Cutting College Costs

The Big Day has arrived. Your bouncing bundle of joy has finally taken his first peek at the world. With the anxiety of pregnancy and labor over, you may be tempted to take a big sigh of relief. However, even after the cost of Lamaze classes, remodeling the man-cave into a nursery and outfitting the car with all the latest safety features, you may be surprised to find that your financial concerns just shot past the man in the moon.

While recent estimates published by the Department of Agriculture show that the cost of raising a child born in 2010 can range from $200,000 to more than half a million dollars over the next 17 years, you do have some control. A number of popular finance sites can help you minimize the overall cost of raising children, but it’s the four years after their 18th birthday that may be as high as Jack’s beanstalk. See: Inflation Adjusted Education Costs

In 2011, the cost of attending an in-state college ran between about $18,000 and $24,000 per year, with half of that going to tuition and fees and the other half going to room and board. Double that number if your child is talented enough to get into a private college. Over four years, your precious little Einstein can cost you between $75,000 and $200,000, almost as much as the previous two decades.

Don’t panic; The earlier you start the more you can bring those costs down. In fact, do it right and you might not have to pay a red cent for your son or daughter’s Ph.D.

Scholarships and fellowships often pay for a student’s tuition and, in some cases, may cover the entire cost of the student’s education. Search sites like Fastweb.com and FinAid to help uncover the abundance of resources that are available.

Concrete ways to Cut College Costs

On the financial end of things many states offer prepaid educational funds. These are sometimes referred to as 529 plans after section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code 26 U.S.C. § 529. These state managed investments help eliminate some of the guesswork in saving for college. They also provide tax deductions while encouraging you to save for college.

Saving on College Costs with VPEP

In Virginia for instance it is called Virginia Prepaid Education Program (VPEP). These are great savings programs that guarantee to cover “tuition and mandatory fees” (but not room and board) for all public colleges and universities in the state of Virginia. If your child chooses to go to a Private College in Virginia or attend a college out of state the funds can still be used but they are not guaranteed to cover the entire tuition and fees. A formula is used to calculate how much you get towards those colleges. The calculations are skewed a bit in favor of Virginia Public Colleges because it is run by the State but you can consider it like insurance, at the very least your child will be able to attend a Public University.

Using this program you can basically buy college in advance either through a “Lump-Sum” payment or through monthly payments. You have a variety of options, you can buy 1 or 2 years of Community College or 1 through 4 years of University or you can buy seperate contracts for say 2 years of community college and 2 years of University.

Starting early you can make monthly payments for either a five year period or even longer. As of the 2011-2012 enrollment year, you can lock in 1 year of University for your Kindergardener for 145 payments of only $290 each. (Incidentially often Grand-parents consideer this a good way to help out and get a tax deduction at the same time).

Cut College Costs with Community College

Whether you buy prepaid college or not using the 2 years of Community College and 2 Years of University is another great way to cut costs. Not only do you save on room and board but you also pay significantly less for each credit hour. This can easily save you $20 to $30,000. and at the end of the 4 years your student will still receive the same diploma as someone who attended University for all four years. Just be sure that the courses your student takes in Community College will transfer in and apply for the major your child is seeking. But often there are quite a few basic courses that almost everyone must take, such as Math 101, English 101, Psychology 101, etc.

Another alternative for cutting costs is Online courses. A great many accredited colleges and universities are expanding their student body without the cost of building additional buildings by offering on-line classes. Often these credit hours cost significantly less than the same courses offered to their on-campus students. The key here is to be sure the on-line college is accredited and that the courses will transfer in to an accredited university. Some teachers have found to their dismay that the on-line courses that they were taking to keep their certifications up to date were not accredited and therefore they had not only wasted their money but their time as well.

Cut College Costs by Working

One advantage of attending community college or doing classes online is that they can work at the same time thus contributing to their own college costs. In addition to the monetary advantages work gives them good experience and teaches self-reliance, self-confidence, and valuable skills.

Cut College Costs by Reselling Your Textbooks

There are a variety of ways to cut costs by reselling your textbooks. the most common is to sell them back to the Campus bookstore. But often they won’t give you much. You might get more by selling them on Amazon or elsewhere. Valorebooks has created the Ultimate Guide to Selling Used Textbooks.

See Also:

Image courtesy of ddpavumba