Seeking a Degree: this phrase means that you either have a high school diploma or GED and are now carrying on your education at an institute of higher learning in an attempt to get an AA, AS, AAS, and maybe any higher degree that comes after an AA.
If you're one of the billions of people "seeking a degree" then you realize that tuition alone can cost well over $3,000 a year (and that's just an in-state rate for a college, not a university... much less an out of state university!) Then on top of tuition fees you have book fees, living fees, food fees, transportation fees, phone bills, credit card bills, and even the occasional money burning emergency. So let's face it, unless you're a kid attending an Ivy League law school on Mommy and Daddy's penny... you need to find a way to pay for college! One of the most pushed options is to take out student loans because they have a bit lower interest... but by the time you graduate, you'll still be in debt up to your eyeballs. Over the years, all those small interest rate student loans start to pile up and after graduation day, you're left with a big bill. So here are some other options:
If you're reading this and aren't actually in college yet, (aka you're a high school student) check with your school and local college to see if they have a dual enrollment program. This will enable you to start working on your AA degree while finishing high school and the state will pay for your tuition and book fees (unless you are private/home schooled, then you have to buy your own books). So by the time you graduate high school you should also be ready (or near ready) to graduate with your AA degree as well... and you didn't have to pay for hardly anything!
After high school (whether you dual enrolled or not) you have to start paying your own fees. Now, I suggest to try your best not to touch student loans! I just completed my first year in college (not including two years of dual enrollment) and haven't gone anywhere near a loan. How do I pay for college?
Well, firstly, I have a job. Not a good paying job (minimum wage... VERY minimum wage) but still a job. So I put the money I earn aside and use it for tuition, books, fuel, and food. Obviously though it doesn't stretch very far. So on top of my job, I applied for a 4 year state sponsored scholarship (I won it out of high school) and that pays 75% of tuition which helps a pretty good bit. I also applied for a well known agricultural scholarship available to high school seniors. So with two scholarships, I was pretty well covered for my first (non-dual enrolled) semester. But after all that, where else can you find scholarships? My choice: scholarship search engines. Now I'm not talking search engines like Goggle and Bing, I'm talking search engines specially made to find scholarships. Here are the editor's choice:
www.fastweb.com
www.moolahspot.com
www.cappex.com
www.scholarships.com
My two favorites are Fastweb and Moolahspot. Every month or so each of these engines will even host their own scholarship you can apply for. I've been with Fastweb for over a year and just recently joined Moolahspot, I've been with Cappex almost as long as Fastweb but have found that a lot of times they bring up the same schoarships. These search engines find scholarships specific to your major, college/university, talents, interests, and many other things. In short, I guess you could say they look for "custom scholarships". For instance: I'm an Agriculture major (Animal Science), I love to read & write, I was in 4-H, and am a first generation college student. So these search engines are going to look specifically for scholarships that have something to do with agriculture, reading, essays, 4-H, or first generation students. Another good scholarship website is www.scholarshippoints.com :)
Aside from scholarships, you can also apply for Financial Aid. all you have to do is fill out a Free FAFSA Application and enter it. If you are eligible then you will receive money from the government every semester to help you pay for tuition, books, housing, transportation, and everything else you can think of! To find the application, just go to www.fafsa.gov
So yeah, in summary, the best ways to pay for college are:
1) A job
2) Scholarships
3) Financial Aid
Now that I've hopefully simplified the process of finding scholarships for you, go out there and start applying! I wish you the best of luck!
~RebelYell
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
13 August 2010
Chegg it out!!
