Here’s the US News article showing the increase in total student debt for graduates over the past 10 years. What’s even worse is those numbers don’t reflect the 40% of students that never finish their degree. I’m sure the total number would be even worse.
If you or someone you know is considering college here are 5 tips you can use to set yourself up (at least financially) before you go to school. If you don’t feel like reading, here is a video I made explaining the steps
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Understand your financial position, are you getting any help for school or are you on your own? Regardless, knowing where you are helps you move forward to achieving your goals
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Apply for as many scholarships as you can. There are the more common scholarships for getting good grades, scoring high on the SAT/ACT, and for athletes. But some of the less commonly known scholarships are given for left-handed people, if you speak multiple languages, are of minority descent, etc…
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Truly understand what you are going to school for before committing to a major. No need to waste time and money on classes that aren’t’ helping you ultimately graduate.
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Figure out how much money you need to save up for what scholarships don’t cover. A quick exercise I ran for attending an in-state school assuming you were able to cover 60% of tuition with scholarships would mean you need roughly $4,000 as a lump sum before starting day one of college
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Apply for even more scholarships, think of it as a full time job.
