POLL: How did you deal with the high cost of 'higher' education?

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I'm sorry, but that is daylight robbery!

 

I'm on a student loan of just over £4000 a yar. As I'm in Wales, my tuition is only £1200 this year, but goes up to £3000 next year, when my loan will go up to. I have £3000 a year to live on. My parents and grandparents paid my Accomodation, which is in a student village owned and maintained by the uni just beside the campus.

I'm not too good at budgeting, so I need a job to complement my loan...

 

Free around here as long as you pass the N chev mentioned earlier. I'm personally quite lucky in this department since I get in easier with the Swedish quotas. However I haven't got a place to study yet mostly because I wanted to deal with the army before moving on. I have a good amount of savings for living when I study but eventually I might consider working for some extra cash aside studying. The studying subsidies aren't exactly as large as many would want. Like most Finns I try to avoid loans as long as possible, I think the depression came with a big load of mistrust towards taking loands around here, especially since the financial security of a student is not as certain as it used to be.

@chev Bah! The military service is good for you! I personally am very satsfied and glad that I did it. A whole bunch of good and bad unforgettable memories and an expirience I won't easily forget. I personally think the army as in a way part of the mandatory educational programme. It teaches how to deal in extreme circumstances under extreme stress and is a good way to test your psychological and physical limits.

Oh and Kit, we do pay for the free education with very high taxes once we do get work. Nothing preventing you from sucking the education out of the government first and then moving away though.

 

I didn't really, I just went straight into work.

 

Was lucky enough to go through whilst Uni's were still free (tuition wise) and student grants were available.
Grants were means tested on parents salary, with mortgage taken into account. As my parents had just split up, and my father has just got a new mortgage, we based it on him, so I almost got the full grant. The University had kindly provided average spending requirements, so my parents stumped up the difference. It pretty much worked out that the grant covered accomodation, and the folks covered food and travel.
I then took summer jobs to pay for booze, going out etc.

 

I went to the state university where my family was living, so I got a great education for a great price - back in 1985 dollars, of course. I honestly don't know what tuition, etc., there is now, and I'm afraid to look!

Dad had given my sister and I each the same choice - he'd pay for either a college education (with a tuition cap, and we were expected to earn our spending money with a summer job), or for a wedding. I took the bachelor's degree and ran.

Of course, when I eventually DID get married, Mom kicked in a nice chunk of the wedding expenses.

 

To get my bachelor's and master's degrees cost me in total around $35,000 CDN in tuition - which would ba around $30,000 USD. I received around $12,000 in academic scholarships and I paid the rest myself by working.

I was in a co-op program during my bachelor's degree meaning that we had work terms for which the University would assist us in finding jobs in our chosen field. I earned pretty good money from that. When I finished school not only was I debt free but I actually ended up with savings of around $30,000 CDN.

 

The cost of education in the U.S. is ridiculous. The better colleges and universities can easily cost you more than $30,000 USD per year. I'd guess the average cost of a year at college is somewhere around $20,000 USD per year. That's not taking into account graduate programs - doctor and lawyers typically pay well over $30,000 per year for their graduate degrees. So unless you are fotunate enough to receive a scholarship, or your parents are independently wealthy, you're practically guaranteed to come out with a student loan.

I have a 4 year undergraduate degree and a master's degree. I completed the undergraduate degree back in 1997, and the graduate degree in 2002. Total cost for both degrees was approximately $120,000 USD. I got lucky and got a scholarship for my graduate degree, and paid for my undergraduate degree via loans, my parents, and working to contribute as much as I could. I've been done with my undergraduate degree for almost 10 years now, have been paying on it regularly, and I still owe about $10,000 on it. I also lived at home with my parents to save money. I certainly couldn't afford rent on top of everything else.

A lot of people cannot believe how much it costs to go to a college or university in the U.S. I cannot believe how little it costs in some countries. In many places, you can get your entire education for what it costs us to get one year, and in some places you pay nothing at all! There are a few people who go to school for free in the U.S. based on an academic or athletic scholarship - but we're talking about the top 1% of academically gifted people and the top 1% of athletically gifted people.

EDIT: And still owing $10,000 on your loans when you're in your 30s is considered pretty good in the U.S. My brother is a doctor, and he come out of school owing nearly $200,000 USD.

