A college education is often seen as a requirement for success in the United States. But tuition rates have continued to skyrocket every year as jobs that only require a high school education plummet. Many people worry day and night about how they will eventually pay for their education and the education of their children, but policymakers, companies, and schools have found a number of possible solutions. People now have options for potentially defraying or even eliminating the eventual cost of a college education., Scholarships and loan repayment, Millions of Americans have been burdened by massive amounts of student loan debt in recent years. These individuals have placed an immense amount of pressure on colleges and government leaders to more adequately fund college educations. As a result, there are now more options for paying for even traditional college than in years past. Teenagers and adults looking to pay for college can take advantage of financial aid from the state. They can look at money offered by public schools and private schools. Individuals can turn towards government, business, and nonprofit grants and scholarships. , Even if they need to take out a loan to pay for college, there are many employers who will help them pay off that loan. Perhaps the most popular program for student debt forgiveness is the public service program. This program allows an individual who works for the government or another service job to pay off a portion of their loans every year for a set period of time. Once that time period is over, the rest of the loan debt is forgiven. These programs can help avoid horror stories such as the individuals who are stuck in tens of thousands of dollars in debt for decades., Community college, Community college has been a common choice for many people looking to adequately fund an education. There are community colleges serving the vast majority of counties in the country. These colleges are often much more affordable than their public and private counterparts. Some municipalities and states are making an effort to directly support students who try to attend community college. There are a number of financial benefits to these colleges. , First, Adrian Rubin notes that they are able to provide the training needed for a wide variety of jobs. Trade jobs and health care positions often only require the associates’ degree that community college training provides. In addition, they are able to lead to a four-year degree being much cheaper. Community college classes allow an individual to meet all of their prerequisites. They can arrive at a four-year institution and only need to work/pay for two years of school. Community college can also prepare a student for the eventual rigors of college. It can be an affordable, low-stress way of figuring out whether college is right for a particular individual., What to do, Any individual looking to go to college should set out their goals and their priorities. They should decide what they might be good at and how comfortable they are in a challenging school environment. Then, they should look at their options and form a plan for college. They need to determine whether or not they want to go to a community college. There is always the possibility that they can go to a community college for two years and then transfer to a four-year institution. If they want to start with a four-year institution, Adrian Rubin suggests that they need to balance their needs and wants with the tuition that the schools charge. Schools with massive tuition levels should be considered only if they make financial sense and may lead to a particularly lucrative career., Conclusion, College is often the best four years of an individual’s life. They should try to obtain a college degree whenever possible. However, that college degree has to make sense over the long-term. A few extra decisions made at the beginning of the college-decision process could lead to savings of thousands of dollars over the years and even decades after graduation.
