100 Ways to Cut the High Cost of Attending College: Money-Saving Advice for Students and Parents
256
100 Ways to Cut the High Cost of Attending College: Money-Saving Advice for Students and Parents
256eBook
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Overview
The skyrocketing costs of college tuitions-which generally increase at twice the rate of inflation-have led families with comfortable incomes to explore ways to keep education costs manageable. For those who don't qualify for need-based financial aid but still find the cost of college to be daunting, Viollt's guide provides excellent insights on staying within a reasonable budget while getting a useful and comprehensive education.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781461635161 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 04/30/2002 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
100 Ways to Cut the High Cost of Attending College
Money-Saving Advice for Students and Parents
By Michael P. Viollt
Cooper Square Press
Copyright © 2002 Michael P. ViolltAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4616-3516-1
CHAPTER 1
The Three Elements of College Affordability
It is true that there is more to selecting a college than dollars and cents, but affordability is the most critical concern for most college students. The 100 cost-saving strategies in this book will help you make the most of your "college dollar." The strategies fall into three basic categories: lowering the price of tuition and fees, maximizing the value received for your investment, and increasing the amount of money you receive from other sources. Before you begin to investigate the 100 tips, spend a little time learning how the three categories work together to impact affordability. It will help you in your planning to understand why there is such great variability in the cost of an education.
College Costs
The cost of a college education represents both your immediate out-of-pocket expenses for things such as tuition, fees, books, and supplies, and the number of terms of study you need to earn your degree. It is much easier to control for terms of study needed to graduate then it is to control price. Time to graduation varies greatly from student to student, even at the same college. It is both the difference in time and price that results in the wide range of total student costs.
LIST PRICE - Tuition, fees, books, and living costs.
In the 2002-2003 school year annual tuition will average $2000 at community colleges, $4,000 at public universities, and $18,000 at private colleges/universities. The price of tuition and fees at a college depends on a mix of pricing strategies that the college employs. Sometimes schools will use just one of these strategies to set tuition, while at other times they'll rely on a combination of factors. Colleges often set their tuition rate based on what people are willing to pay. Schools in a particular group of similar institutions compete with each other for students, and these students set the price, so to speak, through their selection process. Colleges that have many more applicants than seats available will often begin raising tuition rates.
In an attempt to create a certain image, tuition is often set merely to align a college with other similar schools. These schools base their pricing on the idea that students will judge a college based on the company it keeps. There thinking is, "If it's expensive, it must be good."
The most basic form of tuition pricing is to simply pass on the real cost of educating a student. This strategy is more likely found at institutions with high fees that differ for each program offered. In other words, an engineering student may pay more than a student in the sociology department. This practice is similar to pricing found inconstruction; the customer is billed for time and materials, plus an increment for profit, or in the case of colleges—surplus funds.
Some colleges will adjust their tuition to capture any increase in financial aid announced by government sources. If federal or state aid increases, these schools raise tuition by a similar amount. This allows colleges to keep students' out-of-pocket expenses constant while increasing the college's revenue.
Whatever strategy a college uses to set its tuition rate, you should know that some rates are justified and others are not. The strategies presented in this book will help you find a college that will provide you with a quality education at a price you can afford.
TIME TO GRADUATION - The number of semesters/quarters needed to earn a degree.
Colleges don't design ways to keep you in school longer. However, they do promote policies and practices that, in effect, hinder you from graduating in a timely way. These practices include everything from poor academic planning to indifference to your needs.
For some faculty, advising students is a distraction. These instructors may be less than helpful in the course planning process. Full-time staff counselors often have caseloads too large to manage, making it impossible for them to spend quality time with students. Good faculty advising can help students plan their optimum schedule, while a lack of good advice can result in miscues that cause longer than desired college stays. Conflicting job responsibilities can compromise the quality of advising. At many colleges faculty concentrate on research rather than students. Some of these professors will see students, particularly undergraduates, as interfering with their research and writing.
The higher-level courses upperclassmen need to meet graduation requirements fill up fast. These courses are often taught by top faculty in the department who can only handle so many classes, limiting the number of students who can take the course in a given term. Some schools have little concern for getting more sections added to meet student demand. This lack of course availability contributes to scheduling problems.
Federal financial-aid programs, as well as most state and college-based grant programs, do not provide aid on a year-round basis. They simply run out of available aid and must wait for a new year to begin to replenish the scholarship and grant budgets. These arbitrary rules penalize diligent students who want to go to school year-round. Most aid practices are not designed for timely graduation.
