7 Ways to Avoid Student Loan Debt

Going to college is not an easy task now and with the increasing cost of college, it has become difficult for many people to join the colleges and get a degree. The solution to this problem is student loans but these type of loans also have some drawbacks. With the excessive use of student loans, it has become easy for a person to get a loan but these loans are difficult to payback. You will be amazed to know that according to a report an average college graduate has a debt of $35,000 and have to pay it off when he or she leaves the college.

This is a huge amount and can cause a great amount of stress on you when you get graduated. Many college students are unable to pay that much amount and almost 11% students fail to pay the amount on time. That is a huge number of people if we compare that with other loans.
So with all these issues upfront, it is not a better idea to directly go to a student loan debt. There are some alternative ways that can help you to avoid student loan debt. Today I will tell you about some of the methods through which you can save yourself from this debt. So let’s start,

 

1. Community College

Community colleges are one of the cheapest available option to do a degree. The tuition fee and other cost of community colleges are much less than a college or a university. So in order to avoid student loan, you can spend your first 2 years in the community college. By this way, you will be able to save more money. If after getting scholarships and other programs, your community college is still cheaper than you should not consider that college and you should go to a community college for the first 2 years. But make sure before you take a start in a community college that whether the university that you want to go in will accept community college credits or will it allow you to transfer those credits.

 

2. Choose a Local College

One of the simplest and effective trick to save yourself from student debt is to take a local college or university and stay at home. By this you will be able to save the money that you will have to pay for the hostel, food and transport. It is not necessary to live in the campus as you can live in the home with your parents and could still get involved and learn a lot of things. So if your parents are cooperative then instead on living in the campus, live in your home and save thousands of dollars. You can use this big amount of saved money for your future goals and it can give you a strong financial backup.

 

3. Search For the Scholarship or Funding that Colleges Provide

Before you just take admission to a college make sure you do proper research of colleges to find a college that is best for you. There are some colleges that are eligible with my scholarships and funding programs that can reduce your college cost to a big extent. It is not necessary that a college with high tuition fee is a college that will be expensive because they might have more resources that can help you to reduce the college cost such as scholarships. Inexpensive colleges might lag in these kind of opportunities, so before you take admission in a college, visit a college and ask about all the funding option that they have and what requirements they have. If you can get support from one of the funding option of a college than this can reduce the college cost significantly.

 

4. Search for Other Funding Sources

There are many companies and organization that help students to go to college without getting student loans. These companies pay the tuition fee on the behalf of the students but they have some requirements too. For example, Military services of the US has a program in which they pay for your college fee if you work for them. Just like the Military Services, there are other companies and organizations that pay for your tuition fee if you accept to work for them.
This is possible in the case, if you search for the company that matches your degree or field of interest. Suppose that there is a financial services company near your house or in your city. If you want to start a carrier in that company and are interested in a degree that the company requires than you can search for the program in which they will fund you in the degree and you will have to serve them. A lot of companies does this, so you can find a one that have the same interest as you.

 

5. Do a Job While you are in College

While you are looking for a college for yourself also find a job so that you could pay the fee on your own. You can do a full time job with a part time college or you can take the college with a part time job that pay more. By this you will be afford the college without getting any loan. This can increase the time of your degree but this can also save you from starting your professional life with a debt. You will be debt free while you leave the college if you do the hard work while you are still in college.
If you are going to another city for your college, then search for companies in that city that are hiring and try to find a job which suits your college timetable. If you are unable to get a job, you can do some side hustles to take a start or you can freelance your skills or services to make an income. But a job is a better ideas because you can earn a fix amount every month for sure.

 

6. Before you Start College Save Money

It is not necessary that you should join the college right after your school on a student loan debt but instead of that you can take a year off and earn money. Try to make as much money so that you can pay to go to college. In most of the states, teens of 15 or 16 and above are allowed to work and most of the companies hires students who just left school. Try to find a company that pays well and save all the amount for your college. When you will have a big amount before you start college this will allow you to graduate without taking student loan debt. Even when you are in high school, start working on a part time job so that you could start saving money for your college.
An extra tip for you is that keep the amount of money you earn in a saving account or a money market account so that you could earn a profit on that and when you are in college the amount kept increasing.

 

7. Don’t Spend Extra

Young students are not that much financially mature so they spend a lot of extra money on useless stuff. This can increase the cost of college. I have seen a number of students that have spent a lot of money on extra and useless stuff. So I thought I should tell you to not to do this. As a student, social gatherings, dinning out and shopping can affect your budget.

Due to massive increase in number of student getting student loan, it has become easier to excess money for the students so they get in to the lure of spending more money because they think that they have thousands in their hand. So this can increase the amount of college, so when you are in college, do not get in to this lure and try to live as simple as you can. Try to eat simple things and eat locally, do not buy expensive brands and thus you will be able to reduce the college cost.

So, these are some the methods that can help you to avoid college loan debt, colleges are not that cheap as they were in the past and now the cost of college is increasing day by day. By using all the tips above, you can pay the college cost without getting a student loan and then you can enable yourself to start a carrier without any debt. Do comment in the section below and let us know if you have any queries regarding the article because we would love to hear from you.

Posted on: 09/24/2020

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