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+--- Thread: How are you paying for school? (/Thread-How-are-you-paying-for-school)
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How are you paying for school? - OpenRoot - 12-12-2012
Just wondering...if you don't mind my asking, how are you all paying for school? I've been crunching numbers for next year and holy cannoli...its expensive! The financial aid estimator put my EFC at well above what tuition and fees will be, so I'm guessing we'll be footing most if not all of the bill out of pocket. CLEP'ing is a HUGE help, but its still a lot of money. I think I'll try to take a few classes each semester including intersession and summer instead of two full time semesters to keep the monthly payment low. I'm trying to avoid student loans at all costs. Have any of you had luck with private scholarships?
How are you paying for school? - HorseManiac - 12-12-2012
Well, I can't say if I've had any success with private scholarships because I'm in the process of applying for some right now. I have found a few distance learning scholarships. Just google "Distance Learning Scholarships". Other than that I'll be trying to get a job after I graduate high school to pay for the rest. I did have a deal with my parents that they would pay for my any college I did while in high school, but that I'd have to pay after I graduate in June. I'm also planning on filling out the FAFSA, but I have no idea if my family will qualify or not. know that's probably not much help, but that's what I'm doing at this point. I am also in 4-H and have been saving the money I earn from the livestock auction, but it's not really that much.
How are you paying for school? - AlbaTiVo - 12-13-2012
You could also consider going to work for an employer that offers tuition reimbursement. It may not be a job you really want, but if you can handle it for a year or two it would be another option to graduating debt free. If you are lucky you could end up with an employer you like and leverage your degree into a promotion.
How are you paying for school? - NAP - 12-13-2012
Rebel100 did a great job of using his Pell Grant to pay for school. Search for more of his posts about this topic. Here is one:
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-thomas-edison-charter-oak-specific/17128-fafsa-full-ride-possible.html#post130246
There are tax deductions and credits for tuition and fees, too.
Since I am taking exams almost exclusively, this has been all out-of-pocket. As you said, the credit-by-exam-savings are huge - money, time, and energy-wise.
How are you paying for school? - rebel100 - 12-13-2012
NAP Wrote:Rebel100 did a great job of using his Pell Grant to pay for school. Search for more of his posts about this topic. Here is one:NAP, you might be the only one who pays any attention to me...I appreciate you!
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-thomas-edison-charter-oak-specific/17128-fafsa-full-ride-possible.html#post130246
There are tax deductions and credits for tuition and fees, too.
Since I am taking exams almost exclusively, this has been all out-of-pocket. As you said, the credit-by-exam-savings are huge - money, time, and energy-wise.
How are you paying for school? - rebel100 - 12-13-2012
For my daughter we worked out an interesting plan...it could be modified to work for the serious student.
She went to a State College (community college) here in Florida. In her case the courses where free as she was still in HS, but that doesn't really matter. What we did was exploit the CLEP/DSST process to the MAX and just take a minimal of courses through the college, here is why that matters...
There is little chance she would have kept a stellar GPA with a math class, her strength lies in English/Humanities...so we CLEP/DSST math, Biology, US Gov. etc... She used the school, and studied really hard in Chemistry with a lab, French, English Comp, etc.. She kept her GPA at a 4.0 and joined the junior college honor society Phi Theta Kappa (PTK). This is HUGE!
By essentially skipping GPA killers classes in favor of Pass/Fail exams she was able to preserve her PTK status and graduate in the top 1% out of 800 students. She earned a scholarship from the CC, and the PTK coffers opened up. There are thousands of dollars in PTK scholorships that go unclaimed every year. Florida Southern College grants its PTK recipients $9000/year...that's getting close to a full ride. Florida Gulf Coast College offers something like $7-8000/year if done by distance and in state that IS a full ride. She opted to accept the PTK scholarship at Harvard Extension School which covers the first semester...and she is loving the challenges and growing in amazing ways.
Her little sister will likely have even more options as we understand so much better how to do this...how to work the miracle that is credit by exam, and take full advantage of the infinite possibilities that exist today in higher education.
Of course there is always pay as you go...with offerings of Saylor.org, Straighterline, FEMA, the Big 3, and countless other non traditional routes to credit and learning there are just so many options today...paying for school just isn't that big of a problem anymore.
good Luck and this forum is here to help!
Best,
Mike
How are you paying for school? - IrishJohn - 12-13-2012
rebel100 Wrote:NAP, you might be the only one who pays any attention to me...I appreciate you!
Not the only one...
How are you paying for school? - NAP - 12-13-2012
rebel100 Wrote:NAP, you might be the only one who pays any attention to me...I appreciate you!
IrishJohn Wrote:Not the only one...
Too funny!
Seriously, though, your successful experiences with this subject have really made an impression on me. I want other people to know this is possible, especially if they are able to take the number of courses required for the Pell Grant.
How are you paying for school? - mrs.b - 12-16-2012
Definitely not the only one taking notes. One of my nephews is 14 and so smart, it's scary. He already has a short list of schools he's interested in, and limited it down to a handful of majors he's still considering. He wants to start AP and CLEP exams as soon as he can, so my husband and I are going to help him with those. His mom is pushing him and his brother towards the military for the financial help, which is great, but he's just not interested in that route, so she's told him he has to find his own way to fund it. I'm saving this post to show him when he's out next week for the holidays. Thank you!
How are you paying for school? - ryoder - 12-16-2012
I have always paid on my own. But my employer is paying for part of my graduate education.
If I had known about CLEP tests when I was in high school I would have done those instead of wasting time in high school. I worked all through high school and it was difficult to get time to study working 25-30 hours per week. It was also difficult in college and I worked even more.
I could have found a way to use CLEPs as part of a home school solution and would have been able to make progress on school year round. With public high school I suffered brain rot during the long summer. If I had CLEPs I would have finished high school at 16 and had an associates as well. This would have been preferable to going to school for me.