<p>Hello to all,</p>
<p>May I begin to say that I am excited about this upcoming fall semester as my daughter will be entering her first year of college and we will become empty nesters.</p>
<p>Due to my schedule, it is hard to consider working a second job to pay for tuition though I would do it in a heartbeat. As I'm moving towards retirement and don't want the added debt to me or my daughter, I was wondering if anyone has found any creative ways to pay for college in addition to loans.</p>
<p>have your daughter get a job to contribute to her education</p>
<p>cut spending, meaning, give your daughter less fancy technology/spending money</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. Yes my daughter has a job though not enough hours. I am cutting cost where I can but was looking for some "creative" ways other parents have found to finance their children's education.</p>
<p>How about a yard sale? You can get rid of all the toys, bikes and accumulated stuff that the kids have outgrown or that you haven't used in years. Alternatively, there might be some "treasures" that could be sold on eBay.</p>
<p>If you are looking for ways to pay for college without actually footing the bill yourself, there are several options:</p>
<p>ROTC scholarships, educational bonuses when joining the military, various government programs where you agree to study a certain subject and serve for a period of time with a certain government agency (NSA)various scholarships (do a search on fastweb or other scholarship search sites), institute and government financial aid, work colleges (do a google search), "free" colleges and the communty college/state university route.</p>
<p>All of these options may not be acceptable and most are very competitive and have certain requirements, but if you are looking to reduce the amount of money your family actually puts out, these are the only options I know of.</p>
<p>If you are looking for ideas on how to come up with the money out of your own pocket -- it just depends on what you have in your pocket. Increasing income, reducing expenses and using assets are really the areas to look at.</p>
<p>don't forget your household expenses will also go down 'some' when your daughter is at college. Most car insurance companies will not charge premium when kids are at college away from home and don't take car.</p>
<p>Short of a second job, I think the time to plan financing was many years ago...</p>
<p>Your D can help finance her college education through loans, merit aid (depending on her major, she may be able to get scholarships through her college or outside) after soph or junior year. and through doing programs like Americorps after graduation.</p>
<p>It seems to me that posters here either misunderstand Freshmom's question or are being deliberately harsh in your responses (such as telling her she should have planned better years ago). </p>
<p>She's asking for some ideas as to how to close the gap between what she can pay out of pocket and what she will have to borrow. You'd think from some of the posts here that no one has ever noticed that college costs are a big expense. </p>
<p>For those of us who do use PLUS loans, there is a big question every year as to how much to borrow -- if you can come up with another couple of thousand cash one way or another, it can make a big difference. This isn't lack of planning, this is simply common sense. </p>
<p>So please lay off with the lectures -- Freshmom is just asking for some ideas.</p>
<p>It's very hard to come up with suggestions without knowing what the amount the OP would like to have is. Yard sales are a one-off. Car insurance goes down, but travel expenses go up, so it's probably a wash.
Can Freshmom's D increase her hours? Will the D be able to reduce housing costs after the first year by being an RA? Are there job opportunities off-campus?
I know one young man who financed his education (at least part of it) by doing occasional cooking for the Master of one of the Harvard houses. Other students in the Boston-area are part of a baby-sitting network. They get called by parents who need last minute baby-sitting and so are paid very well. A couple of students I knew did housecleaning; their niche (this was the 1980s) was using environmentally safe products.</p>
<p>I'm surely no expert since my son does not start college till August, but I'll give you some ideas I am using.</p>
<p>First, we have taken out a Home Equity Line of Credit. The interest is tax deductible and we can take out small amounts as we need it. We signed up for the college's payment plan so we can spread out the payments over 5 months per semester. And we opened up a seperate checking account for them to automatically take the payments out of. We will try to put as much of our own money in the account that we can by cutting costs, yard sales, money saved, etc. Then we will use the line of credit to supplement as needed. </p>
<p>I will encourage my son to keep an eye out for any scholarships he can apply for. Not all scholarships are just for in-coming freshmen.</p>
<p>Also, encouraging your child to become an RA can be a gold mine. Just check your college website to see what they offer as compensation and the requirements. Some colleges are more generous than others. At one of the colleges my son choose not to attend, the RA's were given free Room & Board, plus a $1000 stipend (worth $10,000). Of course at the college he will be attending, the compensation is not nearly as good!</p>
<p>Good luck Freshmom! If you come up with any other good ideas, please post. We can all use help!</p>
<p>calmom:
Thanks for the lecture for the lecture. ;)</p>
<p>My point is that one can not raise college money through a garage sale, and perhaps a second job is a good idea. Have you ever heard of a garage sale bringing in, oh, let's say, $20,000? Short of auctioning off your entire household? (Not a bad idea in my case...)</p>
<p>Perhaps the problem I'm having with this question is that OP did not post an amount. (Note to other posters - she said "in addition to loans" so I presume she's already got that done.) </p>
<p>There is a big difference between trying to raise a couple of thousand dollars spending money (eBay?) vs. college tuition. </p>
<p>I think parents (especially those new to the process) need to know that the time to figure out how to pay for college is not after the acceptances roll in. (Too bad there isn't a pre-school forum.) It is a long combination of saving AND choosing a school they can afford with whatever financing works for them.</p>
<p>Anyway, maybe OP will clarify...</p>
<p>Have you looked into the 529 savings plan for your state. In NY you get a 10% credit on your state taxes up to $10,000. Over 4 years thats $4000. You can deposit $10,000 into the 529 plan prior to paying the tuition bill and pay all/part of the tuition bill from the 529 plan the next day - (no risk or cost to you if you use the accumulation fund). The 529 plans are great if you start saving with them early, but if you haven't and you have to pay a large tuition bill, this is one way to save some money!</p>
<p>Many colleges have endowed scholarships which are offered to upper class students. Check with the finaid office or the college catalogue so see which scholarships are available and which your D may be eligible for.</p>
<p>While all schools cost a ton these days a student can get by on much less money if they work at it ...
