College is extremely expensive and can costs well into five figures for each year that you’re taking classes. You have to spend money on tuition, related feeds, books, a dorm or an apartment, food, and everything else. This is all the while you are not working full time and living on minimal income. Most college students are forced to learn lessons of frugality and take on student loans in order to make it through college, but there’s one method above all the rest which can enable you to save a lot of money in college, graduate early.
Think about it. The less time you are in school means that’s a year of expenses that you don’t have. You won’t have to scrounge around for money to get an apartment or buy food. You won’t have to pay a lot of the university fees that you get charged every semester, you’ll have more time to earn a greater income after you get your degree, it just makes sense.
This means that you have to get more college credit during the time that you are in school, or perhaps before you even get to school so that you can graduate early. There are a few different ways to go about doing this. Taking AP courses in high-school is a great way to get a semester’s worth of required generals out of the way, and will help better prepare you for the academic rigors of college. Make sure that you’re taking courses that will transfer over to your college well. Calculus, AP English, Physics, and Chemistry are usually good bets.
You should also consider taking CLEP tests once you get to college. These are basically exams that you take, and if you pass them, you will pay a minimal fee and get the college credit just as if you had taken the course. If you know a subject really well, there’s no need for you to take the course, so just go ahead and take the test and be done with it.
Chances are you’ll have to take a few more classes while in college. You can take one or two over the summer and maybe pickup one extra during the year. If you can get 5 classes done through AP courses in high-school and by taking CLEP tests, it wouldn’t be too hard to take another 5 during your first and second year of college.
Doing these things will enable you to graduate up to a year early. Imagine if you were able to not have to worry about textbooks, food, tuition, dorm fees, and the like for an entire year, and instead you could be out in the world earning the big bucks with your college degree. It’s a lot of work, but it’ll save you a lot of time and money.