Want to know how students pay for college? There are a couple of different options available.
1) Parents! Probably the most common method, dipping into your parents’ wallets is also the cheapest and easiest (for the student anyways).
Unless the parents are huge into business or financial responsibility, usually it’s more of a gift than a loan, so the student doesn’t have to worry about being financially burdened forever- pretty nice!
However, reality is a lot of parents can’t afford it, or would rather the student find another way.
2) Student loans are another very common method. Although they do have to be paid back eventually, they usually have very low interest and flexible repayment plans.
While these feel great at the time (look at all that money that just went into my account!), don’t forget that you WILL have to pay these back, and even at 5% rates, the interest on those thousands of dollars in loans add up.
3) Get a part-time job. This is what I personally did for most of my college career, as well as several of my friends. You can wait tables, work on campus somewhere, landscaping or construction, or other similar work.
The extra income is always nice, but if you have an inflexible schedule and a lot of tests or reports coming up, it can be tough to balance everything.
4) OWN a part-time job. This is the method I have recently started embracing, and I highly recommend anyone really searching for ways how students pay for college to look into.
What do I mean by this? Start your own small company. There are lots of options, but probably the cheapest is doing business online through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is basically where you sell someone else’s product and you earn a commission. All of the hard stuff is handled by the company- all you do is sell the product!
This isn’t a “make $1,000,000 in one month” kinda scam- it’s a method that thousands of people are using every day to make extra money. Some even do it for a full-time living!
Here’s a few reasons why it’s great for college students:
1) Low startup investment.
Usually you can start for free, and at most you’ll pay $100-200 to start your business. What other kind of business can start at those prices?
2) Free methods of marketing.
Compared to billboards and television ads which cost thousands and thousands of dollars, you can market to a much bigger audience for free! Not bad huh?
3) Flexible hours.
No commute. No boss yelling at you for being late. You are the boss! Work at 6 am if you’re an early riser, or midnight if you’re a night owl. Either way works.
4) Bragging rights.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to say “I make money on the internet?”
I hope this article shared some helpful ways how students pay for college. Personally, I’m biased towards owning your job through affiliate marketing. You’ll learn skills you can use the rest of your life, and not have to take out as much financial aid (chances are unless you’re a marketing wizard you won’t strike it rich right away!). What do you have to lose with trying?