# Paying for Education



## sonicdrink (Aug 11, 2010)

So, there are various options when paying for school, and it also depends on what kind of school it is, but either way, school is expensive most of the time.

Personally, my parents did not save up for my education, and they are both in their own debts, so I am pretty much on my own. I did not receive many scholarships besides the federal and regular financial aids. Also, both of my parents have a degree, so I don't get as much money as I could. With the government being a butt, because I am not 24 (or is it 25) even though I live in a different state, am not supported by my parents, and am independent on my taxes, according to FAFSA (for Americans) I still have to report my parents' information. I moved out of state to obtain a degree in a good school, but that set me back 10 grand for one semester, so now I have to pay that back before I can attend school again, and I am also establishing residency in the state to get cheaper tuition. However, since I am not a full-time student, I am now having to pay back loans in addition. 

What are your experiences with paying for your education? What is your status? Any tricks? And anything else you want to add to the subject....


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## SuperfineConcubine (Aug 8, 2011)

I've never gone to college, I landed a really good job by chance and self-dedication. I'm debating on going for my RN though.

My brother, on the other hand, is in the same boat you are. He can't get any money because he's still considered 'under our parents', even though he really is completely independent from them. FAFSA doesn't care that you pay for everything by yourself. Until you are 24, married, have children, earn a bachelor's degree, join the army or your parents die you will be considered dependent. I think that's a little ridiculous, especially when your parents pretty much want nothing to do with you or help you financially. 

So, in my brother's case, he's considering marrying his long-term girlfriend. I think it's a poor choice, but they were going to do it anyways.


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## NotSoRighteousRob (Jan 1, 2010)

I plan on dying in debt, my way of participating in our so called democracy


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## TheCrucible (Jul 23, 2011)

Personally the military will pay for your debts if you join them. They will pay your tuition as well. Try them!


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## John Murdoch (Aug 16, 2011)

Is community college an option?


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## sonicdrink (Aug 11, 2010)

John Murdoch said:


> Is community college an option?


I've already done community college classes. I'm going to the university for my degree courses.


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## John Murdoch (Aug 16, 2011)

What do you mean? Do you mean you've earned an associates in community college, and are transferring the credits to a four year school?


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## thesadmafioso (Aug 17, 2011)

Paying for tuition, what a horribly capitalistic invention. Treating education as a commodity to be bought and sold on the market, what a disgusting approach to take to knowledge and its dissemination. In the Soviet Union, many students were actually paid to attend university providing they passed the exams for entrance. Oh, and they were also allowed to have a direct say in the setting of these stipends through the means of student soviets (councils for those not versed in Russian). 

Some excerpts on the matter of education and its role in the post revolutionary society 

“Higher education is free”

“There are no tuition charges and close to 80 per cent of all university students get a subsistence stipend, averaging about thirty rubles a month”

“The Soviet Union is proud of the low cost of books, and even the most pro-American Russians shake their heads in disapproval when they spy the price on an American book’s dust jacket.”

“The students generally were pleased with the powers they enjoy in the administration of the university. The Student Soviet (council) has almost unlimited powers over student affairs, including the determination of the amount of student stipends. Students sit on the admissions committee, may ask the administration to add or eliminate courses or lectures, and may bring teachers up on charges of poor instruction.”

Source: Salisbury, Harrison E. Anatomy of the Soviet Union;. London: Nelson, 1967. Print.

So I suppose you could always wait for a proletarian revolution to remedy this solution, but that isn't the most timely of solutions as I would imagine. If it's any reassurance, Leon Trotsky and Antonio Gramsci were barred from finishing their studies in higher education due to the political and economic repression of capitalistic society as well, yet they still managed to make major contributions to Marxist theory. Trotsky even went onto play a leading role in the Bolshevik Revolution, and all without a bourgeois document saying he has a degree in something or another.


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## Fleetfoot (May 9, 2011)

My parents had a college savings for me. Unfortunately, most of it was invested in stocks, and the 30k I did have saved went down the tubes right before I graduated in 2008...so then I had 3k. 

My parents make too much for me to get any state grants or anything from school, I fucked myself over by going to a school that cost me 30k for two semesters that I hated, and then transferred to a state school. Luckily now my parents are super nice and decided to sign the Parent PLUS loan so I can pay the rest of my tuition bill. 

