Ways to Help Pay for College

 

I’ll admit that I haven’t thought much about how I’m going to deal with paying for college once I graduate. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my parents help out a bit but I will still have some loans from my time here at Temple and also loans from grad school after that. Here are some ways I’ve tried to keep my costs down while attending college!

Get a job.

This one is a biggie. Almost all of my friends have some sort of job either right now while they’re taking classes or just over the summer. Really, any sort of income helps and making sure you are always saving a portion of what you make is important! If you don’t have time for a job, there are plenty of other options to make some money! Personally, I blog during the school year and then work full time over the summer. It has worked out pretty well for me so far!

Bonus tip: try to find summer jobs that are relevant to your major and will give you valuable experience for that resume! 

Avoid buying expensive books (if you can!)

I realize some majors/professors are lowkey evil and they require you to buy access codes and new versions of books, but try to cut costs by buying or renting earlier editions of books and borrowing textbooks from friends who have already taken the course! I’m sure we all know this by now, but try to avoid the campus bookstore at all costs. There’s nearly ALWAYS a cheaper option out there on the internet! By saving money on books, you’re able to keep that money in your bank account to pay off your loans.

Live at home?

Sometimes it’s best to try to live at home for a year or two. Although I haven’t done this, I am definitely considering living at home during grad school to cut costs!

Scholarships, scholarships, scholarships.

I applied for so many scholarships when I was a senior in high school. I even ended up getting one at my university just based on my high school GPA! There are SO many scholarship options out there, especially if there’s something unique about you or your family. I can’t stress enough how important it is to at least LOOK around for scholarships. It’s literally free money!

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When I was approached to write this post about loans with College Ave Student Loans, I was a little hesitant at first. But I figured this post could be a learning experience both for me and for all of you! I’m going to do my best to share some helpful tips I found from around their website.

I headed to the College Ave Student Loans website and was shocked at how much valuable information there was. I first checked out the different types of student loans and learned a lot about the difference between Federal Student Loans and Private Student loans.

I also learned a lot about how much college students actually know. I was relieved to find that I’m not the only college student that doesn’t have a plan on how to pay for college. 80 percent of college students reported they do not have a plan to pay off their student loan debt when they graduate. That’s crazy!

College Ave rewards students who work to pay off their student loans while also in college by lowering their interest rates, which is awesome! There’s also an amazingly helpful student loan calculator which is beneficial for ANY undergraduate college student.

Something else I’m really excited about is that College Ave Student Loans also offers a program for graduate students as well. There’s also a graduate student loan calculator so you can explore your options and figure out what’s best for you! As most of you probably know, I’ll be attending graduate school after I graduate so I was excited to find this out.

Phew! That was a lot but hopefully you’ve found these College Ave Student Loans resources helpful and informative. Be sure to check out their website and explore all of their other great resources!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Kayla Blogs!