Alrighty, time for my first serious bloggy post! As I mentioned in my Grand Opening Blog Post earlier today, one of my blog topics will be concerning "college stuff". This can range from tuition to transportation. In this bloggy, I'll be covering textbooks! Everybody loves the end/start semester time lapse where they are trying to:
1) Figure out next semester's books
2) Locate/Price said books
3) Compare book pricing and shipping rates
4) Sell back old textbooks
Psh, yeah... love it :(
Now, I'm sure all colleges are different in how they release textbook information but at my school you are given your course name/section and then from there the local book stores can identify which textbooks you need. So, location wise, the most convenient book purchasing comes from the on campus book store(play horror music!!!) Yeah, on campus.... if you want to use an arm and a leg as a down payment.. let's face it, only unsuspecting Freshmen and last minute buyers use the on campus book stores. Students who know how to get more book for their buck go to off campus used book stores. Don't just use the first used book store you run across though. Browse a variety of stores, look for ones offering discounts, and also keep an eye out for stores that claim they'll "beat all other prices!". If you want to, you can also check www.amazon.com for textbooks at low prices from fellow students but you're not always guaranteed to get them on time or in a good condition. So yeah, used book stores are great... but as a penny-pinching student, you want something wonderful! So settle for purchasing from used book stores when you have to but lob for renting online whenever you can. I know textbook rentals is a fairly new concept and some people are kind of leery about it, I was too at first, but it's actually a WONDERFUL thing! Still nervous? That's ok, here's where things get good. I go the used textbook store route when I have to but I mostly use www.chegg.com This is my ultimate money saver! Just this semester, I saved $113 on one of my textbooks. Yup, it only cost me 40 some odd $$ to rent it plus $5 for shipping. I'll have it for my whole semester and then ship it back to Chegg for free. I also have a code I use that saves me an additional 5% on my rental: CC111923. I just enter that during checkout and it saves me even more money :) I've used Chegg for 2 or 3 semesters now and love it! They even plant a tree for every book I rent.. it's part of their "go green" attitude. Friend them on Facebook and you can win a bunch of stuff too.
Now for buybacks.
At the end of every semester you are always left with a pile of textbooks you paid hundreds of dollars for and when you go back to the book store.... they offer to pay you back less then half of what you originally paid... just so they can turn around and sell it to another student for the same amount you bought it for. No joke, one time I had a book store offer like $7 for one of my books... now grant it that book had gone "out of date" for my campus but seriously? Why insult me with a $7 offer? Just tell me it can't be bought back >:( Now sometimes you get lucky and come across a really good, small scale, used book store (like I have in my town, I've been going to them since they opened) who will try to give you at least 50% money back on you textbook. Good for them. But then there's my other favorite buyback route: if you didn't rent and do have textbooks to sell, use Chegg. Yeah, not only do they rent out but they also purchase books. I rummaged through a stack of old textbooks I never sold back and managed to find one they could use. Got a little over $50 for it and they paid for shipping. Once they buy your book you have two options: either have the money put towards your next textbook rental or have them send you a check. In summary:
1) Buy books for the equivalent of a student loan at your on campus book store
2) Buy books cheaper at an off campus used book store
3) Find textbooks on Amazon.... if you dare.
4) Rent your textbooks (Editor's choice)
1) Sell books back for very little money at on campus book store
2) Sell books back for near half price at off campus used book store
3) Sell books to rental company for a bit more + free shipping (Editor's choice)
4) Keep books for all eternity and never use them again.... :(
Now if you really want to pinch your pennies till Abe Lincoln screams, you can go the extremest route by not buying any textbooks at all and just using textbooks that are on reserve at your campus library (I did that one semester... it was ok). But... it mean's you're spending a LOT of extra time on campus doing homework and that the textbook you need might end up being checked out by another student right when you are doing a massive assignment at the last minute. I don't argue against the library idea, I've done it once before and might actually do it in the future... I'd just recommend not doing it in the summer semester when you're classes are shorter and more intensive, that's when you want to be able to study from the comfort of your home.
I hope someone out there will find this blog helpful.... If I can figure out how, I will make a special gadget box on my blog's side bar for Chegg.com incase anyone is interested.
Again, the 5% off code is CC111923
Good luck with getting your textbooks! I wish you the largest amount of saved money possible!!!
