Debt-free college grads: How do they do it?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by novadar, Sep 26, 2015.

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  1. novadar

    novadar Member

  2. sideman

    sideman Well Known Member

    My son got a free ride through UT-Dallas. All tuition paid for 4 years per scholarships and a stipend every semester which covered his books. Of course his living expenses were covered by me but he was able to graduate debt free. My daughter is a junior at UT-Austin. I prepaid her tuition through the Texas Tomorrow Fund (now Texas Guaranteed Tuition plan). It got a little dicey a few years ago when the state almost reneged on the fund. But it all got worked out and that's who/what is paying for her tuition now. Her living expenses are again paid by me and she should graduate debt free. This was the goal, and so far so good.
     
  3. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    It can be done. Granted, it depends on personal circumstances. Here are mine:
    AA - free, courtesy of California's bleeding taxpayers
    BS - 13k - transfer credits, grants and employer tuition-reimbursement
    MA - 3k - employer tuition-reimbursement
    MPA - 5k - transfer credits
    DBA - 11k - transfer credits, employer tuition-reimbursement & scholarship

    Then I married a woman who had 42k in student debt for a MA and JD, so I had to pay that off in full retail price. I accepted that cost up front, but that's not my normal mode of business. I made a financial exception for her to come into my life.

    Now I'm beginning an MA program in Theology (they require 55 total credits, though the website says 37). However, I"m entering the program with the stipulation that my end-cost will be 1/3rd of the 25k retail cost e.g. 66% off the retail tuition via employer tuition-reimbursement, scholarship, etc. Otherwise, I would not begin the program. If times or circumstances change, then I will not complete the program. Similarly, many people should not embark on a program (from the beginning) if they cannot afford it with their own personal out-of-pocket ability to pay.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2015
  4. curtisc83

    curtisc83 New Member

    AS= US Army
    BS= GI Bill
    MA= GI Bill and 9/11 GI Bill

    Zero money owed for school with 6 months left on my 9/11 GI Bill.
     
  5. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I did it the old fashioned way. College = student loans then bought a house, rolled my student loans into the refi then sold the house for a profit. Good-bye student debt.
     
  6. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

  7. lawrenceq

    lawrenceq Member

    My GI Bill paid for everything.
     
  8. back2thebooks

    back2thebooks New Member

    Kizmet, can you explain how you refinanced and rolled in your student loans? I remember someone else posting something similar and that puzzled me at that time. I'm just really curious as I had never heard of that before. Thanks!
     
  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I rolled in a credit card too. As I understand it, getting a mortgage or refinancing a mortgage is just borrowing money, like any other loan. In my case there was the amount still owed on the house but then I added the total of my student loans and the credit card making a larger amount than I had originally borrowed for the house. Checks were issues to pay off the loans and I began paying off the mortgage. Because the new interest rate was lower, my monthly payment stayed roughly the same despite the fact that the total amount financed was higher. Also, I had two fewer monthly payments to make so paying the bills hurt less every month. I flipped the house the next year, made a little profit and then bought another, smaller house, banking the extra money. It all happened when the mortgage lending officer asked me offhandedly if I wanted to add in any outstanding debt in the deal. Changed my life.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2015
  10. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    Air Force tuition assistance and my GI Bill kept me debt free.
     
  11. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I made some errors along the way that made it more expensive than it needed to be, but overall, my path was easy and hardly original. Eventually deciding to get my degree from one of The Big Three allowed me the flexibility to wait until the exact day where I had the money to fund my next step before paying for anything else.

    This is how I choose to go about my personal finance, in general. Although I understand the purpose and potential rewards of borrowing money on an investment, I prefer as much as possible to not buy things I don't already have the money for. It saves a lot in interest expense and is much less risky (no matter how solid your plan is for re-payment, you are still subject to the whim of unforseen circumstances).

    It helped that I was able to search for the least expensive way to gather each credit. Between AP and high school/college co-op courses, I started with 24 free credits. I got more free credits from FEMA courses (I don't remember exactly how many). Another 24 of my credits came from passing both CLEP Spanish and French at the highest level, a total cost of about $200, averaging to under $9 per credit.

    Not all of my credits were free or dirt cheap, but they all came at a much lower cost than I could have even gotten from the community college that I live in walking distance from.

    Yadda, yadda, yadda, I don't own a home or have a huge retirement account (yet), but I'm in my young 30's, paid for my college degree and my car outright and have absolutely no debt at all. Not too shabby, eh? :bigok:
     
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    If you'd run a credit check before deciding whether to ask her out, you could have avoided that sort of unpleasantness.
     
  13. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    LOL it all worked out. We are debt free and what's mine is hers with no strings attached. As a financially wise man once said, "I can afford to earn interest, but can't afford to pay it." However, interest rates are now near zero percent and some banks are charging fees just to retain money, thus creating negative interest rates. How are older retirees (with limited fixed incomes) supposed to survive on the new rules of voodoo economics? They planned their lives on the ability to earn decent interest rates, which have vanished and are now creeping into negative territory.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2015
  14. Paidagogos

    Paidagogos Member

    My debt-free course...

