The one thing everyone dreads about college, student debt. No one wants to start their first job with being in debt and having other stresses of adulthood on their shoulders. Luckily there are ways so you can have little to no debt. College is very expensive and there are not very many people who finish college with low amounts of debt.
Roughly 68% of seniors who graduate from a public or private college have debt. The average amount that these students are in debt is $29, 950. With these few things that I’ve learned hopefully, it can minimize your debt to below $29, 950. As you can see from the diagram the cost of college is only rising, making it harder for Americans to pay.
Applying for scholarships is a great way to try and cut the cost of college. Even smaller scholarships that are $50-$500 can help pay for semester books or fees for college. There is no limit to the number of scholarships someone could apply for. Only 0.3% of students get enough to pay for the entire cost of college. Scholarships can be very competitive, there are hundreds of applicants. It is a great way to help pay for the small stuff but overall it helps you save.
FAFSA is also a great way to help pay for college. You have to apply and it helps determine loans and scholarships. It is a great financial aid system that over 13 million students use. It is encouraged to use FAFSA no matter their economic backgrounds. Anyone can see if they qualify for financial assistance from the government.
Bibliography
“FAFSA®: Apply for Aid.” Federal Student Aid, 26 Sept. 2019, studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa.“How to Minimize Student Loan Debt.” Edvisors, 27 June 2019, www.edvisors.com/college-loans/choosing-loans/minimize-debt/.
Sourmaidis, Demetrios. “How to Avoid Student Debt: Student Debt Relief.” Student Debt Relief | Student Loan Forgiveness, Student Debt Relief | Student Loan Forgiveness, 3 Oct. 2019, www.studentdebtrelief.us/college-tips/how-to-avoid-student-debt/.
I really like this article as it presents information and data that I don't think most of us knew beforehand along with great ways that we could access scholarship opportunities so we don't end up with limiting debt.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting as this is a prominent topic in all of our lives, as we will soon be graduating and dealing with this debt. I also found it helpful how you provided multiple methods of saving money and saving us from this future debt.
ReplyDeleteI like your topic that you decided to talk about. Student debt has always been a world wide issue and it seems impossible to avoid it. But like you said, there are ways to avoid it as such as scholarships, and FAFSA.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how much tuition has been going up through out the years and how much harder it is for people to get through college with little to no debt. I agree that you should try to apply for multiple scholarships even if it is just a small amount of money. That small amount could get you a long way. I also agree that anyone should fill out FAFSA no matter what their financial backgrounds are. There are many ways to decrease you college debt and you presented two really good ideas!
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a senior in high school I have already started to think about all of this and do my research. All of the information you presented is very accurate and is important in helping to minimize the cost of college. I wish you would have show statistics of how college debt incrues interest overtime so people could get a better idea of how important paying of student loans are.
ReplyDeleteI never truly realized how intense and overbearing student debt was in the US, so I think the image you used was very helpful to lay out an outline/summary of the topic. The fact that over half the people who graduate from college have debt as high as $29,000 is insane to me. Your ideas you provided are extremely helpful when thinking about the future and I will definitely take into account applying for scholarships and FAFSA. Your point about the amount of scholarships you apply for being unlimited is very interesting to me, but also helpful. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis article was very relevant and was a good topic to introduce for this blog, however, most of these pieces of information, a majority of our peers are well aware. To make this blog seem more enticing I would suggest information that not many students would think off the top of their head. Furthermore, I would also suggest going more in depth of what the future of rising tuition would be predicted as you picked stats from 2014-2015, most of our peers will be graduating from 2024-2025. Overall, interesting blog that you have created.
ReplyDeleteI like how the post is very concise and still provides tons of information. I think that many people often overlook the power of a scholarship because they think that $500 is nothing compared to the $30,000 debt they have. However, people often forget that interest can rack up quickly and lowering your principal by $500 can save you potentially $100 dollars down the road, and the more and more people get these small investments the more they add up in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of debt that college students are in when they graduate is outrageous. It makes me wonder "when will we stop paying for college?". There must be a point where students decide that college is not worth the money and we start going directly into the work world.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy to me how many people don't apply for scholarships when they are going to college. Its scary to think that this one action can potentially impact someones life forever. With the amount of money it takes to pay for college, we can only hope we don't have student loan debt when we go to college.
ReplyDeleteI really like how this post relates to a lot of us. We all are close to applying to college which means it's time to apply for scholarships. I find it very interesting how people don't take the time to apply for small scholarships that help greatly. I found this article very interesting and makes me think more about my future at college and the money that I'm putting towards it.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that students have to start worrying about paying for college and getting scholarships so early in high school, sometimes before they even know where they're going to college. We just accept the fact that we will struggle paying for college and will be in dept. Scholarships are over looked mostly because the winners smaller amounts of money but it all adds up eventually.