I piss myself off in the fact that I could've gone to this school for free if I went there in the first place, but I didn't. Now I don't get any scholarships or anything because I'm a transfer, even though I think my GPA is good. (3.7)


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

I paid for my college education with scholarships and some work. Law school has mostly been scholarships and loans, although I have not incurred much debt (I project that I can pay it off within a year or two out of school.)


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## sonicdrink (Aug 11, 2010)

John Murdoch said:


> What do you mean? Do you mean you've earned an associates in community college, and are transferring the credits to a four year school?


no, I've just done my basics at a community college. The university I will be going back to is in the top 10 programs in the country for my major, as well as having a B.A./M.A. program that I will also complete.


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## antiant (Jul 4, 2010)

I think anyone who goes into debt while acquiring an 'education' needs to be re-educated. As someone else above said, education has turned into a commodity and I question the intelligence of people who follow and continue to feed such a commodity. If you are unable to get financial aid or scholarships, I would suggest the pay as you go or work route (community college as well). Avoid major debt at all costs, otherwise you'll be slaving your life away to make up for it in the long run. If that's what life is all about to you then great, if not, start introspecting. Make 'education' work for you, don't let it make you its bitch, like it has done with so many people.


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## Modifier (Aug 17, 2011)

if you like try starting your own buisness it can be a very small one but it will definetly help you


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## thesadmafioso (Aug 17, 2011)

antiant said:


> I think anyone who goes into debt while acquiring an 'education' needs to be re-educated. As someone else above said, education has turned into a commodity and I question the intelligence of people who follow and continue to feed such a commodity. If you are unable to get financial aid or scholarships, I would suggest the pay as you go or work route (community college as well). Avoid major debt at all costs, otherwise you'll be slaving your life away to make up for it in the long run. If that's what life is all about to you then great, if not, start introspecting. Make 'education' work for you, don't let it make you its bitch, like it has done with so many people.


Unless someone else in this thread decided to break out the Marxist economic terminology, I do believe that was I. Then again, I also suggested that we smash the entire system as it currently stands and that we rebuild one free of the burden of tuition, so you sort of got off of my point a bit.

It's not a matter of ceasing to 'feed' the commodity, it's matter of removing the process of commodification from the system.


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## Cover3 (Feb 2, 2011)

timeless said:


> I paid for my college education with scholarships and some work. Law school has mostly been scholarships and loans, although I have not incurred much debt (I project that I can pay it off within a year or two out of school.)



what area of law are you going to be practicing? if that's not too personal, I'M thinking of a career in the domain too.


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

Cover3 said:


> timeless said:
> 
> 
> > I paid for my college education with scholarships and some work. Law school has mostly been scholarships and loans, although I have not incurred much debt (I project that I can pay it off within a year or two out of school.)
> ...


Well that's a good question. I started out wanting to go into public policy, so something in the administrative law field. I'm also interested in criminal justice and was going to treat prosecution as a backup career path. But recently I was offered the position of chief financial officer for a nonprofit, which i accepted. Because I was into public policy, I ended up taking classes about to run & financially manage a nonprofit. They wanted a guy who had the legal background but also the financial management skills.

The nonprofit is still fairly new but the board has come up w/ a variety of projects for the corporation. If it really expands I may end up being full time as CFO with some general counsel duties when I get my law license next year.

Not exactly what I was expecting when I got into this but I like it. Either way I'm keeping my options open.


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## Snakecharmer (Oct 26, 2010)

My daughter just started her first year of college yesterday, and her books alone were over $700. One of the bookstore employees said she had to take a semester off because her books were too expensive. That's a shame.

I've been back in college for several years now. I'm doing the "pay as you go" plan, but I have gotten Pell Grants in the past (I'm a single parent - divorced for several years). 

I'm curious about CLEP exams. With all the new free online courses that are around, I'm wondering if more and more people will start taking the CLEP exams after independent study instead of spending a fortune on college courses. I'm going to give it a try for a few courses, I think. I just started looking into it.

Here's a link to some info...it may be a viable option.

About the College Level Examination Program (CLEP)


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## 22575 (May 23, 2011)

Snakecharmer said:


> My daughter just started her first year of college yesterday, and her books alone were over $700. One of the bookstore employees said she had to take a semester off because her books were too expensive. That's a shame.
> 
> I've been back in college for several years now. I'm doing the "pay as you go" plan, but I have gotten Pell Grants in the past (I'm a single parent - divorced for several years).
> 
> ...


