Financing a college education is tricky business. The average price tag for a four-year, in-state college degree is running around $50,000. And it’s increasing an average of 7.2% per year. That’s a steep hill to conquer, but FinancialAidFinder offers students and parents several strategies to help make college more affordable.
Use the links to the right to navigate through our tips on how to make your college education more affordable, by:
- Maximizing your student aid award
- Finding outside sources to help fund your education
- Reducing your college costs, and
- Being smart about student loans.
- If you are already in the middle of the financial aid application process, be sure to visit our article on how to get a larger financial aid package for tons of tips on how to maximize your award.
- What happens if you got the maximum financial aid award from your school, but it’s still not enough to cover your costs of attendance? Don’t panic: Check out our article on how to Increase Your Income. Sure, you could get a second job (and you might still need to), but our strategies are focused on finding other sources to help you fund your college education — from special grants and scholarships to military allowances.
- Another important way to make college more affordable is to reduce the cost of attending. FinancialAidFinder offers suggestions that anyone can use to reduce the cost of college — from taking AP classes in high school, to attending community college for a year or two, to reducing your class load and working part time.
- The goal of all of the strategies above is to help you get through college debt-free. But for some of you, student loans may be unavoidable. If you find yourself in that situation, be sure you read our article on how to Reduce Your Debt to learn about the smart way to sign on for student loans.