The Best Ways to Avoid Student Loans
Hey there! Before we get too far I want to plug my video on this topic if that’s more your jam 🙂
There is a student loan crisis in this country. Look at any new source, any campaign promise, or talk to anyone with student loans. It can be incredibly crippling.
That’s why I avoided it like the plague, while still getting my degrees. Not going to like, I had to work extremely hard to do it. However, at 23 I was able to buy a house with my husband. It gives me a lot of freedom and I am set up for a really amazing future!
So if you are in the middle of school, beginning school, thinking about school. Please take these suggestions and run with them. It’s possible to do this, but there will be some sacrafices.
Start with a goal in mind
If you have to end goal in sight then you’re probably not ready. I am not saying that you need to know exactly what company and position you’re working for. However, know what you like and what you don’t like to do for work.
With that get some work experience. Do you like working with your hands? Do you like to sit at a computer? Do you like to help people? Do you want to show up and work or prepare before?
Of course, you can change your mind, but if you want to be a plumber, getting a fine arts degree will only dig you in the hole of debt and get you absolutely nowhere.
Work Through College
This is a great way to one save for tuition, but also to help you understand what you’d like to do in the future. If you are 18 and have never worked before or have never shadowed a job before then you don’t have much exposure to a job you may absolutely love!
Also, working can help you save for tuition, books, other college expenses. Each dollar that you pay for through working is oftentimes hundreds of dollars less than you’ll pay for in interest for decades after college.
This is how I paid for the majority of my associate’s degree and my bachelor’s degree.
Subsidies
Subsidies are the unsung hero of reducing student loan debt. There are loads of subsidies for students out there that aren’t being taken advantage of.
Let’s jump into a few that you may or may not heard of before. Also, subsidies are different from scholarships. They help to reduce the cost of tuition rather than pay for some of the tuition.
Religous Subsidies. This is the first type of subsidies and are most notable at the BYUs (Provo, Idaho, Hawaii, Pathways). Students who are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are eligible for subsidsed education though the church.
Other universities may offer these types of subsidies. However, you’ll need to check with the specific universities you’re going for.
The next type of subsidies that you can get are for marginalized groups or minority groups. This could also be a category for scholarships to look into. These subsides are geared towoards mostly native amercian colleges and universities, but could also be for those of other ethicities.
The third type of subsidies are for military colleges and universities. The ROTC programs will pay for your college if you commit to serve 5 years or so in the military.
The fourth and final type of subsidy is a major based subsidy. This is typically for majors that have a low workforce and high demand or have high turnover rates. So degrees like nursing and teaching will have loads of subisides and scholarships.
Scholarships
This brings us into the next category. Which is scholarships. Scholarships tend to be really underrated. However, if you play your cards right you will be able to pay for a ton using scholarships! ‘
My advice is to apply to scholarships like it’s your full time job. You’ll be really surprised about the amount of scholarships that are out there and how much you can get will a bit of work.
Also, you shouldn’t really be going for one scholarship to pay for everything. Try to get a bunch of little scholarships and hodge podge them together. Each dollar you get is hundereds of dollars you won’t have to pay in loans or interest later on.
You can get scholarships for the following reasons:
- LGBTQIA+
- Ethinicity
- Being a decenant of historacal figure
- Vegan or Vegetaian
- Religion
- Majors
- Military spouse, child, grandchild, etc.
You could get a scholarship for some weird stuff! However, it will help in the long run!
Check out these databases: https://www.scholarships.com/
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search
Find a Cheaper School
I know this is a weird suggestion. However, if you don’t care where you go to school. Then find cheaper school. Utah is one of the cheapest places to go to school. You can find some really inexpenseive schools here for out of state tution.
Another option is finding an online school that you could stick with if that’s your jam.
This will really help with your student loan costs becasue the initail bill of tution can be FAR cheaper.
Work Programs
This is how I paid for my MBA. Often times your employeer will give you an education benefit if you work full-time. Many work programs are for tech workers who are going for Masters. Also, those working in public education as para-educators. You could get part or all of a bachelors or masters in education paid for.
This could also be for nurses in the health care field. Having part of school paid for to maybe go from a CNA to a LPN or RN.
My company paid for the MBA program in full partially because of the competency based system of Western Governers Universtiy as well as the low tuition cost.
So if you work full-time check to see if they have an education benefit.
Work your way up
Lets continue on with the nursing industry. They are really great at having different levels of nurses where you could spend one month in a program to get your feet wet as a certified nursing assistant. You could work as a CNA and save to get your LPN degree.
Once you have an LPN degree you can save to become a RN and from there get your FNP or DNP. You are able to work in the field and then go back to school to move up. This is really awesome and all of these degree as have programs that build upon each other!
Conclusion
Thanks for reading 🙂
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