[ December 07, 2006, 19:44: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

What is really scary about that is that, as was discussed in the money thread, you need somewhere in the ballpark of $1.5 million in savings by the time you retire. If you are taking well into your thirties to pay down the huge student debt that really cuts into the time that you have to accumulate the savings for retirement.

[ December 07, 2006, 18:10: Message edited by: JSBB ]

 

Holy moly, I thought student costs were ridiculous in the UK!

Taking a full degree in the US would surely leave you broke for years and years? Surely it would be cheaper to live somewhere in Europe and take your higher education there, then go back?

I heard that in Sweden the government fund higher education, so that all can have the same opportunities. I'm not sure how true that is as I've seen heard it confirmed anywhere.

I think I would welcome the idea of folding the NHS and instead using the tax to allow less privileged people to achieve good degrees.

EDIT - Sorry, I said Sweden up there and I meant Finland. Easily mixed up though, eh guys? (chuckle)

[ December 07, 2006, 18:55: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

 

Whoa, after reading the posts in this thread, my plans of getting an education abroad are pretty much gone. Even though an education of a higher type is not free over here in Sweden, it is certainly much less expensive compared to, say, the US.

The problem is I have yet to find something that I am really interested of to study. I could do economics, since that's what my "major" is right now, but I don't really find it that fun.

 

Well, it's not necessarily a bad investment. I read an article about a year ago, which was talking precisely about whether or not it was worth it to invest in a higher education. As it turns out the average person with a college/university education makes on average of $1.5 million USD more than the same person without a college/university education over the course of their life. So from that perspective, it's not as bad. You'll be strapped more financially early on in life, but in the end, you make it all back plus a lot more than if you had done something that didn't require you to get a degree.

 

About to graduate, in four or five months, and the total cost of the master's papers will be around 15.000 €. Even though the education is free, you have to live too, since the government funds meant for supporting the livelyhood of students are so low (net ~100 € month after rent).

So if any of you want to hire me, now would be the time.

 

When I go to university next year its going to cost me £3,000 (GBP) a year, for 3 years so alltogether thats around $17,000-18,000 (USD). My living costs will be mostly payed for by the government as coming from a single parent family I'm eligible for a grant of £2,700 a year (about $5,500). My fee's dont seem that bad compare to some of yours. Anything over $50,000 seems absolutely crazy to me, even if you get a very good job with your degree I wouldn't fancy being $50,000 in debt.

 

Well, daddy and step-mommy work at the local colleges (daddy on faculty, step-mommy on staff), so dear child AMaster doesn't have to pay any tuition.

Which means it costs me $3k a semester for fees and food + another $3k for housing.

Small loans + part-time job = how I pay $12k/year.

 

A high monthly payment plan. I have years to go to pay off my loans. One of the reaseons I ahve three jobs! The other three reasons are daughters 1,2, and 3, and they take the bigger chunk.

 

For undergraduate in New Zealand at the moment, it's costing me about NZ$4000 a year. For a basic BA, that'll add to about $12,000, of which I can get all the fees paid for from an interest free loan (as long as I stay int he country 'til it's paid off) from the government.

As my parents earn over 60K per year, the government doesn't offer me any allowance, which it offers many people, but I can get a living expense loan of $150 per week. Living this year cost me around NZ$8,000, but then I'm in one of the more costly areas to live in, university wise. As the living expenses loan thing doesn't cover the full living costs around here (even if you do go for the cheapest options, which I'm not), so that so far has been partly paid for by a scholar ship, and now that that has run out, by working part time.

 

In Australia (Queensland, at least) the government pays for you until you've finished uni and are making decent money - they then take small amounts out of your pay until it's payed off.

Sounds like a good system to me - and America's sounds extra ****ed up.

 

Again, Aldeth and I agree on something.

Why don't more American kids go overseas for their degrees then? Plenty of Asian kids come to NZ for their degrees. It would be ridiculously cheaper, and you'd get an overseas experience at the same time!

 

I live in Denmark its paid through the taxes and the state pays roughly 2/3 of my expenses. so i work a bit to support my living. going for a master in some form of archeology (currently greek/roman)