By following the tips presented in this book, you can dramatically cut your time to degree and hence, the total cost of your degree. You have more control over this cost variable, time to degree, than any other.
Money from Others
You and your family should expect to pay for your college education, but a big share of most students' educational expenses actually comes from other sources. These sources include government agencies, employers, sponsors, and the colleges themselves. These funds take the form of scholarships, grants, loans, tax-breaks, pay for service, and investment returns. Most importantly, they also include the aid a college will give you in the form of a discount to tuition, commonly referred to as a grant or scholarship.
SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS, AND OTHER FINANCIAL AID
Tuition discounts create the greatest difference in what one student pays over another for college. Schools use discounts to achieve a number of different goals, usually related to attracting a certain type of student. There are many reasons for discounting tuition (offering scholarships/grants); a basic understanding of some of them will help in your college selection process.
Many colleges simply offer certain discounts because they have done so in the past. Often, these programs were established by an outside gift and must remain in place for long periods of time. These scholarships or grants are usually well publicized and easy for you to identify.
Colleges increasingly follow the model of airlines and fill seats in incoming classes by offering differing aid packages. They will develop different discounts (grants) based on the students' time of application and desired academic program. Some schools will offer steep discounts in some majors while offering none in other subject areas.
Most colleges will give a larger discount to students who match an institutionally attractive profile. Students with special talents and academic abilities will benefit from these awards. In turn, these students enhance the college's image.
The more you understand about a particular college's "discounting" policy, the better your chances are of getting institutional financial aid. Scholarships and grants awarded directly from the college are just one small part of the total financial aid available. The majority of aid packages include grants and loans from both federal and state government agencies. Knowing how to get all of the aid you are entitled to will go a long way toward making college affordable.
SAVINGS AND TAX BREAKS
An educated citizenry is a great benefit to a country. This is one reason that local, state, and national programs have been established to assist you in paying for your college education. These assistance programs take the form of educational saving/investment incentives and tax breaks.
The combination of incentives and tax breaks offered can seem complicated and at times redundant. By carefully planning for a college education, you and your family can find huge savings through these programs.
OTHER SOURCES OF COLLEGE FUNDS
There are many organizations that will help with your college expenses if you are wiling to give something in return. The trick is to find a service function that is of interest to you and that pays for college. You may decide to work, volunteer, or even join the armed forces to fund your education. It is best if you do these things for other reasons and secondarily enjoy the tuition assistance benefits. Self-help has always been the best way to get ahead. You can gain experience and college funds.
Total Return
The return on investment section is the least tangible but probably the most important component of college planning. It is simply a measure of what you get in exchange for your money, time, and effort. Your return on investment relates both to the immediate quality of education and the long-term benefits that you realize over a lifetime. Viewed from this vantage point, college is like any other purchase you make—if you are not careful you may not get a good value.
A college education represents a huge investment; often one of the largest you will make in your lifetime. You need to measure the return your education pays over time, in comparison to alternate investments that you could be making.
QUALITY OF EDUCATION - Are you getting what you pay for?
You will probably find educational value fairly subjective. Even the experts have trouble quantitatively evaluating it. A recent national study evaluated higher education in each state and could not compare states on educational value because educators across the country could not agree on what should be taught in college. Some institutions use this lack of consensus on indicators of quality to their advantage and do whatever they want. Others look for what students want and attempt to deliver that. In the end, the marketplace of employers, graduate schools, and community members will decide the true value of a particular college degree.
There are some basics that most can agree upon. The majority of students and most employers want degrees to lead to a career, or at least offer some sort of practical application. At a certain level, all education is applied to something. But not all schooling is applied to a related job, profession, or graduate program.
If the quality of your education is poor, then you wasted your money, no matter how high or low the price of tuition. This book will give you ways to identify strong academic programs and point out potential pitfalls you may find in your search for educational value.
LONG-TERM BENEFITS—What are you prepared to do at graduation?
College does more than prepare students for careers, and careers are selected for reasons other than what your college major was. However the majority of students consider career development the number one reason why they enrolled in college. Unfortunately, all degrees do not provide the desired career launching pad. Many majors do little to prepare you for today's world of work. Some college majors should come with a surgeon general type of warning—"THIS PROGRAM MAY NOT LEAD TO A JOB AT GRADUATION."
