How do some people get to go to college so cheap?

Question:

After reading many articles geared towards college grads I was able to find out quickly that most college grads are, on average, $16,000 in debt upon graduation. My questions is where are these kids going to school? Because from my experiences, college could never be that cheap! In December I will graduate and receive a degree in Business and I will also have $50,000 + looming over my head. This is something that has kept me awake many nights. I am stressed about this amount of debt let alone having to find a job that can pay for my loans as well as my future costs of living. While I lay there on my dilapidated bunk bed in my crappy dorm room and hear fellow peers walk to the community showers wearing their bright pink flip flops, which by the way can only save you from a few of the things growing in those showers, I truly ask myself where did my $50,000 go? Obviously not towards new housing facilities or better food in the cafeteria. Did it go towards hiring higher educated professors who will mold my mind and allow me to become a wonderfully average person or did it go towards that new university statue we didn’t really need that greets our visitors at the back entrance? But all these anxieties will just be met by new ones when I enter this “real world” everyone always talks about. I know I will be lucky to get a job making $35,000. Most of the time it seems like odds are against us middle-class citizens. God knows the government won’t help us fund college and on the other hand my parents can’t financially help me either. I could look to my superior mind to help get scholarships but thanks to my local public high school, my brain is rotted. So here I am about to head back for one final semester and all I have to show for it is loans as far as the eye can see. All I can say is at least I didn’t fall to the temptation of a credit card aimed at college students. I have no doubt that I could have racked up another $50,000 just paying for textbooks and pizza.

Answer:
I got through college with $11,700 in debt plus about $1,500 on my credit card, but it could have almost not happened. I originally applied to public universities but couldn't get enough financial aid (including federal loans) to cover the total cost even with my parents' contribution. So I started in community college, which I paid for without going into debt by working part time and during the summer. I got almost straight A's in community college because I knew I would need to compete when I transfer. I decided to apply for college in a different state where tuition was cheaper. I also applied to a private college in that state but didn't expect to be able to afford it. I figured I could either live in the other state until I became a resident or I could join the military if it was still too expensive. It ended up that when I got my financial aid offers, the private school gave me a huge scholarship and I could finally afford to go. It was an affluent school that was probably trying to attract students with high grades in a wealthy region of the country. I was pretty lucky though because some of the people at that same school had $30,000 in debt or more.

You'll probably do fine in the real world, but you might have to wait until some of the baby boomers retire before you get an opportunity to move up.

We paid for our daughter's education at Muhlenburg. She wanted to pay the next four years herself ( University of Pennsylvania ). She borrowed twenty thousand per year. That's not any too cheap.Yep she paid it all back in three quarters of the permitted time - - - and with a sizable interest.

they are either very smart or they are rich in money..

There are loads of programs for people that work hard.

I had a full athletic scholarship for undergrad. I also had 2 appointments for military academies, and numerous academic merit scholarships, and other athletic scholarships I could have taken.

For one of my graduate degrees, I had a full academic merit scholarship. For my other graduate degree, I worked as a Graduate Assistant and paid a grand total of $0 in tuition to attend for the two years I was there.

Smart kids with no money and no scholarships go to local junior colleges and transfer after 2 years. Live with Mom and Dad to save room and board and work thier tails off to come out of school with as little debt as possible.

Get off your rear and work hard and opportunities will come to you. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. A college degree entitles you to nothing, and only you can decide if it is worthwhile.

50 large?! impressive...but dont go pulling your hair out guy. after consolidating, i think you'll find that they're not as big a burden to begin paying as you'd think. i had ~22k and i'm about to start paying $216 a month. also, you can defer payment at least 6-18 months so that takes a load off getting a job right away. and since youve managed to have dodged the credit card bullet you'll be able to actually start paying on your loans pretty quickly...its never as bad or as good as it seems.

How do some people get to go to college so cheap?

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