With the average cost of a four-year degree at a public university costing around $25,000 a year, it is no surprise that cutting college costs can add up to valuable savings. One of the best ways to save money is to cut your costs on large-ticket items; and aside from purchasing a car or house, college tuition is one of the most expensive items a person can purchase.
I have worked two universities, and in both of my roles I learned some helpful tips to save money on college tuition. I’ve compiled a list of ways to save money in college, please check them out and let me know if they work for you!
Go to College In-State
In-state tuition is often WAY less expensive than out of state tuition. If you are flexible on where you attend, it is a good idea to consider attending a college in your state, as an added plus, you will also save on room and board if your college is close to where you attend.
Go Online verses Residential
Online colleges and universities are often more reasonably priced than their brick and mortar counterparts. Students can save a significant amount of money by attending college online, and online schools offer a lot more flexibility and convenience than residential schools. Additionally, if your college offers both residential and online advising, this is an additional tip that may help you save money: a university that I worked at offered both online and residential courses, and since our residential students were able to take online courses the university also allowed our online students to take residential courses. Residential student tuition was WAY more expensive than online tuition. Students who took advantage of this loophole saved a lot of money.
Go to College for Free (or With Minimal Cost)
Remember I said that the average college degree costs $25,000 per year, or $100,000 total? There is an amazing college opportunity that I have learned about, called University of the People. This college is the brain-child of Shai Reshef, who is an individual whose goal is to provide free tuition or affordable tuition to whoever would like it. The college is a non-profit college has academic partnerships with Yale Law School, NYU, the University of Edinburgh, and UC Berkeley. Through these partnerships, individuals who are qualified can transfer to these colleges to complete their studies. This college is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), which is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency. The only drawback that I can find is that this college only offers three degree programs: Computer Science, Health Science, and Business Administration; however, these programs are in high demand and individuals who are interested in pursuing these degrees would have the benefit of attending college for a very low cost. Since the college is only online, they do not have the overhead of running in an actual building. This The estimated total fees for the Bachelor’s degree program is only $4,060. If individuals cannot afford tuition they offer scholarships so that students in need can attend for free. This is a link to their website: https://www.uopeople.edu/
Work at a College / University
This is how I obtained my Master’s Degree for free. A lot of people do not realize that most colleges offer free tuition, as an employment benefit. Additionally, these colleges often extend the benefit to the employee’s spouses and children. Some colleges / universities have a timeframe that you have to work for them (one university I worked for had a 6 month waiting period, the other had a year waiting period); but if you are looking to further your education on a budget and are looking for a job this could be a good avenue to check out.
CLEP Tests
Have you ever heard of CLEP tests? Most people I talk to have not, but they are a serious way to save on college. Believe it or not, I took the CLEP tests and received credit for 30 credit hours of college (that’s a full academic year)! The acronym CLEP stands for College-Level Examination Program. The tests are put out by the College Board, which is an organization that creates these tests that measure your mastery of various college-level materials. Do you know a lot about psychology? Take a CLEP test to measure your knowledge. If you meet the minimum qualifying score, you don’t have to take the course at your college. The CLEP test costs range but on average, the ones I took cost about $120 each. Make sure that you verify that the college you are attending accepts CLEP tests – over 2,900 colleges and universities do, but universities vary in which tests they accept. Additionally, military students as well as some civil service employees can take CLEP tests for free because they are funded by the government’s Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support program (click here for more information).
Rent, Don’t Buy
Each semester my college textbooks cost on average $600-900. Even by selling my college textbooks back to the bookstore each semester, I still was out a lot of money because college bookstores only give a percentage of the cost of the book back. There are a lot of college textbook rental sites out there, but I used Chegg.
Maximize the Credits You Take Each Semester
A full-time undergraduate college student usually is taking at least 12 credit hours a semester. Many colleges allow students to take up to 18 credit hours a semester, but you can sometimes take 1-3 credits over that amount (with a waver). This helps, because the more credit hours you take in a semester, the quicker you finish your degree (equating to less money spent overall).
Scholarships
Scholarships are competitive, and if you are able to obtain one due to your talent, athletic ability, or leadership capability you should take advantage of your opportunity. Colleges and universities often offer scholarships for students who take on a leadership role, such as a resident assistant or student leader. Additionally, you should keep your eyes open for scholarship opportunities throughout the year – one time I went to a conference that was not very well-attended. The flyer advertising the conference stated that whoever attended the conference and wrote the best 10-page paper about the conference topic would win a $1,500 scholarship. When I was sitting in the audience, I looked around and saw that there were only a handful of individuals who were taking notes. With this being said, I turned in the paper and won the scholarship. Keep a lookout for scholarships through your employer, your parent’s employer, local community organizations, et cetera. The less people applying for the scholarship the greater your odds are to win it.
Pay Cash
The less loans you take out, the better. College loans are disgusting, but they are a necessary evil sometimes. The less you have to deal with them the better! I remember my husband and I had to pay $500 a month to our student loan providers, and a large portion of the $500 was applied towards interest. It’s depressing. With that being said, anything and everything you can pay in cash you should, and you shouldn’t take money out in loans if you don’t absolutely NEED it. Don’t use college loans to fund a fun and fabulous lifestyle in college; because you might just regret it when all you can afford is ramen noodles out of college.
Map out Your Degree Completion Plan
Make sure that you maximize your time at the college you are attending – make sure that the courses you are required to take all fit in the timeframe that you are attending college, whether that be 3 years or 4 years. I knew a lot of fellow students that became 5-year college students, because of poor planning. Plan and save yourself the money and the additional time – make sure you will finish the courses in the timeframe you are attending, and make sure your prerequisites are mapped out so that your courses won’t be held up by prerequisite that you failed to take ahead of time.
Get a Waver if Your College Course has a Prerequisite
Sometimes, even with the best planning you are stuck in a situation where your prerequisite needs to be taken before a certain course, but you need to take the course at the same time as the prerequisite, otherwise your time at the college is extended. Thankfully, you can request that the prerequisite be waved (usually the Dean of the Department or the Chair is the one who does this, so it can be helpful to befriend the heads of the Academic Department you are attending beforehand – not just for this reason, but it definitely helps).
Community College First
Colleges and Universities often have a reciprocity agreement with local community colleges. If you know what college you would like to attend, you can contact the college and find out if the classes that you are planning to take at the local community college will transfer.
I hope these tips helped give you some ideas on how to save money on tuition. Some of them I used, and some of them I found out after the fact (but wished I had known earlier). College doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, with careful planning you can shave several thousand off the cost of tuition.
XOXO
Charlotte
