Guide to Education Grants

10. Thou shall not skip class – You are paying for the class and should get your money’s worth, plus skipping class may result in you failing and having to pay to take it again.
 
9. Thou shall not buy on credit – Students should not use a credit card to purchase anything unless it’s a dire emergency (the release of the latest edition of Madden NFL does not qualify). Paying your student loan will remain manageable if you do not increase the debt burden by making impulse purchases on your credit cards.
 
8. Thou shall develop a budget and stick to it – Determine how much money you have to spend each month while making sure that all essential costs are covered. Have some discipline and don’t try to rationalize exceeding your budget at 1AM on a Saturday night.     
 
7. Thou shall buy used text books and sell them back at the end of the semester – Don’t shun buying used books because you are afraid that the previous owner might have been “gross”. Used text books can often be bought at half the price of new books. Also remember to sell them back immediately at the end of the semester to help defray your costs. Text books that spend five years cluttering the trunk of a car are usually worthless.
 
6. Thou shall participate in campus activities – Campus life presents many unique opportunities to find fun and entertainment that cost very little if anything. There is no reason to drop a bunch of money around town when there are plenty of new and interesting things to experience on campus.  
 
5. Thou shall not stray from the meal plan – Most schools offer rather generous meal programs. If you decided to participate in the plan, be sure to take full advantage of it. No ordering pizza because you are too busy downloading the latest OK Go songs to leave your dorm room.
 
4. Thou shall not succumb to peer pressure – Don’t be influenced by friends who seem to spend money at a rate that would exceed your monthly budget within a week. Either these friends are fortunate to be from very wealthy families, or they will be the people who complain the loudest about being swallowed by student loan debt. 
 
3. Thou shall not road trip – Those student that always seem to be heading off to the mountains or the beach every weekend? Rich kids again. Convince yourself that they are miserable on the inside if you must, but do not be tempted to partake in these costly trips when you have so many other local options for entertainment. And let’s face it, why spend money traveling to other locales when you don’t have the money to do anything once you get there.
 
2. Thou shall not buy a car – Unless you are shamelessly disobeying any of the above commandments, you really have no need for taking on the added expense of a car. Why pay for maintenance, parking, gas and insurance when there is no reason to leave campus since you are wisely enjoying the reasonably priced food and cheap recreation offered by your college?
 
1. Thou shall not take a student loan to fund a lifestyle – Student loans are a valuable tool to help you pay for school and should be used accordingly. Do not take the maxim loan for which you qualify if you view any extra money as just a way to free up your savings to spend on music, movies, spring break, clothes, phones, etc… If you use student loans to focus on paying for school and getting a degree, you will earn a great lifestyle. If you use student loans to buy a lifestyle, you will earn decades of debt.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Education Funding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.