Don't buy books from the bookstore, it's a complete rip-off! You can get great used books and international editions on various sites, one that I've found to be particularly good is abebooks: AbeBooks Official Site - New & Used Books, New & Used Textbooks, Rare & Out of Print Books
Though you need to have your booklist a couple weeks ahead of the start of the quarter/semester so that they get to you on time.


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## Snakecharmer (Oct 26, 2010)

Thanks - and I should add that allbookstores.com is a great source, too.


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## sonicdrink (Aug 11, 2010)

also, Half.com is great for textbooks


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## mollyowens (Aug 13, 2011)

Money Magazine has a feature this month about novel strategies to pay for college. Until I read this article, I didn't realize how absurd the costs were for a college education. No wonder more Americans file for bankruptcy than get a college degree!


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## Chrysantheist (Jul 1, 2011)

I got married to declare myself independent as a student. My parents sure as hell weren't going to pay for school for me and I was being royally screwed over by their income. After the first year of college, I was tired of being fucked over by the system and got married to my best friend at the time (who was gay). My tuition dropped down to something I could actually afford and I was able to finish out the rest of my years there with minimal loans. The bulk of what I still owe is from that first year. Wish I'd gotten married sooner.


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## Double (Jul 21, 2011)

TheCrucible said:


> Personally the military will pay for your debts if you join them. They will pay your tuition as well. Try them!


Yep...the G.I. Bill pays me $1000/yr for books, 100% of my tuition for 36 total months of education, and a monthly housing allowance (all tax free I might add). Not that I'd recommend it to anyone. But it's nice to have the government pay me to go to college.


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## Voldemort (Aug 24, 2011)

One piece of advice I can give, is that if you do take out loans, try and only take out federal ones. I've heard horror stories about people having huge monthly payments with private loans. 

My parents didnt have money for me to go to college either, so I feel your pain. Good luck!


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## 22575 (May 23, 2011)

Voldemort said:


> One piece of advice I can give, is that if you do take out loans, try and only take out federal ones. I've heard horror stories about people having huge monthly payments with private loans.
> 
> My parents didnt have money for me to go to college either, so I feel your pain. Good luck!


To this I would add that you should take the federal subsidized loans, that way interest doesn't accrue while you're in college.



mollyowens said:


> Money Magazine has a feature this month about novel strategies to pay for college. Until I read this article, I didn't realize how absurd the costs were for a college education. No wonder more Americans file for bankruptcy than get a college degree!


The Back Bench: Tuition at the University of California (1970)

University of California education used to be free, then it was a couple hundred dollars, now it's in the ten thousands! There was a 32% fee increase and the state is cutting the amount of money that goes into the UC system. Now students pay more for the college than the state does! These tuition hikes are rising way faster than inflation and many speculate that it is the next bubble.

For the first time, tuition paid by UC students will surpass state funding - latimes.com


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## mollyowens (Aug 13, 2011)

unsung truth said:


> University of California education used to be free, then it was a couple hundred dollars, now it's in the ten thousands! There was a 32% fee increase and the state is cutting the amount of money that goes into the UC system. Now students pay more for the college than the state does! These tuition hikes are rising way faster than inflation and many speculate that it is the next bubble.


That is absolutely shocking. I went to UC Berkeley just over ten years ago and according to this graph tuition has _quadrupled_ since then. How do we expect to have a well-educated society when even our public schools are exorbitantly expensive?

Not that any of this helps the original poster. I can say I have no regrets about taking out federal loans for graduate school. If you can get them, and I understand that is a feat in itself, you can take essentially your entire life to pay them off at a very low monthly rate. I'm not a big fan of debt, but I'll be milking this one for all it's worth!


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

sonicdrink said:


> also, Half.com is great for textbooks


This is true. I bought all my books from Amazon (used) and saved over $100 this semester.


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## Sparky (Mar 15, 2010)

Hope everything goes well for you, which I am certain it will. I heard from Dave Ramsey that an expensive education that gets you into debt is not worth it; it is better to have a degree from a state university which you can afford. Also, an eighth grade science teacher remarked how college is all about finding your soulmate, that it's just another way for people of a similar economic level to meet. Of course, you don't have to believe it, but it's an interesting thought. Thank you.


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