Students and parents often are surprised when graduates encounter a tough job market in their major field. They report that college did little to help them prepare for work in their field of study. Surprisingly, many graduates are shocked to learn that they need additional education just to land a job. It is our experience that more than 80 percent of the job offers go to college graduates in just 20 percent of the fields of study.
If you get nothing else from college, at least ensure that you learn the skills you need to pursue your career dreams.
CHAPTER 2Making Trade-Offs
What Is Most Important to You in College Planning?
Like all of life's major endeavors, college planning requires tradeoffs. While we all would like to find our ideal situation, we usually settle for something less. It is important to concentrate on getting what you consider truly essential or critical in college planning and to give up on things that you view as being less important. For instance, some students want to attend a top-name college. They want to wear the name of the school on T-shirts and display it on their car window. Other students don't care about national reputation and simply want good results at an affordable price.
The items listed below represent outcomes that you can expect to achieve by using this book. Review them and rank the item most critical in your college planning process as a 10. The second most important one gets a 9, the third 8, and so on. When you finish, go on to the next page for an explanation of how to use these results.
Which of the 100 Strategies Will Best Serve You?
The table on the next page will help you determine which of the 100 strategies presented in this book will provide you with the best opportunities for managing your college costs. Place your ranked scores from the above in the boxes on the next page for each of the corresponding items.
Then begin by reviewing your highest-ranking criteria. Review the tips that correspond to that item. These are the strategies that present the best use of your educational dollar. You can then work your way down your list from those ranked 10, 9, etc. The lower your rank score, the less you are gaining by following the corresponding tips. These lower ranked outcomes are the ones that are best given up as a compromise in your college planning.
CHAPTER 3Look for Lowest List Prices
The strategies in this section will help you save on basic college expenses. They offer saving tips on items such as tuition, fees, books, and living expenses. You will find that you need not sacrifice value to gain affordability.
1. Attend a Community College
Community Colleges are not for losers. One of the best ways to save on a college education is to use the community college as a starting point. Many students begin their education at a community college and then transfer to a four-year institution (senior college) after one or two years of study. Next year, over 50 percent of all college students will be enrolled at a community college. No other education option delivers such a strong combination of quality instruction and reasonable costs.
In fact, for your first two years of study, a community college can provide a better education than you might receive at a large university. Faculty members at community colleges are well educated, have appropriate credentials, and focus on teaching rather than research. By comparison, at a large public university, students may find that up to half of their courses during the first two years are taught by graduate teaching assistants. These assistants are typically not career educators.
When doing your course planning, don't feel that you must work toward an associate's degree at a community college. If you plan to continue on at a four-year school, take courses that will fit your intended baccalaureate field of study (Cost-Saving Strategy 20). After you transfer and finish your degree, few people will care where you spent your first year or two of college, they will be more concerned about where you earned your bachelor's degree. If they ask about your years at a community college, they will likely be impressed with your strategy and its related savings. Even when compared with a public university, the cost of attending a community college will be 50 to 70 percent less.
Remember that a community college is not a college of last resort. Don't be pressured by classmates that put down community colleges. Investigate them for yourself. They are conveniently located and charge very low tuition. Many students find community colleges an excellent choice for their freshman and sophomore years. Beginning a four-year degree at a community college will become the preferred choice for the majority of students in the near future.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 100 Ways to Cut the High Cost of Attending College by Michael P. Viollt. Copyright © 2002 Michael P. Viollt. Excerpted by permission of Cooper Square Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgment,Introduction,
CHAPTER ONE: THE THREE ELEMENTS OF COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY,
CHAPTER TWO: MAKING TRADE-OFFS,
CHAPTER THREE: LOOK FOR LOWEST LIST PRICES,
CHAPTER FOUR: BUY FEWER TERMS OF STUDY,
CHAPTER FIVE: SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS, AND OTHER FINANCIAL AID,
CHAPTER SIX: UTILIZE SAVINGS AND TAX BREAKS,
CHAPTER SEVEN: FIND COLLEGE MONEY IN OTHER SOURCES,
CHAPTER EIGHT: GET MORE IMMEDIATE VALUE FOR YOUR DOLLAR,
CHAPTER NINE: GET BETTER LONG-TERM RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT WITH CAREER DEVELOPMENT,
100 Tips Comparison Matrix,
Major Selection Worksheet,
College Visit Worksheets,
Index of Colleges and Universities,