Save Money on an Accredited Degree

It’s time. Finally time to go back to school and get that degree you’ve always wanted. The problem is that mommy and daddy are no longer willing to pay for you to earn that piece of paper. However, all is not lost. There are numerous ways to rack up units and earn accredited college degrees.

There is a misconception that the only way to go to college for little or no money is to get scholarships. Don’t get me wrong; scholarships can be quite helpful, particularly if it pays for the total cost. The problem arises when it only pays partial tuition. Say that you received a scholarship from XYZ Corporation to attend college. The scholarship is for $1000 and the college has already awarded you $4000 in financial aid. Where I come from, $1000 + $4000 should equal five thousand dollars.

However, and this is key, you may still very well be at $4000. Why? Because the college has already decided how much financial aid you should get from all sources. Don’t be surprised if it takes back a thousand dollars of its money to compensate for the thousand dollars you have just been awarded.

So what can you do? Don’t give up on scholarships, but pay attention to the other options available to you. There are numerous ways to earn units and/or degrees cheaply. Below are just a few of the choices.

Military Options

There are several military options. One possibility is to get a Reserve Officers Training Corp, or ROTC, scholarship. Note that these are specifically for those students interested in becoming military officers. The scholarships are quite good, but do come with strings attached. You will need to serve on active duty military to, in a sense, pay back the money that you have “borrowed.” These scholarships are available to students who do not attend service academies. The other possibility is to attend a service academy such as the U.S. Military Academy ("West Point") or the U.S. Naval Academy ("Annapolis"). Not only will you go for free, but they will provide you with a monthly stipend. I would caution you that this is a tough and demanding way to go. Then, of course, there is also the G.I. Bill (in its various forms) for veterans. Put in your four years and earn a chunk of that tuition.

Credit by Examination

Testing can reap you many units cheaply. Take the General Records Examination (GRE) and you could earn as many as thirty units. The College Board’s CLEP exams allow you to test out of courses and earn the units that you would have had you taken the course. For information that you would have learned in a three unit course, you can take a test for a couple of hours and earn that exact same number of units. Compare the cost: a class could cost over $1000 and the CLEP exams are just $50. There are other tests as well. You do, however, have to have the knowledge inside your head and/or study for the test. It is entirely possible to earn a degree in this manner at a fraction of the cost of traditional colleges.

Cheap College Courses

If you happen to live in the state of California, you have access to the cheapest first half of a degree on the planet. California community colleges offer courses for only $18 per unit. What a deal! In addition to land-based courses, many of these same community college courses offer distance learning courses as well. Not from California? While not quite as good a deal, Chemeketa Community College offers courses for very reasonable fees. The advantage is that they don’t discriminate between resident and non-resident tuition rates. You will find that most colleges do make that distinction. California’s $18 can quickly become $165.

Transfering Credits from Various Sources

After you’ve accumulated all of those cheap units, you can then transfer them into any number of traditional colleges. Likewise, you can choose to attend one of the “Big Three”: Thomas Edison State College (New Jersey), Excelsior College (New York), or Charter Oak State College (Connecticut). These are great options for the older, returning student who has acquired units here and there, who can prove they have acquired academic knowledge in non-academic environments, and who can test well.