“How I avoided students loans”, by Crystal, March 2011

« “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.... »