On the Bargain Express
The route to a college degree may pass through two-year schools, ROTC, or Mom's kitchen
Vanessa Flores always wanted to attend the University of Southern California. She grew up near the school in Los Angeles, and her mother worked at the university as a contracts manager. But when USC offered Flores admission, her mother and father balked at the nearly $10,000 in room and board costs. So Flores struck a deal with her folks: She would live on campus her freshman and sophomore years and then stay at home and commute the following two years. "It was tough living with my parents," she says. "You can't just roll out of bed and go right to class. You have to get in your car and drive." Yet, she adds, "I saved anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000."
As the price of a college degree soars-tuition at four-year, public universities shot up 7 percent on average last year-students are increasingly considering less expensive alternatives to the traditional college experience, including attending a community college, living at home, or joining the military. While such strategies can cut college costs in half, experts warn that they can backfire. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students who enroll in two-year colleges or carve out time to work before enrolling in school end up taking longer to get their degrees-and are more likely to drop out. "There are a lot of ways to cut down on costs," says CollegeMoney.com financial planner KC Dempster. "But parents need to take the time-and students need to take the time-to evaluate them. They aren't right for everyone."
Community college has become one of the most attractive options for students who want a low-cost, four-year degree. The schools are inexpensive-average annual tuition is $2,191-and they can serve as a springboard to four-year universities. After attending Hostos Community College in New York City for five semesters, Folashad Kornegay transferred this year to New York University. "I always knew I would go to a four-year school," she says. "Community college is a great place to start out. It's cheap, and there are a lot of opportunities to learn."
But making the leap from a two-year school to a four-year institution isn't always easy. Credits earned at a community college might not all transfer, and university hopefuls have to perform well academically to get an offer of admission. To make her application attractive to NYU, Kornegay enrolled in a rigorous set of liberal arts courses, participated in various extracurriculars, and maintained a 3.6 grade-point average. When considering a community college, students should be sure to ask about transfer rates. While some two-year schools send only 5 percent of their students on to four-year colleges, others transfer over 30 percent. In recent years, some states like Florida and Pennsylvania have eased the transfer process by guaranteeing community college graduates a spot at one of the states' four-year universities.
Other students have found the Reserve Officers Training Corps a successful way to pay for college. The Army, Air Force, and Navy ROTC train students to be military officers while they earn their degrees. About half of all cadets receive scholarships, which vary in size by school and armed service division, and all juniors and seniors receive tax-free stipends of several hundred dollars for living expenses. Students who win ROTC scholarships can quit after freshman year and owe nothing. But anyone who leaves during sophomore year or later must pay back the balance to Uncle Sam.
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.
This story appears in the September 18, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.