Hey Veterans: Do Your Kids Know That Going To College Is Worth It Financially, But Paying For It Is A Heavy Burden?
I came from a household where my parents did not go to college. Due to this fact, we grew up in an environment where going to a university was not a clear expectation but something you could choose to do if you wanted to.
Luckily, I got to be part of a summer camp program that started to open my eyes to the importance of continuing my education after high school.
I really wanted to go to the University of Illinois after going on a visit with the summer camp and was lucky enough to be able to attend the school.
It was only long after I had graduated that I realized just what a huge difference that experience had made in the trajectory of my life.
My siblings who chose not to go to college seem to struggle way more than necessary in life.
However, it was not all roses for me. I struggled with the student loan I accumulated for many years after graduation.
I came across an awesome article (no longer available on StumbleUpon unfortunately) that talked about ways a student could get a jump on the college cost machine.
It most certainly would have been nice to have someone mention some of these things to me while I was still in high school, but to be honest, I am not sure I had my head properly screwed on at that time.
However, a parent can definitely use some of these methods of lowering the cost of a college education to coach their young person into a space that they will definitely appreciate once the fog of adolescence clears up.
One of the biggest ideas I took away from reading the article was the idea of trying to get some of your potential college course requirements out of the way while in high school.
For example, using AP level courses while in high school to offset the need to take those courses in college can literally save thousands of dollars.
I TOOK AP courses. No one informed me that I could have used those to shave a few requirements while at university. I literally slapped my forehead when I saw that tip and thought about the inefficiency of sitting through those courses in high school and not leveraging them for college.
The other tip in the article that I could have easily took advantage of was taking a few classes at the local community college to get some of the pre-requisites out of the way.
It’s funny because I distinctly remember helping my aunt with math homework from the local community college. I thought the work was ridiculously easy.
However, later when I had a full course load at college, I could have seriously used the break from needing to complete so many courses.
By the end of the four years I was completely burned out on classes. It would have nice to have been warned about this at an earlier point in life, but hey, things happen.
If you have other hints or tips that a parent should know while trying to get their young person prepared for a college experience with less debt let us know by commenting on our Facebook page.