Going to College Debt-Free: 8 Things You Must Do
Today, Americans are strapped with more student loan debt than ever before. However, it is still possible to go to college debt-free and in this article I want to give you 8 ways you can do it.
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve here, the total student loan debt is 1.71 Trillion and there are a total of 44.7 Million Americans in student loan debt. Check out this article here for more startling statistics on the severity of the student loan crisis.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, 11.1% of student loans were more than 90 days delinquent or in default, and the average monthly payment was $300.
The statistics are staggering so lets get right to it:
Here are 8 Ways you can go to college debt-free
1. Be Determined to Get It Done Debt-Free
If you have no money saved for college, you have to get creative, determined, and focused. I get a lot of push back for the four letter word “CASH”, but It’s possible and it’s not out of the question. It’s very doable.
You have to be real serious about doing this thing debt free in order to do it debt free. The pressure will be on to borrow here and there, take out loans, and do all the things that the system is designed for you to do to go in to debt!
You have to be determined NOT to go there.
2. Plan Early and Save Early
Assess your financial situation, start explaining college tuition to your kids when they are around middle school age, and keep that dialogue going through high school.
Tell yourself and your kids what monies you have and what monies you don’t have. Don’t fool yourself, and don’t try to fool them. Be honest and upfront with them.
Figure out your choices based on what money you have, and what money they, or you, can generate.
Don’t let your 18 year old child dictate how they want to spend your money, and don’t let them get overly excited with the thought that you will pay for college, no matter what it cost. That is a mistake and unrealistic.
The sooner you start the conversation and planning, the better off you will be able to execute the plan WITH your kids. Paying for college should be a collaborative effort, if possible.
3. Focus On In-State Colleges and Universities
Take all of the expensive out of state schools and private colleges, off the board and out of question. If you have little to no savings for in-state schools, you surely don’t have the money to send yourself or your kid to an out-of-state school and pay that premium.
A state school for me.
Be realistic with your child and with yourself, and opt for cheaper in-state alternatives to out of state colleges and private schools. Also, online schools, that eliminate the need to live on campus, are great options also.
4. Go to College Slower
Make a conscious decision to get your degree in 8 years instead of 4. If it means no debt, finishing in 8 years instead of 4 years, won’t kill you, hurt you, or mess you up in any kind of way.
In the big scheme of things, finishing at the age of 26, as opposed to age 22, won’t damage anything significant in the course of your life. Trust me on this!
Taking 2 classes a semester for 8 years, and perhaps a class in the summer, is affordable for most of us reading this. This is a fantastic technique to help you pay for college.
This allows you more time to work and earn the extra money, while at the same time cutting the per semester cost of college way down.
5. Live On Campus and Work for Student Housing
They will usually cover your room and board and this will greatly reduce your cost. If your child is going off to college, you need to make sure they apply for this job as soon as possible.
It teaches responsibility, leadership, and work ethic. At the same time, it can usually cut the cost of college in half.
The compensation is amazing and I’m shocked more people don’t take advantage of this. If you are an adult student, not living on campus, attempt to get a job working for the college in some way that puts you in position to have them pay a portion of your college tuition.
6. Go to Work
Get jobs to pay cash for college. People have been working and going to school forever. You can too. If my daughter can juggle 3 part time jobs in college, so can you. If my youngest daughter can work nearly full time while in college, there is no reason anyone can’t.
Where there is a will, we all know there is a way. The beautiful thing about your child when they are away at college, is that they have lots of TIME.
Despite what they tell you, if they have time to party, hang with friends, and go to the football and basketball games, then they have time to work. College students typically have more time on their hands than you think
7. Attend a Community College
This one should have been at the top of the list. Community Colleges are a fraction of the cost and those 60 credit hours mean the exact same thing as the 60 credit hours at the high priced college you are thinking about attending for the first 2 years. Community Colleges are cheap!
You may find that there are trade schools and other alternative training that you are interested in, that could yield the same results as a college education. According to the National Skills Network, technology and blue collar work is growing.
There are programs that will allow your high schooler to go to community colleges for free. Why more people don’t take advantage of Community Colleges is completely baffling to me.
I don’t understand the fascination with a college that costs 20 times more than its alternative, and yet everyone passes up on the cheaper alternative. As the cost of colleges rise, I do think this is changing. Interestingly, from the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2020, enrollment at public community colleges dropped by 10.1%.
You won’t be penalized in the workforce for attending a community college.
If you say, “I want the on campus experience”, well, be prepared to pay the costs for that “experience”. I was never interested in paying for on campus experiences, because I know what those experiences often times entail.
Be smart and cut college cost in half by attending a local community college for your first 2 years. You can thank me later.
8. Scholarships and Grants
This one sounds obvious, but you would be shocked at how many people do not take advantage of this. There are whole databases dedicated to scholarships everywhere on the internet.
I know a single mom who had no way of paying for her 3 children to attend college. She told me that she was sitting around her home one day when her kids were in middle school, and looking at cereal boxes and all of the things her children consumed.
She said she started writing letters to the companies, explaining her story and her desire to send her kids to college.
Incredibly enough those same companies started responding to her letters. Ultimately she used scholarships and grants from those companies to fund her 3 children’s college education, and all 3 graduated from college debt-free.
She’s actually been asked on several occasions shared her story in front of large audiences. She is a normal regular person who took a chance, thought outside the box, and went for it. She told me that she made a part time job out of finding money for her kids college education, and it paid off!
The bottom line:
If you have to be the one to take on a second and third job, or create your own job, do it. If you or your child have to go slower, attend a community college, or get scholarships, to pay cash or attend debt free, then you can do these things too! It’s worth it. You, or your child, can go to college debt-free. It’s possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric is the founder of Smart Money Bro, a blog about empowering people and discussing practical ways ordinary people can be extraordinary with their money. He only writes about things that he has done, and that actually work. He’s made mistakes and has turned his financial future around, and is now in the position to help others do what he’s done.
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