A lot of students are accustomed to spending four years in college for a bachelor’s degree, six years for a master’s degree, and eight years for a doctorate degree. Whether it is four, six, or eight years, it is still a big commitment. Unfortunately, more than half of college students do not graduate on time. The education cost is often a primary reason that people delay their graduation. Fortunately, it is possible to graduate on time with a college degree without student loans.
Student loans are often treated as normal. Many students borrow tens of thousands of dollars to pay for college without understanding the long-term consequences. Large loan balances can delay life milestones, such as starting a business, buying a home or starting a family. Borrowing money for education should always be the last financing option for students. If you want to get a college degree without student loans, I suggest you consider the following suggestions.
1. Choose An Affordable School
You should select colleges that you can realistically afford rather than focusing only on prestige. Public universities or community colleges can dramatically reduce education costs. A common strategy is to complete your first two years at a community college and transfer to a public university for the final two years. Alternatively, some online-only universities are significantly cheaper in total costs compared to offline universities. For example, online degrees on Coursera are generally more affordable than local universities.
2. Apply Aggressively for Scholarships and Grants
Scholarships and grants are gifts from non-profit organizations, corporations, and the government. Applicants have to meet certain requirements, but recipients use those funds to pay for their higher education. The best way to improve your chances of getting a scholarship and/or a grant is by treating the process like a part-time job.
You should be constantly applying for them before college and during every year in college. Do not focus only on the large scholarships. You should apply for the large and small scholarships. While the large scholarships are the most attractive, the small scholarships are the least competitive. It is more likely that you will secure several small scholarships rather than one large scholarship.
3. Work During School
For some people, working a job at your college campus may be ideal if you live on campus. For other people, working an off-campus job close to your home is also ideal because you save money in commuting costs. Having a part-time job during your college semesters is ideal, but some people may find it ideal to work a full-time job during the college break instead. Other people may do both.
Additionally, in your local area, you may find employers that offer college benefits to part-time and/or full-time employees. Some of them may have an existing relationship with a university, while others have an existing relationship with a few universities. You need to determine if their offer will ensure that you do not incur student loan debt.
4. Reduce Living Expenses
Housing and groceries are about two-thirds of a person’s monthly budget. The other third includes (but not limited to) transportation and healthcare. While everyone’s situation is different, there are facts that maximize savings.
- Living off campus is cheaper than living on campus. However, if you are a resident assistant, on campus housing is usually free.
- Cooking meals is more affordable than takeout food or meal deliveries.
- The monthly maintenance cost of riding a bicycle or scooter is more inexpensive than driving a car or riding a motorcycle.
You can indirectly reduce living expenses by saving time. If you study at an online university, you can save time from commuting by using that time to work more hours remotely. For example, if a commute to your local university is 30 minutes each way and you have classes every weekday, the five hours that you save each week can be used to work more hours remotely.
5. Maximize Cheap General Education Credits
Credit by examination is the cheapest and fastest way to get college credit. Credit by examination refers to college level exams on certain subjects. The College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and Dante’s Subject Standardized Tests (DSST) are the most popular.
CLEP courses are usually “lower level” courses, while DSST courses have “lower level” and “upper level” courses. Lower-level courses are part of the first two years of an undergraduate degree curriculum, while upper-level courses are part of the last two years of an undergraduate degree curriculum. You pick a subject (e.g. biology, business law or Spanish), review a study guide, pass the multiple-choice exam, and earn the credits. The best part about credit by examination is that you pay a fraction of the cost (usually $100 per test) in a fraction of the time (as little as 2 weeks).
American Council on Education (ACE) has become popular in the last decade. Like CLEP and DSST, they offer some subjects via credit by examination, but they also offer self-paced courses that often include quizzes between modules before ending with a final exam. While the self-paced courses take longer to complete than the quick credit exams, they are still faster than a semester course at a university.
While CLEP, DSST, and ACE do not offer degrees, you can transfer the credits to an accredited college or university to fulfill some of your degree requirements. I transferred my 40+ ACE credits to the University of Maine to graduate with my debt free degree.
The Final Word
It is easier than ever to graduate with a college degree without student loans. You just need to do your due diligence. If you have a lot of free time, you could graduate with your bachelor’s degree in two years by just doing the first, second, and fifth suggestion.
In this video, I speak to you from Mexico about what else you should do if you want to get a college degree without student loans.