some travel experiences).
If you can’t find a job that will give you a place to live there are other options to reduce housing costs. Roommates are the most popular. Find a one-bedroom apartment and split the cost. Your monthly rent just went from $600.00 a month to $300.00. Some universities provide competitive on-campus housing when it comes to price and accommodations. It would be in your best interest to do your research to really see how much money apartments and room-shares cost in comparison to on-campus housing. Also compare renting a room in a house vs. sharing an apartment.
You also need to learn to negotiate effectively. If you do your homework on rental prices you should know how much an apartment, condo, or house should rent for the area near your school. The key to negotiation is the first person to talk loses. If you don’t like the price (because you have seen better for a comparable place) then sit there and wait for the leasing agent to talk. If they won’t work with you on the rental price or move in fees, then leave. There are other places that will be happy to give you a reasonable price for a nice place to live.
In the next post we will cover how to reduce some incidental costs related to school and the cost of food.