* no car, no cell phone, no TV, etc
* used computer
* buy used books ... and sell back any not really needed
* use the free (or nearly free) campus entertainment
* summer job that pays bigger bucks even if it much harder or more boring ... 2 jobs if you're really stuck (70+ hours a week is possible for a couple months although it stinks having to do it)
* I would NOT go over about 10-12 hours of work per week while in school ... 10-12 hours can be managed only hitting "play time" ... much more than that and it cuts into either school or sleep time.
* work during winter break
* look into being a dorm RA ... usually comes with a free room and some pay
* jobs on campus often also lead to discounts on meal plans etc.
* proactively go to profs and ask about research assistantships ... might be tough as frosh or soph but these can lead to both cash as well as a tuition break.
* If money is real tight cooking for themselves is usually cheaper than meal plans ... often not a healthy and certainly not as fun (I spent less than $20 on food my last month of grad school ... tons of mac&cheese ... it sucked but that $20 was all I had)</p>
<p>Good luck, this is a tough one but a motivated student can make few bucks go a long way.</p>
<p>"* proactively go to profs and ask about research assistantships ... might be tough as frosh or soph but these can lead to both cash as well as a tuition break."</p>
<p>These also can help students get well paid summer research jobs, and the recommendations and experience from school year research assistantships can help students get graduate entrance and fellowships.</p>
<p>another thought (although since we haven't heard from the OP since the beginnning, I think our suggestions might be landing on deaf ears) -- </p>
<p>Take a good hard look at scholarships that are offered at the school for upperclassmen. Most schools have scholarships that are general (certain GPA, certain activities, etc) and others that are specific to the major. find out who is eligible, what the criteria are (certain class load, teacher rec, GPA, certain concentration) and then plan how to get those scholarships. Getting good teacher relations is crucial to good recs. It might not help this year, but it will help down the road.</p>
<p>A big saver is to graduate early. It isn't that hard to do. If she never drops a course, started out solid (maybe some AP credits and no need for remedial work), and never changes majors (or not dramatically) she may be able to cut off a semester or even a year. The schools do not advertise this. She could take a semester off, work, and still finish with her class. I second the suggestion about being an RA. After (or if) dorm life looses its novelty, she may be able to find cheaper alternatives- apartment sharing, living with faculty in return for babysitting, etc. Going off the meal plan can be a saver too, if the student is not a big eater. A little risky though- may not maintain their nutrition.</p>
<p>Not that this is easily replicable, but it's a true story: A woman I knew in college, unable to get a decent job in the summer after her first year, put together a portfolio of cute greeting cards and shopped them to various card companies. She finally found a publisher in the fall of her second year. By midway through her third year, she was paying 100% of her tuition, room and board herself; by the time she graduated it was pretty clear that she was never going to need a job in her life.</p>
<p>So . . . certainly a "creative" way to pay for college.</p>
<p>Thanks to all that took the time to respond to my post. All the suggestions are appreciated and will be considered. </p>
<p>I agree that college cost are to be considered a lot earlier than later.
Our desire is to have as little debt as possible placed on us and our daughter after graduation.</p>
<p>I will probably do the sales and some of the other things mentioned like cutting back on non essentials to bring down the debt but right now I will take it one semester at a time.</p>
<p>God Bless</p>