3 Exclusive Tricks to Graduating Debt Free

Everyone dreams of college, but no one thinks about how you will graduate debt free?

Graduating debt free is a BIG problem because high school students don't think about the costs associated with going to college. Although children and students don't take the cost of attending college into consideration and don't think about graduating debt free when they are first starting college, the parents NEED to. Students are graduating college with enormous amounts of debt. This debt is putting a hardship on children after they graduate, making moving out and purchasing their own homes or cars more and more difficult. These things wouldn't be difficult to obtain if the students would have graduated debt free. So I am going to share with you 3 of my exclusive tricks that I used that helped me graduate college 100% DEBT FREE!

Exclusive Trick to Graduating Debt Free #1: Scholarships

I cannot STRESS this trick enough. Scholarships were the difference between me owing money to the college each semester and me graduating debt free and getting money back from the college. Scholarships essentially helped me graduate debt free. Most people think scholarships are only for people with good grades. That is a BIG MYTH. Merit scholarships, or scholarships for people with good grades, is only ONE type of scholarship that is available for students to apply to to help them graduate debt free. There are a lot of merit scholarships that you can apply for and win, especially for students at the top of their class. However, you may not get the most merit scholarships from the top schools. Some schools may give you more merit aid than others based on how you rank and if they see you as a "desirable student." Colleges will compete to get the best students and they do this by giving the most merit aid (aka giving the student a full-ride scholarship so the student will graduate debt free). There are other types of scholarships besides merit that you can get. Usually these scholarships are based on community service performed, extracurricular activities that you are involved in, intended college major/ career, or any other hobby or interest that your child has. Scholarships played a big part in helping me graduate debt free.

For tips on winning and receiving scholarships for college so that you can graduate debt free visit: http://www.debtfreecollegegrad.com

Exclusive Trick to Graduating Debt Free #2: Community College

Community colleges can really help you graduate debt free. Community colleges usually get a stigma of being the place that students don't really want to go or think about when they are picking a college to attend. People think community colleges are for students who don't have good enough grades to get accepted into a 4 year university. They call it the "dumb school" or the "13th grade." That can be further from the truth. If you think you are going to get an easy "A," you're wrong. I went to a 4 year university my first semester, then decided to switch my major. When I spoke to my adviser about my new major, she couldn't offer me any advice besides "students that pick that major usually switch to a different college." So that's what I did, I switched. I applied to another university, but they were taking too long to get back to me. The beginning of the new semester was nearing and classes were filling up quickly. I didn't want to waste a semester not doing anything so I signed up at the community college. To my surprise, a lot of my professors at the community college were either doctors or the same professors that taught at the 4 year university that I wanted to attend. They definitely graded me the same that they would grade the other students in their courses at the 4 year schools.
Now that those stigmas and myths are out of the way, my exclusive trick to graduating debt free #2 is to go to a community college. Community colleges are very inexpensive to attend in comparison to in-state or out of state colleges and universities. If you start off at a community college first, you will save a lot of money on room and board (by commuting to school and staying at home with your parents) and on tuition costs (since tuition at community colleges are about half the price of in-state colleges). Saving this money can help you graduate debt free. After you spend your first 2 years there, getting the basic courses out of the way, you can transfer to your desired 4 year college.

Exclusive Trick to Graduating Debt Free #3: In-state Colleges

Attending a college that is in the same state as your residence is usually cheaper than attending a college that isn't in the same state as your residence. Saving money here can also help you graduate debt free. If you are planning to move to a different state when your child is in high school (maybe you are moving because there are better state schools in another state) you should check out the college's rules for being considered a resident of the state. Some colleges will ask if you have been a resident of the state for the past 12 months in order for you to qualify for in-state tuition.
I used these 3 tricks (along with a few others) to graduate college debt free. Let me know (in the comment box) some things that you would do to cut college costs so that you (or your child) can graduate debt free.

By: Shanice Miller, founder of debtfreecollegegrad.com