myUsearch blog

A year’s tuition and room and board, even at a state school, often adds up to more than $20,000. If you’re planning to attend a private college or university, you could pay more than $50,000 annually. For decades, smart students have exercised the college choice of community college to cut down this cost, yet there are other ways to save both money and time in college. Let’s take a look at your college choice options:

• Option one:  Earn college credit for knowledge you already have.  You have several options to choose from, including AP exams, CLEP exams, and DSST/Dante exams. These evaluation tests offer different options for earning credit for advanced work or knowledge you already possess. Check them out carefully.

• Option two:  Take courses online.  StraighterLine, for example, offers college courses that you can take online at a very low cost.  Another option is to make use of StraighterLine’s innovative Partner College Program. It offers a streamlined college admissions process to students who have completed StraighterLine courses online.

• Option thee:  Attend a college that offers a three-year degree program. Hartwick College and Wesleyan University are now offering three-year programs for certain college majors.  More colleges are joining them.  If you search online for the key term “three-year college degrees” from time to time, you can monitor this trend and find schools that are starting to offer three-year degree programs. Remember that many of these schools still charge pretty hefty fees for the three years while you attend, but if you can trim one year from the process, that will translate into pretty significant savings.

As the price tag for a college education continues to increase, it is no surprise that the thought of how to pay for it weighs heavily on parents and students.  For too many families, this concern may present a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, but like most obstacles, there may be another way around.  Here are five ways to find aid for college:

photo by alan cleaver_2000

(more…)

Why pay full price for college? Here are five strategies that can cut costs by 25 percent or more and take the pain out of finding aid for college. 

(more…)

As warmer weather nears, students begin to think about the end of classes and the beginning of vacation time and outdoor activities. Unfortunately, having fun often requires money, that’s why it’s not too early to start thinking about summer jobs.

Photo by Les.Butcher

(more…)

Today we have a guest post from Lynn O’Shaughnessy. 
O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and she also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch and TheCollegeSolutionBlog. Follow her on Twitter.

Ever hear about college taxes?

No this isn’t a joke. If you aren’t careful you could owe college taxes on your 529 plan.

Nobody tells you that you could ultimately owe taxes on a 529 college plan, but plenty of people discover this nightmare during tax season.

(more…)

You applied, you got in, you packed your car and you’re all ready to go off to college. But what about tuition? What about books? And you can’t forget room and board. You’ve sent in your FAFSA form and received a small scholarship, but it still seems like the college price tag might be more than you can bargained for. Where do you go from here?

College Fund photo by djukami

(more…)

Today’s guest post was contributed by Eugene Aronsky from wecomparebooks.com

College is expensive. (I am sorry to be so blunt, but this is true). What’s more, given the state of the current economy getting funding for college is far more difficult, and for those of us who are able to get loans to pay for school, paying those loans back will not be easy. On this note, I would like to talk to you about some things that you might do to make college more affordable.

Photo by Steve Wampler 

(more…)

I know there are plenty of parents out there that are saving to pay for the college education of their children.  First of all, I think that is a noble and honorable thing to do and I applaud parents who are doing it.  Your children will be better off because of your intuitive thinking and fiscal intelligence. (more…)