Paying for College (and Any Further Studies)

  • fen'harel

    fen'harel (560)

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    Student loans, grants, scholarships, fellowships, out of pocket, working full-time or part-time, etc.

    These are some examples of how people, classmates, acquaintances, and friends pay for their college education.

    As of 2012, it was estimated that around 37 million United States citizens had student loan debt.

    With increased difficulty in finding jobs that help pay for college, students opt to take the route of student loans in order to complete their degree, but end up in debt and with increasing interest rates.

    Other students opt to holding full-time jobs, part-time jobs, applying for scholarships or fellowships, applying for grants if they are eligible, etc.

    How do you pay for college?

    I work full-time in an office and part-time from home analyzing data from social work studies. Yet, I barely make the payments.

    I had the luck of having financial aid during my 2 last years of college; the first 2 years were paid thanks to my parents. Now in grad school with no student debt behind me, I find it increasingly difficult to not take that student loan.
    May 14th, 2013 at 05:46pm
  • Name Of Misery.

    Name Of Misery. (100)

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    I have a trust fund from when my dad died, and I use that for my tuition... and once I get into nursing school, I'll take their deal where they pay my student loans off if I work for their affiliated hospital for 3 years.
    May 14th, 2013 at 10:19pm
  • peter quill.

    peter quill. (4975)

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    For my BA I had a student loan. I won't start paying that back until I'm earning the amount (whatever that is) where you pay it back. So far only one of the jobs I've applied for hits that number, so the only way I'll be paying that debt off anytime soon is if I get that job.

    For the MA I'm looking to do, I'll have to pay for that from my own pocket. Hence applying for jobs so furiously. The courses I'm looking at have a number of scholarships attached, but I'm not holding my breath for one of those. I'm going to apply for the course deferred and have two years to save the money if I get in. Hopefully I'll manage to save it (looking like it will be £6000), if I don't get the full amount I either a) won't do the course or b) will have to beg my parents for a loan (but I really do not want to do that).
    May 14th, 2013 at 11:41pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    I hope Elizabeth Warren exists in her crusade to get students lower loan rates.

    I can't afford to go to school because of the fact that I wouldn't be able to work.
    May 16th, 2013 at 06:19pm
  • bellamy blake

    bellamy blake (3280)

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    For my BS, I got a lot of academic and merit scholarships, both from my college and from the South Carolina Education Lottery funds. I also got the maximum in federal aid because I'm the first person in my family to attend college and my family's poor.

    Now, I'm struggling to find a way to pay for the MA I want. I'm looking into an online program, which should cut costs somewhat, but realistically, I know I'm going to have to work my ass off and save up for at least a couple of years before I can afford to take that next step in my education. It's ridiculous how easy it is to find financial aid for undergrad when it's virtually inexistent for grad school. The BA/BS is basically the new high school diploma.
    May 16th, 2013 at 07:34pm
  • fen'harel

    fen'harel (560)

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    @ i saw sparks
    Yes, exactly. When I applied for the M.Ed. I'm in right now, I asked about how to pay for grad school; they told me, "Loans is your best bet". I obviously refused them because they had explained that financial aid for grad students only offer loans, not grants.

    I then went to a professor I had worked 2 years and a half with doing research and asked him about scholarships; he told me that I should just take the loan because (and these are his exact words), "What's $2000-5000 in debt? You pay it off quickly." Clearly coming from a upper-middle class man who had all his education paid by his parents and only paid his Ph.D. once he had a stable, good paying job.

    I then went to the scholarships office and they told me that the school only has 1 scholarship for grad students and that my best bet was to look for scholarships from other corporations. Still looking and not found one that helps me. I'm paying everything out of my pocket by working 1 full-time job and 1 part-time job.
    dru's troubled soul:
    I have seen so many international students in your position. They don't have ways of applying to financial aid,so they either find a scholarship or a fellowship, then that money goes to the ridiculous amount they have to pay for one semester (my boyfriend is still doing his B.S. and he's paying more than I am, when I'm doing my Master's), but nothing's left for books, apartment, food, transportation. It's ridiculous how expensive it is.
    May 16th, 2013 at 07:43pm
  • Psycho Lunatic

    Psycho Lunatic (115)

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    I'm starting university in Semptember to do my BSc in Computer Science. I've applied for my student finance and I'm going to have student loan debts of around £40,000. However as this money is from student finance themselves I only when I am earning over £21,000 per year. If I am earning this and then lost my job I would stop paying until I get another job where I do earn above £21,000 again. Also the amount I will pay back every month once I complete it is based on how much money I earn.

    Since the student finance loans isn't too bad as it doesn't work the same way as your average loans (after 30 years it is written off). I'm going toget a part-time job in my new city for a bit of extra money and to save for moving out of student accommodation. So I don't need to take a bank loan, as I would hate to do this.
    May 21st, 2013 at 08:33am
  • Eugene

    Eugene (100)

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    Right now I am getting ready to start my third year as an undergrad and a large part has been covered by my FAFSA (Pell grants, University grants, loans). There is a small amount that I have to pay out of pocket though seeing as those don't cover everything. At the beginning of my sophomore year I was going to go out and look for a part time job, but I was in and out of the doctor's office due to anxiety and depression issues. Hopefully seeing as I somewhat have both of those under control, I can try and find that part time job to get the extra cash needed.
    May 22nd, 2013 at 04:46am
  • the god of thunder.

    the god of thunder. (300)

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    I got a Dean's Scholarship off $11k from my college, as well as awesome financial aid. Crazy And today, in the mail, I got an addition $1.5k from some scholarship program. Yaaaaay.
    May 23rd, 2013 at 02:13am
  • roberto82

    roberto82 (100)

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    Luckily, I have a scholarhip which covers the cost of my program, and this is a huge benefit for me. Because otherwise, I don't how I would be able to pay, because I have no time for work, because studing takes all my time
    March 22nd, 2022 at 12:20pm
  • SelenaWallace

    SelenaWallace (100)

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    Unfortunately, I don't have a scholarship. At first, I was a little bit disappointed with myself, but I managed to pay for studying because I have a job, and I like what I study, so it's okay. Of course, somethimes it's hard for me to combine studying and working, but service https://essays.studymoose.com/essays-for-sale is a huge helper. For me, it takes the most time to finish writing tasks, and such help saves me a lot of time. So I even manage to have some free time; I have time for friends, family, and hobbies.
    March 22nd, 2022 at 06:11pm
  • ashrmanarshman

    ashrmanarshman (100)

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    July 2nd, 2022 at 01:01pm
  • easoll

    easoll (100)

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    Where can I custom coursework writing? Were you assigned to write a research paper? Do you feel stuck with it? I think the only solution is to buy custom paper. If you want to find an answer to the question, "Where can I buy a research paper?" I'm ready to tell you. I don't want to count how many times I ordered online help: I hope this statement will make you sure that I'm a reliable person.
    August 19th, 2022 at 10:04am
  • JCBN

    JCBN (100)

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    November 19th, 2023 at 02:17pm
  • mibfan

    mibfan (100)

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    It's a huge problem for me to pay for programming studies. I opt to work on a part time job, night shifts have become a new normal for me. However college is not the only thing to pay for, as I also need computer programming tutoring at https://assignmentcore.com/. Caused by night shifts, I return home way too exhausted, as a result missing classes happen more often. Computer science students who work are prone to situations like this.
    January 10th, 2024 at 12:30pm