College on a Low Budget

Image: http://i.imgur.com/cKrebdg.jpg

By Sonya Watts

The modern business world is a cold and hostile place in which everyone is left on his or her own. Now, although everyone needs to fend for themselves, this doesn’t mean that everyone starts from the same spot. One of the things that can ensure you a better starting position is quality education. Because of this, it is essential that you as a parent, give your child a fighting chance. Unfortunately, top tier education in a first world country can cost an arm and a leg, still you should keep in mind that your child is always worth it. With this in mind, here are some ideas that may help you get through college on a tight budget.

Getting a scholarship

First of all, your safest bet is to get your kid awarded a national scholarship or even grant, because this pretty much nullifies all tuition related expenses. Now, keep in mind that tuition fee is on its own, probably well over half of all the expenses (other half being books, rent and other hidden expenses), so this kind of boost would solve everything on its own. However, in order to get it, your kid would have to be an exceptional student with an impressive academic record.

Invest in the future

Sometimes in order to save money in the future, you have to spend some of it first. Parents who can afford it are able to enlist their kids into the best private schools regardless of how much they may cost. Of course, here you can always go with a reliable school fee payment plans to help you endure this financial burden. The enriched academics and college preparatory resources at these schools help students get more merit-based aid to top colleges, which can be worth the initial financial investment.

Student loans

Another thing your kid could do in order to manage to pull through college is to get a student loan. Sure, some people claim that you don’t want to go through most of your career paying for your “needless” education, but gaining this education is definitely far from needless. In fact, there is research by Georgetown University’s Center on Education, claiming that by the year of 2020 more than 65% of jobs will require a Bachelor’s degree or higher. This means that providing your child with post-secondary education is no longer something optional but completely mandatory. Add to this, that higher education allows them a better career options and suddenly it becomes worth any price you may be required to pay.

Start saving in time

Now, we already mentioned that in your child’s academic track is not something that can be left to situation and that as such, you need to start thinking about it in due time. However, the thing we talked about earlier mostly meant of planning for college long before your child enlists in it, but this is a bit more concrete. You can start saving money for college since the birth of your kid. This will give you enough time to save enough money for even some of prestigious colleges in the country. Now, if you manage to combine this with a proper college saving plans (like 529 plan for example).

Other options

Even if your initial plan doesn’t work out as intended, you still have so many options in front of you that will allow you to study on budget. Seeing how we already mentioned that tuition fee is only a half of your expenses, there are other places where you can save. You can always choose a college that is closest to you, and study from home. This alone will eliminate the rent which on average amounts to around $550 a month. Furthermore, you can try and find out if you could enlist on a university abroad, since in this way you can sometimes get cheaper education but of no lesser quality.

As you can see, where there is will there is always a way. This is especially reassuring since there is nothing more important than finding a way for your children to get a top-tier education. Further on, it will allow them to find a lucrative, stimulating and rewarding job with a great potential for future advancement. What more can a caring parent hope to do.