Common College Expenses

Posted by Lindsey Connell

An important thought for many high school graduates is how much money they will need for their first year at college. Although this amount varies from person to person, the expenses are generally the same. Some major expenses to consider are who will pay for gas if the child has a car or who will pay for their phone bill. It is also to be expected that expenses will be more at the beginning of the school year and at the beginning of the college experience. Other costs are book fee which can be extremely expensive as well as parking passes. Besides this, students may need money for gifts for friends, for tolls or other expenses during traveling, and new clothes or essential hygienic products. Food is another major expense because not only do students go out to eat every now and then, they also have to pay for meal plans or pay for buying their own food from the grocery store. Although most students don’t turn 21 until their junior or senior year, many college students of all ages spend a significant amount of money going to parties or the bars. Although small purchases such as buying an outfit or movie ticket here or there eventually add up and can create financial issues if not budgeted for correctly.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-200558578.html
http://college.lovetoknow.com/Amount_of_Spending_Money_a_College_Student_Needs
http://www.collegeanswerguy.com/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=134:spending-money&catid=35:money&Itemid=45

Tips For Paying For College

Posted by: Janielle Viggiano

Paying for college could potentially not only put your parents in debt but also yourself if you’re the one bearing the loans. The first thing you need to do is to start planning early! Begin organizing and planning college visits either before or by your junior year of high school, you should have a general idea of the schools you will be applying to. After narrowing down your choices you need to figure out how much it will cost you. Use the calculator from Sallie Mae to estimate your cost. Start saving small amounts over a long period of time early on.

There are also other options to think about when paying for college. The first being: accelerate your degree. Accelerated classes can cram a semesters worth of classes into a six to eight week class, which can help you to move up your graduation date. Second, be a transfer student. In many cases the credits taken at a less expensive school can be transferred and applied to a more elite and expensive school. Third, go where you’re wanted. There’s always a school out there that is dying to have you as a student. Fourth, choose a tuition free school. Tuition free schools only require that you work 10 – 15 hours a week on campus and in jobs related to their majors. Fifth, get a sponsor. Federal loans are the best way to borrow money for school. Sixth, lock in tuition. Some colleges offer a locked in tuition, so that you will pay the same rate for all four years. Seventh, work off debt with community service. According to Bankrate, “Recent college grads can cancel part or all of their federal-education debt by working in public-service jobs -- lower-paying professional jobs that serve low-income communities -- or by volunteering (2009).”

There are also four rules of paying for college in a recession which include:

1. Grades matter more than ever- According to US News, “The better the student, the more college options the student will have and the more likely it is the student will receive scholarships or win admission to a low-cost school (2009).”
2. Early birds will get more scholarship worms
3. Students should apply to at least a couple affordable schools
4. Students should apply to at least a couple generous schools- Some of the most expensive schools by sticker price also give out huge scholarships and can actually be cheaper, in the long run, than public schools for many students.

Sources:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/mym/college/college.htm

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cheap/20030528a1.asp

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-cash-101/2008/12/15/the-4-rules-of-paying-for-college-in-a-recession.html

Graduate Degrees With the Best Futures

By Lingxiao


In a tough job market, it makes sense to look for ways to set yourself apart from the competition. This year, 26 percent of graduating seniors headed for a graduate or professional degree, up from 24 percent last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a professional association. Add to those ranks people who are working but want to go back to school -- or who are simply not working and are applying to school as a back up -- and enrollment swells even more.
In this blog, I will be sharing some great information for Business related industry job seekers. Employment of executives expected to show little or no change between 2006 and 2016; employment of management analysts expected to grow more than 21 percent between 2006 and 2016. Statistically, graduates of MBA programs do earn more than those without the degree, Haefner says. But that observation "doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get, dollar for dollar, in your salary what you paid in tuition," she says. Prospective students interested in an MBA should keep in mind that career opportunities, particularly in finance, are changing rapidly, making it all the more important to do careful research, including informational interviews, Sims says. "An MBA might not have the same meaning in three to five years that it had in the past 10," she says. Over the last few years, workers with MBAs have found opportunity in a greater variety of fields than they typically did in the past, says Haefner. And among the class of 2009, more students in MBA programs had found jobs before graduation than in other programs, according to research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/108203/graduate-degrees-with-the-best-futures?mod=edu-collegeprep
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/107863/mba-pay-riches-for-some-not-all?mod=edu-continuing_education

