What to do to avoid paying full price

Summer is almost over.  I can’t believe that soon I’ll be going to the cider mill to pick apples and fill up on donuts and cider…. OK I do look forward to this every year.   This time of year also means our children are starting back to school.  If you have a high school student, I’m sure you are thinking in the back of your head….. how will find the funds for  college .  Your hearing a lot of stories how the universities are raising their tuition.  Recently, Eastern Michigan raised it by 3.2% and depending on the campus, U of M raised it by 6.5%.

I wanted to take a few minutes to suggest a few alternatives to lower your college tuition cost.

First, take AP classes.  I have to admit that I see some kids pile too heavily on these classes and I wonder if they will be able to keep up their grades.  So let’s look at a typical college curriculum.  Normally your child will need 120 credit hours.  At 15 credit hours it will take 4 years to complete.  Let’s say your child takes 4 AP classes over their high school career and passes the tests.  They can avoid 4 classes. This could be a whole term tested out of classes.  Now if they take 18 credit hours per term, this could mean they would be out that half term early.  At first glance that does not seem like much right?  Well let’s take a look at it

Compare tuition at different colleges

Let’s take University of Michigan as an example:  This year here are the costs for U of M:

Tuition: 11,848

Room and Board: $8,924

Fees: $1,048

Books: $2,090

If we can eliminate the need for one term, we would save on half the room and board, tuition for that year.  That’s $10,368 saved.  Not bad.

Granted taking 18 credit hours for each term will be challenging but maybe they don’t have to take the full load.  Many large state college such as U of M, MSU will have satellite campuses.  In many cases these campuses and autonomous but, there is a chance that your child could take one or two summer courses, while they are at home for the summer.   I remember when I was in college at the University of Detroit, summer classes were actually not bad.  They met once or twice per week.  I still had plenty of time to spend with my friends at the beach and on the water.  Not too mention, going back in the fall was not as big a shock to my systemJ

The end result of this strategy started from taking a few AP courses in high school.  The biggest issue I see with how families approach college is they don’t spend the time to sit down and plan the process out.  We are all very busy and want only the best for our kids.  In many cases we cave in letting the kids dictate their schedule.  I’m only suggesting as parents we balance out the fun stuff with the things we know have to be done.

College expenses are no joke!  I watch parents stress out about this and I’m always hoping they come in early than later.  If tuition at U of M keeps going up at its current pace, in four years it will be $14,401 or an increase of $2553/ year.  If this recession has taught us anything, I think it’s taught us to be aware and plan.

Learn how to reduce your college tuition costs

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