You may think, college is just way to expensive. There’s no way that I can afford the classes and tuition and all those extra expenses. Maybe you’ve already thought about it and now you aren’t sure what you should do because when you signed up they sent you that big old bill and you decided, not for me. Well I know that when I first looked at the cost of my classes I second-guessed things too. I thought, wow all that just to sit in one classroom? I wasn’t sure I could afford it or if I even wanted to.
Well I ended up going anyway. I scrounged up the money for my first year at a community college and managed to pay it off without needing a loan. I even managed to scrounge up some money for my second year but that’s when it all came apart. I didn’t have enough money to transfer to a big university and that’s the only way that I was going to get the degree that I wanted. The two-year degree I had at that point wasn’t going to mean a whole lot for me.
Consider Everything
Think about all the money that you have saved up. You may actually have more money available than you think and you may be able to get more of that money put off towards your college education. Consider it carefully. Do you really need some more new clothes? Do you really need a new pair of tennis shoes or a new bike? Those things can all be replaced at a later time. But your education is extremely important and it’s important right now. You don’t want to put it off to a later time.
Getting a degree is now almost mandatory. If you want to become anything more than entry level you’ll need to have at least a two-year degree. That means even if you’re working fast food or retail you’ll need a degree in order to be more than bottom of the food chain. Who really wants to stay at the bottom of the food chain forever? I certainly didn’t. I wanted the opportunity to move up and become a manager or a supervisor so I knew that getting a degree was going to be important to achieving that goal. The same is true for you. Want more information? Here it is.
Working in Your Field
Don’t think about it just as working in the field that you’ve chosen. You’re going to aim for a position in a certain career field of course. You get a degree in something specific like nursing or criminal justice (that’s what I did). But that doesn’t only apply when you get that final job. Remember moving up at a fast food restaurant is going to mean you get some additional knowledge and fork over the money for the degree. You will not be able to move on or move up without pushing yourself further.
What if It’s Too Much?
So now we get back to the cost. Getting a degree is extremely expensive especially if you want to get a higher degree. The higher you go the more your credits are going to cost you and the more credits you’re going to need too. So what do you do? The first thing is to find as much money as you can afford to put towards your education. You want to make sure you’re taking out the smallest loans possible because you have to pay that money back in the end (with interest).
Once you’ve collected all the money you can afford to spend it’s time to consider scholarships. Remember there are millions of scholarships for anything from $100 to thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars. You are eligible for a large portion of those so start looking right away and start applying as well. You’re going to want to get as much money that you don’t need to pay back as you possibly can. There are plenty of scholarships available and the harder you look the more likely you are to get some of them because a lot of them don’t get very many applicants.
Once you’ve exhausted your own funds and the scholarships you turn to student loans. These loans can have expensive interest rates which makes them difficult to sign for. You don’t want to pay that money back and you especially don’t want to do it with interest. That just makes it even worse. But think about everything you’ll achieve by getting that student loan and getting your college degree. It’s all going to be worth it in the end so make sure that you are signing up and that you’re filling out these forms to get you ready.
Is it Worth it?
It is worth your time, effort and money to get a college degree? Absolutely. Even if you think you can’t afford it you’ll want to save up as much as you possibly can and get your degree. Don’t sit back and watch your life pass you by just because you didn’t take the time and get the money to get a degree that lets you move up in the world. You have the ability to make a difference in some way or another. Don’t let that ability go to waste. You’ll definitely regret it if you find that you’ve spent too much time waiting and just accepting the way things are.
Pushing yourself and taking out that loan may seem difficult and it may seem like too much money to go into debt for but think about the possibilities that it’s going to open up for you. It’s going to give you the chance to do something great with your future and to have fun with it as well. You’re going to want to make sure you take that chance. I am definitely glad that I did. It allowed me the opportunity to move up through the retail job I started out in and that meant higher pay until I could find something in my field. The same thing can happen for you. If you can't afford the loan repayment after the fact then you'll want to check out this article on more information for repayment.