Tuition Costs Increase Despite Sour Economy

Posted By Christopher Johanning


The College Board’s latest study on college tuition shows that the price for college has risen by 6.5% — right in the teeth of the recession. But all is not lost. For students and families, there are some more pleasant figures in the study, too.
BankingMyWay will open this — the week before Thanksgiving break for collegians — with a look at college prices going into 2010.
The Big Kahuna of college cost barometers is the College Board’s annual tuition report. This year, the study says that the average price for four-year public colleges climbed $29 on a year-to-year basis to $7,020. Tuitions at private four-year colleges rose 4.4% for 2008-2009 bringing the average yearly cost to $26,273, the College Board says

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10 Secrets to Raising More Than $15,000 for College

Posted by Nick Porcell

Grandparents are pitching in. Students are working more, and eating less. Parents are taking out more and bigger federal loans.

As the economy has declined and college costs have risen, families have buckled down and become more resourceful to pay for college.

They have been so successful at funding tuition that college enrollment is up dramatically. A record 40 percent (or 11.5 million) of 18- to 24-year-olds are taking at least one college course this year. Add in all the adults returning to school because of the lousy job market, and the total number of college students is likely to exceed 19 million this year.

How are more students affording tuition even though many colleges' prices are at record highs and many scholarship programs, private lenders, and family savings accounts have been wiped out?

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Paying for College 101

By Jorden Meltz

The past year and a half has affected the finances of everyone and the impact it had on colleges was no different. Creditors have begun to downgrade some Universities debt and now nearly one in every three private universities in planning for a decrease in tuition for the next year. This comes after the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act was passed in September, which will now eliminate college and universities need to rely on private sources for student loans and instead the loans will now come directly from the government. In response, Bank of America has suspended its federally-backed student loan program, as the U.S. prepares to phase out the Federal Family Education Loan Program. The new act will help to further ensure that families in need of loans to pay for college will have access to them through this federally backed program. The act comes as no surprise as the past year has seen both a decline in private sources making themselves available to give loans and a heavier reliance upon federal loans. Although students will not receive better interest rates on the loan, the act helps to make sure their is a larger pool of money to make loans with and that a greater number of people will have assistance in paying for their education if they need it.

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College loans could contribute to tuition hikes

By Jeremy Davis

Posted by Leah Gorham

It’s safe to say the hardest part to stomach about college is the tuition fees.

In order to combat the rising tuition rates, students engage in a staple ritual of college life: obtaining student loans.

Without them, most of us wouldn’t be able pursue a college career or afford the outrageous tuition. But most of us never thought one major culprit contributing to rising college costs may actually be the loans themselves, government-guaranteed student loans in particular.

College tuition increases all the time, and as we know, UC is no different, with a possible increase in tuition for the 2010-11 school year.

As it stands now, yearly tuition rates at UC for the 2009-10 academic years are currently $9,399 for in-state undergraduates and $12,723 for in-state graduates. Only a decade ago, yearly tuition rates were $4,998 for in-state undergraduates and about $5,880 for in-state graduates for the 1999-2000 academic year. Tuition has nearly doubled in 10 years; that’s a painful and significant difference.

So the more tuition goes up, the more loans students take out, which in turn will contribute to future increases, keeping the cycle going.

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College Tuition: Going for Broke

Posted by Jorden Meltz

Cash-strapped families were dealt another blow this fall as tuition at public and private colleges for the 2009-10 academic year continued to outpace inflation, the College Board said in a report released on Oct. 20.

