[generj]

It's not impossible to have a low debt degree today.

I've worked interesting jobs part-time during the school year and full time during breaks and will graduate without a dime of debt. I've met many students with a similar financial background.

[twoquestions]

I'd be very interested in the details on how you were able to accomplish this. What kind of part-time job will both pay enough to fund college while being flexible enough to allow for both class time, and leave you with enough mental energy to study and do homework?

I worked through my college education yet still graduated with a modest amount of debt. There were choices I could have made to improve my financial situation, but no amount of penny-pinching would have completely mitigated the debt I would have had to take on, save a rich relative bankrolling me.

[generj]

I've been very lucky. I don't want to say everyone can get through college without debt, because that simply isn't true. I also was blessed with a good job and some good timing. Mostly it comes down to my university being so inexpensive.

I went to community college first. In community college I found it was really common for people to be doing both full-time school and full-time work. My present university (BYU) also charges very low tuition - almost as cheap as my community college. I've also done some full-time work with part-time summer classes in order to keep my graduation on schedule.

I work for a web analytics consultancy, which has allowed my hours to be somewhat flexible. I started at about $10/hour which was enough to meet my expenses at the time (because I was going to community college while living at my parents). Within a year I was making about double that, which was perfect as it coincided with graduating from community college and moving 2000 miles to university (meaning I had to cover my living expenses). This is because the particular type of consulting we do is quite specialized - if I only got two or three real hours of work done in a week out of 20 hours worked the company was still massively ahead at the hourly rates we charge. The work (mostly coding) is different enough from my major (Economics) that I maintain interest in both.

My major is also taught by professors who apparently all prefer roughly the same schedule for classes. As a result, semester to semester time shifts in my work schedule are minor. I work in the morning and then do some work in the evening.

I won't say everything has been perfect. I don't spend as much time on homework as I ought to. If I procrastinate, a client's work might pop up in the morning before an assignment is due. So I've had to be much more structured in my classwork and often try to get a good chunk of it done on Saturday afternoons.

[twoquestions]

Thank you for the details!

It also speaks very highly of you to acknowledge how lucky you are to be in your situation, in addition to the effort you put in.

[pilom]

I bet the big difference in experiences relates to what type of school. In state tuition at many state schools can be 1/5 of top-tier private school tuition. Using part time and summer jobs to pay for school that costs $12k/year while living at home is much easier than paying for a school that costs $50k/year plus housing.

[generj]

Yep. To add on to my earlier answer, if I had gone to any of my public in-state universities, the lottery would have paid for all of my tuition and even some of my books. Georgia is a great place to live if you are a graduating high school senior. Lots of my friends have kept the HOPE scholarship their entire college careers.

Depending on what school you attend, it may be worth taking on lots of debt. Certainly Harvard is worth the extra money.

[mulmen]

I went to school in Idaho and paid in-state tuition at a state school so my education was not excessively expensive. I worked part time during the school year and full time in the summers. I still graduated with 25k in student loan debt. I don't think what you are suggesting is possible for everyone.

I spent my first couple years trying to go the no-debt route but quickly realized it would take me 8+ years to graduate.

[twoquestions]

:s/Idaho/Ohio, and you'll have my story. I also lived at home for the first two years, but I was dumb at saving money, so it was a wash.

[mulmen]

I lived with my parents for a couple years and then spent some time in the dorms before getting an apartment for a few hundred dollars a month. Living closer to campus was worth every penny but it also meant I couldn't finish school without debt.