Beating the system is the name of the game. Unfortunately, the system beat me as much as I beat it. The following is a brief narrative of the thought process behind my decision to attend Auburn University and how I made it work with no money. Hopefully someone can learn from my experience.
At the tail end of high school, I hadn’t quite decided what to do with my life. I applied for Auburn for the sole purpose of seeing whether or not they’d let me in. Never expecting to actually go to college, I always thought it was simply so expensive that it was not even an option. Really wish someone had explained to me what scholarships were and that you could just score high enough on the ACT and the school would pay for it.
Not long after, I received an acceptance letter from Auburn University. This was kind of surprising to me. Just for fun, I filled out the FAFSA. The math told me that the government would loan me just enough money, that if I worked, I could attend. “Hold onto your butts, we’re getting the hell out of Enterprise,” I told myself. A few months later, my best friend from high school and I went halves on a mobile home in Auburn to live in while we attended. I emptied my life savings from working during high school and off we went.
A good friend explained credit scores to me on a very basic level, so I decided to get a credit card. Building credit was passive in the background, never spending more than I paid off from month to month. Three years later, I had a pretty good credit score. This allowed me to get more than the minimal government student loans on my own, without a cosigner.
Once again, the additional loans were a good a thing as a bad a thing. On one hand, they exponentially increased the amount of loans I withdrew my last few years. On the other hand, they allowed me not to work full time while in school. The first three years of school were hell. Working full time while taking full time classes drove me insane and drove my GPA into the ground. Fortunately, right at the time my credit score started to come around, I was also able to get a co-op job (internship). With the co-op program, I was able to alternate work and school per semester. Without this, I’m not sure I would have been able to complete my degree.
The last three years of my 6.5 years at Auburn were much more enjoyable, this was also where I accrued the most debt. With the private loans through Sallie Mae, I took out slightly more than I needed. Saving the excess that I didn’t spend gave me a solid down payment on a house. Without that, there’s no telling how long I would have been saving (which was impossible to save hardly anything with my student loan payment).
Anyhow, that’s one example of attending college and completing a degree from nothing. “Anyone can do it.” Not saying it’s the best way, but it is a way. The following steps are a summary of the process:
- Work since you’re old enough and save during highschool. (yes this can be argued not everyone CAN but…)
- Apply for whichever school (gotta do well enough to get in, but community colleges are a cheaper/better option to start anyways).
- Fill out the FAFSA and get the minimal govt loans they give everyone.
- Work your ass off while building credit.
- Take out additional loans and get a paid co-op/internship.
- Don’t spend the small excess you’ve taken out.
- Get a job.
- Buy a house.
- Pay of loans eternally, but all the bills are paid.
- Write a blog post about it.