“How I avoided students loans”, by Crystal, March 2011
Publié le 29/02/2024
Extrait du document
«
“How I avoided students loans”, by Crystal, March 2011
When people learn that I managed to avoid college loans, I’m often asked how that happened.
It
was a mixture of work, luck, and help.
Planning for College
For as long as I can remember, I knew I’d go to college.
It was a given.
I can’t remember my family
overtly pushing me that way, but my grandparents and parents went to college, so I was going to
go too.
My family is also open about money, so I always just seemed to know that college would be
expensive.
So, I started babysitting and pet-sitting when I was twelve years old so that I could save
for those magical four years of college education.
I also planned to get a “real” job as soon as I turned sixteen.
My plans changed, though, when we
moved overseas.
(…)
We moved back nine months before I was scheduled to start college, and I still had long-distance
courses that I needed to finish before I could graduate from high school.
(…) That is also when I
applied for my first “real” job — as a help-desk attendant for the 24-hour assistance desk in my
future dorm.
Putting the “Work” in Work-Study
Luckily, I received a few scholarships, including a very large Academic Achievement Award that
covered a big part of my actual class expenses.
But my parents covered my dorm room and food
for that first year.
I also worked at least 20 hours a week at the help desk and applied for other oncampus positions.
By my second year of college, I was engaged.
(…) I was still trying to pay my own way through
college, but I kept falling short about $1200....
»