With summer starting up, I thought I would share some advice on affording college during the summer. Summer is a time where college students can make or break their savings for college, and can either make affording college much easier or much harder. Follow these tips to ensure that you save as much money as possible for college during the summer.
First of all, students should take advantage of living at home with their parents while they still can. I have known many students that during their college summers, have decided to live in an apartment instead of at home. Unless you are doing an internship somewhere far from home (where you essentially need to pay for a place to live), you should take advantage of living for free at home while you still can. By doing so, over the summer you will likely save thousands of dollars towards affording college.
During the summer, college students should also avoid taking expensive vacations (if you will be the one paying for it). This can make affording college much harder, as a nice vacation can cost upwards of a thousand dollars. Instead, choose a cheaper alternative, like going on a road trip with some friends. It will probably be just as, if not more fun for you and you will save a ton of money for affording college.
If you are looking to finish college faster, the summer is a great way to do so and reduce the costs of college. By taking GE classes at a local community college, students will pay much less for classes, will get GE requirements waived at their normal school, and will no longer have to pay an arm and a leg to take them at the school they will return to in the fall.
In order to make affording college easier, getting a part time job during the summer is also a good idea for college students. Don’t feel any pressure to work full time (unless you feel so inclined to do so), but even a part time job could save up an extra thousand dollars or so to put towards college costs.
Lastly, summer is also a great time for college students to research scholarships and perhaps apply to some. As I have mentioned in many previous articles, scholarships are a great way for affording college. However, many college students are so busy during the academic year that they do not have time to seriously research and apply for good scholarships. With a three month long vacation, college students will now have plenty of time to look into scholarships that can help them in affording college.
This will vary by major, but summer is also a great time for college students to develop new skills that will look good on their resume in the future. For example, an engineering student could take the time to learn a drafting program (such as CAD), either on their own, or through a course offered at a local college. Having a skill like this on your resume will help you to land future internships and jobs, which will help you in paying for and affording college.
Jun 13, 2009