~RebelYell
1) Figure out next semester's books
2) Locate/Price said books
3) Compare book pricing and shipping rates
4) Sell back old textbooks
Psh, yeah... love it :(
Now, I'm sure all colleges are different in how they release textbook information but at my school you are given your course name/section and then from there the local book stores can identify which textbooks you need. So, location wise, the most convenient book purchasing comes from the on campus book store(play horror music!!!) Yeah, on campus.... if you want to use an arm and a leg as a down payment.. let's face it, only unsuspecting Freshmen and last minute buyers use the on campus book stores. Students who know how to get more book for their buck go to off campus used book stores. Don't just use the first used book store you run across though. Browse a variety of stores, look for ones offering discounts, and also keep an eye out for stores that claim they'll "beat all other prices!". If you want to, you can also check www.amazon.com for textbooks at low prices from fellow students but you're not always guaranteed to get them on time or in a good condition. So yeah, used book stores are great... but as a penny-pinching student, you want something wonderful! So settle for purchasing from used book stores when you have to but lob for renting online whenever you can. I know textbook rentals is a fairly new concept and some people are kind of leery about it, I was too at first, but it's actually a WONDERFUL thing! Still nervous? That's ok, here's where things get good. I go the used textbook store route when I have to but I mostly use www.chegg.com This is my ultimate money saver! Just this semester, I saved $113 on one of my textbooks. Yup, it only cost me 40 some odd $$ to rent it plus $5 for shipping. I'll have it for my whole semester and then ship it back to Chegg for free. I also have a code I use that saves me an additional 5% on my rental: CC111923. I just enter that during checkout and it saves me even more money :) I've used Chegg for 2 or 3 semesters now and love it! They even plant a tree for every book I rent.. it's part of their "go green" attitude. Friend them on Facebook and you can win a bunch of stuff too.
Now for buybacks.
At the end of every semester you are always left with a pile of textbooks you paid hundreds of dollars for and when you go back to the book store.... they offer to pay you back less then half of what you originally paid... just so they can turn around and sell it to another student for the same amount you bought it for. No joke, one time I had a book store offer like $7 for one of my books... now grant it that book had gone "out of date" for my campus but seriously? Why insult me with a $7 offer? Just tell me it can't be bought back >:( Now sometimes you get lucky and come across a really good, small scale, used book store (like I have in my town, I've been going to them since they opened) who will try to give you at least 50% money back on you textbook. Good for them. But then there's my other favorite buyback route: if you didn't rent and do have textbooks to sell, use Chegg. Yeah, not only do they rent out but they also purchase books. I rummaged through a stack of old textbooks I never sold back and managed to find one they could use. Got a little over $50 for it and they paid for shipping. Once they buy your book you have two options: either have the money put towards your next textbook rental or have them send you a check. In summary:
1) Buy books for the equivalent of a student loan at your on campus book store
2) Buy books cheaper at an off campus used book store
3) Find textbooks on Amazon.... if you dare.
4) Rent your textbooks (Editor's choice)
1) Sell books back for very little money at on campus book store
2) Sell books back for near half price at off campus used book store
3) Sell books to rental company for a bit more + free shipping (Editor's choice)
4) Keep books for all eternity and never use them again.... :(
Now if you really want to pinch your pennies till Abe Lincoln screams, you can go the extremest route by not buying any textbooks at all and just using textbooks that are on reserve at your campus library (I did that one semester... it was ok). But... it mean's you're spending a LOT of extra time on campus doing homework and that the textbook you need might end up being checked out by another student right when you are doing a massive assignment at the last minute. I don't argue against the library idea, I've done it once before and might actually do it in the future... I'd just recommend not doing it in the summer semester when you're classes are shorter and more intensive, that's when you want to be able to study from the comfort of your home.
I hope someone out there will find this blog helpful.... If I can figure out how, I will make a special gadget box on my blog's side bar for Chegg.com incase anyone is interested.
Again, the 5% off code is CC111923
Good luck with getting your textbooks! I wish you the largest amount of saved money possible!!!
~RebelYell
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