    Debt was always something I wanted to avoid, so I picked a college route that steered clear of it. Like others in here, I started out with a very affordable community college. Then, I transferred to a historically black college in NC that had very affordable tuition - about ~$1,500-$2,000 (just missed the time when it was free for white minority!). Because I went to CC, I only had to go there for four semesters, and I doubled up on credits my last semester to save money, as well. I think in grand total, I had about $8,000 debt when I finished my four-year degree in 2009, which I paid off shortly after graduating.

    Once, I became solvent again, I started my master's with WNMU, which ended up costing another ~$6,000-$7,000. I paid tuition as I went along, and by the time I completed the degree in 2013 it had already been paid for. All of the above was completed while working part-time at various jobs, and sometimes full-time. I certainly went the debt-free route, but it wasn't easy. And, it's not as easy to duplicate today, even just a few short years later, as tuition has nearly doubled at my first 4-year school, and has risen my grad school, as well.

    So much of the college debt system, and the exorbitant tuition prices, is predicated on the idea that students will take out lots of loans, and slowly pay them back, repeating the high interest along the way. I think if students would stop taking out these loans and pretending that they will one day pay off these loans with the paltry salaries that grads are getting nowadays, then the system would change. But, until then, we will see the stories of $100k loans, "I never though I would be a barista!", and grads struggling to make ends meet.

    When I tell friends that I am debt-free, I jokingly say it was only made possible by going to bargain basement colleges. This is half jest, and half truth. I think I went to good schools, but not ones that have a premier brand, like Duke, Notre-Dame, Harvard, etc. Truthfully, I know I would not have gotten into any of those fresh out of high school. I think more college students need to take the Brad Pitt Moneyball approach to their studies and paying for college. You know, pick the school that is good and affordable, and get basically the same result.
     
  15. suelaine

    suelaine Member

    I did it

    I started college at almost age 30. I probably would have went directly out of high school if I had realized that when you go to a state school in New York State and don't have much money, it can be paid for with the state and Federal grants you get.

    My Master's degree tuition was paid by my employer, a school district.

    I refused to even think of getting a Ph.D. until I had the money all saved up in advance for the program I considered. It worked out nicely because I started at the time the tuition was reasonable at NCU and I got a 10% discount for paying for the whole thing in advance, and also locked in the tuition rate if I had to take more courses than I anticipated. The whole thing with all materials and expenses was around $25K but I had it all saved up in advance, as I said.

    My oldest daughter did have some debt but I know now she has it all paid off. She went to a state school and then got grants and fellowships at Virginia Tech where she earned her Master's and Doctorate Degrees.

    My second child went to Princeton strictly on grants, with no loans or debt. In fact her tuition statements usually had a balance in her favor, with nothing owed to Princeton. She then got scholarships, fellowships or whatever they call them to continue on and get her Master's and now she is working on her Ph.D. She is a married adult and I am not sure they don't have any education loans or debt at this point, but I do think most of it is funded so far.
     
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  17. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Not shocked. This game has been played a LONGGGG LONGGGG time. Pell grant: $5500 - tuition $3300 = profit cash back in pocket $2200 What's not to love? you can do that for 6 years at the community college. There is no incentive to graduate.
     
  18. perrymk

    perrymk Member

    I know I've mentioned my situation in previous posts but since the topic has resurfaced, perhaps someone new would like to read it.

    I spent 3 years in the army and received the Army College Fund and VEAP, which I believe are now replaced with the new GI Bill. Same idea I suppose. I also saved money while in the army. I recall at my first duty station the guy I replaced wa selling his tv to get a bus ticket home. I couldn't grasp that as I figured I had free room and board so I would save for college or whatever. And I did.

    I was in the National Guard for my first year of college and also had a part time job. First as a security gurd at an apartment complex, then an on campus job which was much more convenient. Dad helped out but I ended up using his money mostly for luxuries (like a semester without a roommate and short trips).

    I received my last VA check my first semester in graduate school. I received a teaching assitantship in grad school so tuition was waived and I received a stipend.

    I finished in 1993 with an MS in chemistry and about $200 left to my name.


    As an aside, I recently prepared my will. As I am single without children I talked to the attorney about setting up a scholarship. He said that a private scholarship can have whatever stipulations I want. Right now my will is set up to take care of my mom, but assuming she goes before I do I plan to set up a scholarship, or maybe I will just write a check before then. It may only be enough for handful of students, but those students will walk away from college debt free. My thought is giving one 18 year old a pile of money could ruin their work ethic and possibly their life, but setting several young people up to graduate debt free would give them a great head start and might have a very positive impact on several lives.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 28, 2015
  19. suelaine

    suelaine Member

    I have had online students who definitely counted on this as income. One of them was notoriously blatant about it, and was upset she was not passing because it could impact her financial aid and she and her husband were depending on it for living expenses!
     
  20. Graves

    Graves Member

    Junior college - Scholarship (covered 16 grand in tuition and fees)
    Military degrees - Two Associate of Applied Science degrees (mainly transfer credits)
    Bachelor's degree - A combination of exams for credit (ECEs, CLEPs, and DSSTs), my previous degrees, and a few classes at the end.
    Master's degree - AMU has very cheap graduate school tuition. I used tuition assistance for the first four classes (which covered 3/4 of each class), and I paid for the rest with deployment money. I had very little money saved after the deployment because of this (and I took out a personal loan for my last class), but I've never had student debt. I still have my G.I. Bill as well.
     

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