Attack college expenses from the other end by growing up sooner

Free Money Finance commented on a Kiplinger's article which gives guidelines on how much college debt is too much. It boils down to investment and payoff: the higher the expected payoff (increased salary) the higher the investment should be (college expenses and/or college debt).

This is reasonable advice, assuming a traditional career path and a traditional educational path. But going headlong into college from high school is probably the most expensive way to get an education. It really doesn't matter whether the money is there to pay without student loan debt or if there is a student loan with a subsidy — uhhh, I mean scholarship. (Rich families subsidize the less rich families via the college in the form of “scholarships.” If the colleges called them what they actually were, I suspect the rich families wouldn't pay quite so much.) In most cases, the traditional college experience demands the sticker price.

There are numerous reasons why a lecture format really doesn't convey the information as well as careful study of a shelf-full of used textbooks. There are numerous reasons why college really doesn't prepare students that much for the real world. There are numerous reasons why secondary education is undermining the prospects and morals of our best and brightest in favor of weakness, bureaucracy, and mediocrity.

But this is a personal finance blog, and you're probably expecting some money-saving tips for college. 😉

Here's the idea:

Pass out of a few semesters. Not “pass out a few semesters,” mind you. Take advanced placement courses and exams, and look for colleges that take them. Tests are a lot cheaper than college courses.
Shop around. College is like any other consumer item, and deals exist. Find them.
Stay at home. Why pay for housing? How much do you really hang out with your dorm-mates, anyway?
Pay for it yourself. Start your career during college rather than after college. Why wait? If you shopped around, these costs are well within reach of income from a part-time job.

Yes, just about everyone who goes to college for four years has a great time. But this is extremely expensive fun. Some of the tips above pretty much put a wet blanket on this fun. But as most people do, they take the fun path and set their careers back a few years and lighten someone's wallet by tens — or even hundreds — of thousands of dollars. And if they don't have the cash, they borrow, and postpone their ability to save for retirement, for a house, for anything.

LowestCostColleges.com (not an affiliate link) offers a free (as in no-cost, no-strings-attached) 67-page manual describing how to get a bachelor's degree in less than four years for under $15,000. (Did that get your attention? Do you think you could swing that without taking on any debt?) The college money-saving tips above are from this report.

The money-saving methods come complete with a paradigm shift of what to expect of a college experience: Work hard, pay for it yourself, study, live at home, and don't stay in the full four years. In other words, grow up and forego the fun to save a lot of money and, more importantly, a lot of time, so that you'll be ahead of your peers that don't grow up so quickly.

7 thoughts on “Attack college expenses from the other end by growing up sooner”

Perhaps it would be more cost effective to have your fun by taking a gap year – say working for 6 months, in order to save up money to travel the world, or taking a working holiday – and then carrying out some of the suggestions above.

On the other hand, money isn't everything. If it would make you a more confident person to live away from your parents during Uni (as it did me), then do it. If I'd stayed at home for Uni I'd probably still be living there now.

I agree, some college classes are better off learned through an internship or personal study.

For example, I see people taking photography classes, but I am getting hands on experience freelancing. So far I've done weddings, birthdays, parties, and even a passport photo. The money I earn goes directly back into equipment purchases, enabling me to study lighting with top-of-the-line stuff outside of the classroom.

Just a tip for the rest of the world, I downloaded and read this report. Not bad. Just take my advice and skip the first three chapters, unless you need your ego stroked. They're interesting chapters, but they don't hold any useful information.

I just hope this guy keeps this thing up to date, because the information in here will age brutally otherwise.

Great info; I've forwarded this to my favorite teenager.

This is an interesting document, but I think it makes a LOT of false assumptions about certification flattening the difference between institutions.

I paid for a private school education, and got small classes (my largest class, EVER, included 40 people, the smallest was 7, and the average was 20 or so) and instruction from full professors in every class but one (and that was because the professor had to be replaced at the last minute). I did not pay out the nose for lectures by TAs.

And also, it's all well and good to talk grad school being a better place for individualized, seminar instruction (I agree with him), but grad school application acceptances don't just magically drop from heaven. The schools want to know that their students can focus at that higher level (and the kid who "works full time, graduates in three years, and earns a C average" has not adequately demonstrated that, even if he did "meet the qualifications" on time and under budget).

It's interesting, and has a few worthwhile ideas (sure, take a few AP exams and CLEPs to test out of early course requirements), but college is intended as a networking incubator and an atmosphere for broadening experience. Shutting oneself off from the community does come at a price, and I think this didn't adequately express that.

I fully agree with what you say. College is a fun time but it's also time to grow up. It will be too late to after graduating with a gross debt made. I think the one of the most serious traps waiting for you there is credit cards. There are some really good offers but you need to grown ups enough for them. Only in this case you will make a profit but not a debt.