This year's College Board report shows average increases of 6.5% for public in-state tuition and 4.4% for private colleges. The consumer price index declined 2.1% between July 2008 and 2009, meaning that inflation-adjusted increases in prices this year are significantly larger than current dollar increases, the College Board says. At the same time, family net income has barely budged over the past decade, says Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst with the College Board.

The spiraling cost of higher education comes at a time when institutions are reeling from the aftershocks of shrinking state aid, battered endowments, and significant budgetary pressures. Schools managed to temper some of these increases by doling out more institutional aid and grants to students, a move that made the sticker price less painful for the 18.5 million students projected to attend college this year. Last year, about two-thirds of full-time undergraduates received grants, with students receiving on average $5,041 in grant aid, up from $4,656 the year before, the report says.

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Covering college-tuition loans -- somebody give me some credit!

Posted by Nick Porcell

With two daughters in college, tuition loan repayments were stacking up, and my wife and I felt the weight of multiple monthly payments kicking in. We began to realize what a job it was to keep track of all the loans, and figured there had to be a better way.

Remembering we'd gotten good advice from the credit union on retirement accounts and mortgage refinancing, and eager to avoid any lender that smelled like last year's banking industry meltdown, we called our adviser to set up a new strategy for squeezing tuition payments into the family budget.


The good news came quickly. "Call the loan office in the morning," our adviser said. He agreed that using the equity we'd built up in our home to pay tuition bills would liberate us from the structured federal loan programs. If things went as expected, it would allow us to repay on our own terms, at 3.99 percent (I know!), and 'defer' if we needed to, by making only minimum payments in tight months.

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The Price of Education

By Jorden Meltz

At a time when figuring out how to more efficiently save money and follow a budget have become a priority for a majority of the country, the one thing that has become more difficult to plan for is college. This past year tuition and fees at public universities increased by 6.5% and at private universities increased by 4.4%. This comes at a time when many families have seen their college savings decrease in value and a continued growth of number of students applying to college. According to the College Board at least fifty-eight private colleges and universities charge at least $50,000 a year for tuition, room and board, and fees. Although the 2% decrease in the consumer price index has brought relief to many, for those in the college planning stages these growth rates will be very difficult to account for. With Healthcare reform at the forefront of many political discussion and legislation, it seems that discussion about how to make college more affordable if these tuition rates continue cannot be too far away.

College President Salaries Continued to Climb

Some salaries increased by 15 percent before the economic crunch hit
By Kim Clark

In the year before the economy collapsed, the paychecks of private college presidents continued to climb, according to a new analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The typical president of a private college got a raise of more than $26,000, or 6.5 percent, to bring the total pay package up to $358,746. Pay was higher and rose even faster at major private research universities: The median pay of $627,750 at those institutions represented a one-year jump of 15.5 percent. In addition, the Chronicle found that 85 of the 419 private colleges surveyed were paying at least one former employee more than $200,000.

Chronicle researchers noted that the numbers were for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008—the most recent data available—and the salary inflation might have been reined in since the recession began. For example, many university presidents have accepted pay cuts or reduced bonuses in the past year.

News of the rising costs of administrators comes as colleges continue to raise their tuition faster than inflation. The College Board reported last month that the average private university has raised tuition by almost $4,000 since 2006 to $26,273, 10 percentage points faster than inflation.

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Higher higher ed

Posted by Jorden Meltz

CONSUMER PRICES fell 2.1 percent between July 2008 and July 2009, but college tuition kept going up. Students entering public four-year institutions this fall confront published tuition rates more than 6 percent higher than they were a year ago. Private colleges and universities ticked up 4.4 percent. To be sure, these figures apply to the "sticker price" of college only: grants and loans (many of them subsidized) cover much of the tab. But the contrast between the country's belt-tightening and higher ed's price hikes is striking nonetheless.

The recession itself is a major cause. The downturn forced state governments to slash support for the public systems that more than 70 percent of undergraduates attend; it also shrank the endowments of private institutions. Congress and the Obama administration supplied aid to the states in the stimulus bill, plus $30.8 billion in extra tax credits and Pell grants for students. But this only partially mitigated the impact.

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