On the Bargain Express
The route to a college degree may pass through two-year schools, ROTC, or Mom's kitchen
Grueling. To be sure, students should have more than money on their minds if they plan to make it through the program. While ROTC pays almost all of James Bagg's $22,977 tuition at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, the fifth-year senior faces grueling early-morning workouts, one military science class each semester, and weekends of learning how to fire rifles and machine guns. "You save a lot of money. That's a no-brainer," he says. "But my main goal is to be an officer in the Marines. That is what keeps you going every morning."
Paying for college isn't just a matter of cutting costs, however, and some students take time off from school and work to build up their education savings. "Taking a year off can be a real great way to build maturity," says Reecy Aresty, author of Getting Into College and Paying for It. But students who earn big money need to be careful because their income can cut the amount of financial aid they receive. Under the federal aid formula, students making more than $2,550 outside of a work-study job this year lose about 50 cents in loans and scholarships for every dollar that they earn.
As for Flores, she graduated from USC last year, landed a job with a public-relations firm, and still lives at home. "It took me a while to get adjusted to living with my parents," she says. "It makes it hard to meet up with your friends and make plans." But now that she's earning her own paycheck, she enjoys the extra cash that living at home provides even more. Plus, she says, "there's always a good dinner on the table and food in the fridge."
TIP
Living at home instead of in a dorm or campus apartment may be socially awkward for a student, but it's a great way to cut up to $10,000 a year from your total college costs.
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