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IDENTIFYING
HIDDEN COLLEGE COSTS |
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There's more than just college tuition you and your parents have to
worry about. Financial aid helps by paying for your actual
tuition, but there are other costs that the college doesn't include.
Among those are the cost of books, food, entertainment and travel. If
you're planning to take a semester abroad you're adding some more
costs to your college education. After a while, the bills really start
to rack up. Here are a couple tips on how to make paying for
everything a little bit easier.
Getting a Job
Working a part-time job while you're in college is actually a really
practical and useful idea. A lot of colleges actually offer on-campus
employment opportunities. Most of these jobs are relatively simple and
the pay is often more than minimum wage. The hours are flexible and
the best part is that you don't even need to leave campus. Say you
take a job as a desk clerk who checks ID's as students enter into a
building. This job pays you to just sit there and do practically
nothing. Couldn't you be doing homework while working? Of course!
You also have the option of finding off-campus employment. This can be
a problem for some students since they have no mode of transportation.
However, if you're in the city or have a car this will definitely work
for you. The jobs available are numerous and industries vary from
place to place, but you are likely to find something to suit your
fancy.
Travel
Getting from home to college can be expensive, especially if you're
going to school on the other side of the country. If that's the case,
you will most likely be traveling by air or train. A couple web sites
you might want to try out are, Priceline.com and Travelocity.
ISEcard.com is another organization that provides discounts on travel,
accommodations, and entertainment for students.
Entertainment
Going to clubs, bars, movies and concerts can be expensive. Most
colleges offer tons of events for their students, it's just a matter
of finding out what they are. Check to see if the school you're going
to has a schedule of all the on-going events for the month. You'll be
surprised at how much there is to do, all for free!
Food
If you aren't eating the school's food, you're spending money out
of your own pocket to eat. It is a necessity for any college student
to have a mini-refrigerator and a microwave in his or her dorm room.
If you have that, you should definitely go grocery shopping to stock
up on goods. Ramen noodles are an excellent snack that cooks easily in
a microwave. Also, if your dorm is equipped with a full kitchen (check
in the basement), make use of it. Gather a group of your friends
together, plan a meal, get the ingredients, split the cost and cook it
up. You'd be surprised at how cheap cooking your own food is.
Books
This is the one thing that surprises all college students, the
price of textbooks. Your professor gives your class a list of about 5
books you need to buy. Later that night you go to the school bookstore
and find out that you need to spend $700! If you end up buying them
brand new, most schools have a buy back day near the end of the year
where they'll buy your used textbooks. If you don't have that money to
begin with, try checking out the used textbook section. You'll find
that the books there are in pretty good shape and might even have some
helpful notes taken by the previous owner. You could also take Tom
Green's advice and visit BigWords.com or one of the million bookstores
online |
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