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Poll: How did you pay for college?
I'm always curious about this. I know the traditional route, as I always heard it, was for your parents to pay for college. In this day and age, that's just not practical or affordable for most families. So, I'm curious, how did you pay for your education? Out of pocket? Mom and Dad were able? Student loans? Grants? Scholarships? Other?
I fall into the "Other category.
I joined the Navy right out of high school so that my college would be paid for. I'm so thankful that I was able to get away without any student debt, and still a large enough amount in my college fund to pay for my Masters degree without taking out loans. That benefit obviously didn't come without a price on my end, but I'm thankful it worked for me.
What did you do?
(This probably would have been a good clicky poll, but I'm too lazy to create one. Sorry.)
Re: Poll: How did you pay for college?
My college education was paid for with a huge combination. My parents always intended to pay for college for us, but my dad owns his own business and they don't make tons of money. We qualified for some financial aid, I got lots of scholarships, they paid what they could, and we took out loans for the rest.
They fully intended to pay back the loans, but after we got married and combined finances, DH and I decided that we'd like to take that burden off of them. We actually make more money than they do and feel that it is time to be fully financially independent (this was the only way I would say that I wasn't financially independent before marriage). So now we make the payments.
DH has lots of loans.
ETA: My grad school is 100% paid by my employer. DH wants to go to grad school next, but I don't want to take out more SL's until his undergrad loans are paid off.
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
I got all the scholarships, loans and grants I could...and then my parents used a home equity loan to pay the balance. I also worked while in school and covered my day-to-day expenses that way.
My parents aren't well off, and I knew if I didn't pay them back that they'd not have squat for retirement. They've never had enough extra cash to do a college loan of any sort for any of their children. They also did the home equity thing for my younger brothers. I've paid them back every dime.
As you saw in my other post, I'm a few hundred away from paying back the last of the regular student loans. There were four originally, and I'm down to the tail end of that largest one.
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For undergrad, it was a combination. I received a huge scholarship from my high school's national honors society. It was specific to the school I chose, but it was $15k annually (tuition to the private school passed 40k a year while I was enrolled). So, that was a big chunk, but I needed a lot more still. I took out just less than $30k in student loans when all was said and done. My parents made the family contribution the school suggested, which was also a good chunk of change. I also had a job working on campus for a grant, so that helped pay room and board expenses.
I'm in graduate school now. Luckily, the area I'm in has paid positions. I'm a research assistant for my advisor, and the grant money she brings in pays overhead, my salary, basic health insurance, and my tuition. I pay for fees and books out of my salary. The downside is that I don't make a lot of money, so my student loans are deferred (without penalty or interest accruing because they are federally subsidized) so I won't start paying them off until I graduate. So, I'll have my loans for a while, but at least the $$ amount isn't getting any bigger.
My parents paid 100% for my college education. It kinda makes me feel spoiled to admit it, but I'm very thankful to my parents that they were able to do that for me. I know it's something they planned and saved for my whole life, and hopefully someday I'll be able to do the same for my children.
My older brother however went against their wishes and got a tattoo and they cut off his college funding. That was always our one rule... if we got a tattoo or any unapproved peircings they wouldn't pay for college.
I was on a half scholarship and the other half I paid for completely with student loans.
If I could do it all again, I would have gone to a community college or a state school for the first 2 years and then tranferred to the college I went to. I would have been in about half the debt I am in now if I would have done that.
I am taking my gmats in Feb to go back to school for my MBA hopefully next fall. Luckily my employer will pay for one class a semester.
Undergrad I went to a state school and got loans, grants, and a scholarship.
Grad I took out loans.
Undergrad: Combo of own savings, parents, and loans (though not that many loans since my school was faily inexpensive). Then I did Americorps and the government paid off a chunk of my loans.
Graduate: I worked as a graudate assistant, so the school of education paid my tuition. Woohoo!!!
LOANS! I had scholarships and financial aid, which covered some. But I'm kid #3 out of 4, and we grew up only on 1 salary (mom didnt work), so money was always tight. So my parents couldnt pay for our college educations. Now I wish I didn't go to a private college, bc I will be paying back hefty loans for the next 6 or so years! Although I did meet my H there, so i guess it was worth it!
I (my family that is) payed for my school with a mix of student loans and scholarships.
I received the Promise Scholarship from the state of WV which pays all tuition for all four years to any state university. What wasn't considered tuition we took out in loans. I am still in undergrad so I haven't started paying those back yet, but as soon as I finish school I will be taking those over.
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Undergrad: i received some scholarship and my parents paid the remainder and helped me with living expenses. I went to a state college, so it wasn't too expensive.
Law School: I received a full scholarship my first year and a partial scholarship for the next two. I make enough over the summer to cover the remainder of tuition. DH and I pay all of our expenses ourselves, including his MBA tuition..
DH and I have been very very fortunate in this area. My parents paid 100% of my undergrad, having to take out students loans to do so but they are paying them off. DH has a wealthy grandmother who gives him a very generous amount of money every year and has for the past 12 years or so. He is able to pay 6 years of tuition for his undergrad and masters and living expenses with the money and also bought a brand new car with it 3 years ago. He hasn't worked more than 10 hrs a week since he started school 6 years ago because of her. It has been a blessing though because he is in a very tough program at school and would not be able to work more than he already does and still pull off the grades he does. Having said that, he had a full ride to University of Oklahoma because he won the National Merit Scholarship from our HS but didn't want to go out of state, good thing because we wouldn't have ever dated had he gone there!
I am thinking about going back to school next year and the thought of having students loans to pay off is scaring me away from going back.
undergrad- state school, mom and dad paid all of it out of savings (they had a special account for me starting the day I was born)
grad- totally loans, I'll be paying it back forever.
I went to undergrad on a full ride academic scholarship with another $20k scholarship that paid for my study abroad and most of my living expenses. I was very lucky to not have to take out any student loans but I was stupid with my money and spent way more on rent than I should have, shopped and went out too much, and spent pretty much everything I earned while in college too so I still graduated with pretty much nothing to my name. But at least I wasn't in debt.
For grad school, my employer paid for everything but books while I worked full time. I switched employers about a year before I was done and they agreed to continue covering tuition even though it was over their cap so again I got lucky.
DH was lucky enough to have parents who could afford it so long as he went to a state school because his dad works for another state school and so he got reduced tuition at any public KY university. So neither of us had to take out any loans.
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