ReplyDeleteAs most students attend college, almost every college student attains some sort of debt. I believe that it is absolutely essential that students in high school should be concerned with college, and not only selecting a college, but also dealing with the monetary setback that will occur. Scholarships are a big part of this, so students should absolutely apply for as many scholarships as they can, in order to decrease the burden of college debt.
ReplyDeleteAs a current senior and someone that will be attending college next year, I feel as though your blog post was very beneficial to me. I feel like I personally have been placing all of my concern about getting into college rather than applying for more scholarships to help avoid student loans. I wonder what percent of scholarships that people apply for do they actually receive? Also, since college is getting more and more expensive will there be a point where students will start seeking out more substitutes, such as online school? Overall, I really liked your blog post.
ReplyDeleteNice job! I totally agree with this, thinking about student debt is kind of scary. I never knew that college prices are just increasing… I feel like that makes less people want to attend college, because some families have a very hard time affording things already. I think that most student’s minds slip the option of applying for scholarships because maybe they don’t have any motivation to apply for them. Or they think that they could never get one. Applying for scholarships never came across my mind. I really like how you talked about the average amount of debt a student has after college because it opens the eyes of some. People may think college will go by with a breeze and being able to pay it off in a couple of years. Yet, most of the time it takes people awhile to finish paying off their college debt.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when starting your first job you don’t to already be in so much debt. It is a good idea to apply for those student scholarships. There are so many different ones that some students may not even know about. Like for just being left handed or for being a certain height. There are so many silly little scholarships that can get you money and help pay for college. I believe that FAFSA is such a good idea and that every student should sign up for it. Being able to start your life after college and not have to worry about being in debt is going to be a really good feeling.
ReplyDeleteThis is something more people need to keep in mind even during their junior year. A lot of students get caught up in their numerous college applications that they forget they should be additionally researching scholarships. Even if they are researching scholarships, most students overlook the little ones because they don't think that $500 or even $1,000 is worth the time to apply. This is irrational because money is money, and if they only applied to the huge scholarships they might not get any because there it is a lot harder to win the $10,000 scholarships than the $1,000 scholarships (and if they receive enough the x amount of $1,000 scholarships might be worth more than the one $10,000 scholarship that they spent all of their time filling out). Also, a lot of students don't fill out the FAFSA form because they assume with their parents income they won't receive any money, but especially because filling out the FAFSA form isn't hard, every student should at least apply because they never know what might happen; every dollar counts.
ReplyDeleteDebt is something that I think about often. I find myself, lat at night, thinking about what my life might look like in a few years in debt or out of debt. Obviously I prefer to not have any debt. It is honestly a scare thing when you look into it more. College is such a huge chunk of money and it is putting behind so behind financially, yet it is "mandatory" to attend if you want a degree for a career? If this is something that is expected of us then why expect so much money? I think that our government needs to take a closer look into this subject because college debt really hurts not only people personally, but also economically.
ReplyDeleteI often worry about Student Debt once I finish college. It is especially concerning since the price of college is increasing and so is the amount of debt students end with. I have submitted the FAFSA and I will make sure to apply for lots of scholarships, but is there anything else I can do? FAFSA and scholarships are well known ways to prevent debt, but I wonder if there are other less popular ways to do so as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful blog post. I like the explanation of scholarships, and how there isn't a limit to how many you can apply for. I also like that you brought up FAFSA and explained it as government aid, because it is a very important part of many college students lives. Overall very interesting.
ReplyDeleteStudent debt is a huge issue right now for college and is one of the leading reasons why some people choose not to go to college so they don’t have to deal with student debt. It sucks that great education is locked behind a massive amount of cash. I’m glad you’re talking about this topic as it is very important to us as high schoolers and many of us are thinking of going to college. It’s so good that you presented information that was useful, and tips to help out your peers so we can possibly avoid the huge debt that we may all have to face when going to college.
ReplyDeleteI like how you started out the article by connecting to your audience. The information presented is helpful and eye opening. The statistics really helped me realize more about debt. I thought it was very interesting how 68% of seniors still have debt from public/private colleges. Not to mention, the amount average debt raised from 2004 to 2014 was also very surprising. Including information about FAFSA is very helpful to know in order to begin paying for college.
ReplyDeleteFasa is good idea for people to apply for but alot of people don't get alot of money from FASA since they look as how much your parents make and your race and background so depending on your race and even if your parents don't pay for your schooling that still determines how much money you get. Which is very annoying to know because my parent may have enough money to pay for my college but they aren't and their income is what determines the amount of money I get, I make 17 dollars a hour and work 3 times a week that's making nothing compared to my parents but that's the money I have to pay for my college.
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