How Did You Pay for College?

[sniperruff]

subsidized stafford for $14k (although i don't really need that much) and about $7k a year of pall and TAP (from new york state) got me through the past 4 years...

after i graduated i started working within 2 months and i saved EVERY PENNY (lucky that i don't live by myself)... borrowed a small amount from my mom, then poof all $14k went back to citibank before they want to charge me interest =)

 

[kyparrish]

in order of most to least...

loans
scholarships
work (11.82 an hour was damn good money in college!)
parents
small trust fund left by grandfather (paid for first year's tuition)

 

[LtPage1]

friend of my friends brother (so you can decide for yourself if its true) pays for his college by playing poker. supposedly he plays on professional circuits, and makes ~$50k a year.

 

[imported_earthslash]

Working and paying for it out of my own pocket

 

[hdeck]

financial aid + loans

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
Parents and ebay

I'm kind of like that, too, but with some student loans. 🙂

 

[clicknext]

Wow, how do people here get so many scholarships? I'm currently in my last year of HS and looking for scholarships, but it's very difficult to find scholarships that I'm directly qualified for, and I imagine the general academic and leadership scholarships are extremely hard to get, but I applied for a few anyway.

 

[elbosco]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: elbosco
full tuition waiver + annual stipend to pay for books = no cost for me, unless I choose to transfer to another school

How did you get that?

I simply turned in my applications, albeit 2 weeks after the deadlines, and both ASU and U of A gave me a full tuition waiver + $1000 a year, which covers the cost of books.

I'm sure the 4.3 GPA, SAT scores, and class ranking had something to do with it as well.

 

[Orsorum]

I've had a scholarship for most of my four years, but I lost it for three quarters and went three summers, which my parents helped pay.

 

[SuRgEoN]

90% paid for by the military, other 10% was on a wrestling scholarship. However, Im not getting off because Im paying my wife's loans back from before we got married.

 

[ajayjuneja]

Originally posted by: clicknext
Wow, how do people here get so many scholarships? I'm currently in my last year of HS and looking for scholarships, but it's very difficult to find scholarships that I'm directly qualified for, and I imagine the general academic and leadership scholarships are extremely hard to get, but I applied for a few anyway.

I played the game of bargaining with the schools i got into. I applied to:

1. University of Pennsylvania (got in, no money).
2. University of Virginia (got rejected, no surprise since I half-assed their essays).
3. Penn State (got in, no money, but hey, it's a state school, so it's cheap since I'm from PA).
4. George Washington University (got in, got $8000 merit scholarship).
5. Case Western Reserve (got waitlisted, then got in... no money. I half assed their essays too).
6. Carnegie Mellon Univ. (got in, got no money).

I wanted to do some sort of engineering or Computer Science, wasn't sure which at the time. Since CMU (Carnegie Mellon) was good at both, I really really wanted to go there. But no money would have made it quite pricey. While visiting CMU, we went to the admissions director, showed him the merit scholarship from GWU and they matched it. So, that sealed the deal.

I have since graduated from CMU in Comp. Sci., about $15K in loans to pay back now.

 

[aplefka]

Haven't gone yet. After seeing how things are working out with my older sister though, I'm willing to bet I'll get stuck with the entire bill, and by the time my little sister gets there, she won't have to pay for any of it just like my older sister. Hopefully I can get some scholarships/grants/free money for college.

 

[datalink7]

Student Loans, and personal money.

My parents are poor.

 

[b0mbrman]

work, loans, scholarships (in that order)

 

[Kroze]

where's prostitution?

 

[Gnurb]

Originally posted by: Aimster
When you guys applied for loan I'm assuming you had no credit. Did you get your parents to cosign?

My grandfather cosigned for my loans because my Mom has worse credit then me..

 

[dr150]

college: scholarship (50%), loans (50%), parents (1o%)

grad school: $90k loans, small scholarship, meager savings

 

[dr150]

Originally posted by: ajayjuneja

Originally posted by: clicknext
Wow, how do people here get so many scholarships? I'm currently in my last year of HS and looking for scholarships, but it's very difficult to find scholarships that I'm directly qualified for, and I imagine the general academic and leadership scholarships are extremely hard to get, but I applied for a few anyway.

I played the game of bargaining with the schools i got into. I applied to:

1. University of Pennsylvania (got in, no money).
2. University of Virginia (got rejected, no surprise since I half-assed their essays).
3. Penn State (got in, no money, but hey, it's a state school, so it's cheap since I'm from PA).
4. George Washington University (got in, got $8000 merit scholarship).
5. Case Western Reserve (got waitlisted, then got in... no money. I half assed their essays too).
6. Carnegie Mellon Univ. (got in, got no money).

I wanted to do some sort of engineering or Computer Science, wasn't sure which at the time. Since CMU (Carnegie Mellon) was good at both, I really really wanted to go there. But no money would have made it quite pricey. While visiting CMU, we went to the admissions director, showed him the merit scholarship from GWU and they matched it. So, that sealed the deal.

I have since graduated from CMU in Comp. Sci., about $15K in loans to pay back now.

Wow, that's a good way to work the system!

I had some ~$17k on average in scholarship money from the Ivies or equivalent. Should have used that as a bargaining chip with other schools that were much more tight-waddish for some reason.