Saving Big on My College Education

Saving big on college degree

College is expensive.

Most people know that but it bears repeating due to the constant horror stories about student loans, underemployment, parents getting their paychecks seized for parent plus loans and so forth.

I always knew college was going to be a huge financial burden for me. Mainly because I fell into the turmoil many middle-class families with college-bound kids experience. I was too poor for college but too rich for FAFSA. They paid for a fraction of what my college education cost.

Back track to spring of 2010 when I was 15 years old and a high school sophomore. While in web design class one day, my teacher presented the class with brochures about the early college start (ESC) program the high school had in partnership with Austin Community College.

The program let students who have completed sophomore year/declared a junior, take two college classes per semester free of charge. The student just had to pay for the class textbooks and any necessary supplies.

FREE college classes? Heck yes.

I signed up for the info session, took the ASSET test, and signed up for two college classes to begin at the start of the summer after completing sophomore year. Determined to save as much as possible, I keep signing up semester after semester. By the time I graduated high school, I had accumulated 44 college credit hours and had completed most of my basic required courses.

Since graduating with my bachelor’s degree in December 2014, I’ve been wondering how much I saved by doing so many free college classes while in high school.

If I had gone to community college for 1.5 years after high school:

I say 1.5 years instead of the usual 2 years because I completed 44 ECS hours rather than the 60 that would be common with doing 2 years full time.

Cost for one credit hour course with ACC was about $83 in 2012 (when I graduated high school). Considering the cost, this is how much I saved:

  • $83 x 44 credit hours=$3,642
  • $30 for three semesters of parking permit

So I saved $3,672 dollars in tuition by taking 44 credit hours while in high school rather than waiting to take them at community college after I graduated high school. The amount does not include textbooks and any class supply fees as I still had to pay those even when I was in early college start.

If I had gone to a university state college for 1.5 years after high school:

After I graduated from high school with the early college start credits, I enrolled at Texas State University. I went to a university straight out of high school because as I had mentioned before, most of my basic requirement classes (classes you usually take at CC) were already completed and to stay on track to graduate, I needed to go to university right away to begin taking upper level courses that went towards my major.

Cost for one credit hour with Texas State University was about $300 in 2012. Considering the cost, this is how much I saved by taking the ECS classes instead of spending the additional 1.5 years at university:

  • $300 x 44 credit hours=$13,200

Room & Board costs:

  • Dorm room: $7,200 for three semesters in a traditional dorm room at Texas State
  • Meal Plan: $3,600 for three semesters of the 250 meals per semester meal plan at Texas State.
  • Cost of required green resident parking permit: $285–$105 of commuter permit I bought=$180

$24,180, that’s what I saved by taking 44 ECS credit hours in high school versus not doing ECS and spending the extra 1.5 years at university.

 

Wow. The community college number is a good chunk of change but the university one is a BIG chunk of change I saved. It makes me think about all of the high school students who, despite knowing how crazy expensive college is, still decide to go straight to university after high school instead of doing two years at a community college.

If students stayed at home and did community college, instead of heading off to university, they could save a lot of money. So why aren’t more students doing this?

There’s a stigma.

Community college is seen as something less than ideal and not able to provide “the full college experience”. I experienced backlash myself for deciding to do early college start. While in high school, so many of my fellow students (and even some teachers!) would say that I should how I should just focus on full time on getting a “well rounded” high school experience to look good on college applications and get into university.

Students would turn up their nose and say that I was studying too much and “not enjoying my teen years” while in high school (never mind the fact that I was president of my theatre troupe, part of student council, several clubs, and held a part-time job in addition to my seven high school classes and two college classes).

Most of all, their was a badge of honor people got to wear when they told people they had gotten accepted and were going to attend a university. There was excitement and celebration when finding out you got into university. The students that chose the community college route were often dismissed with a simple “Oh, that’s good”.

I didn’t mind.

I graduated college in December 2014, with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations-Mass Communication, having completed my degree in just 2.5 years at the age of 20 years old.

I still have a good amount of student loans to pay off but not as much as what I hear a lot of other people have. I’m glad of my choices.

What did you do to manage student debt while in college? How much did you graduate with and how are you managing it? Let me know!

Image credit: Unsplash (Joshua Earle)

#FDOM: Final Evaluation

This semester I spent blogging has been an overall positive experience. I was able to learn about different ways, both with different methods and media platforms, to tell a story. One of the major things I am proud of is that for the most part I was able to upkeep with one post a week. I made sure all of the posts had a good visual aid and a link to an article for further reading.

The thing that stuck with me the most during this blogging assignment was during Mass Communication Week at Texas State. The main speaker to start off the week was Evan Smith, CEO of the Texas Tribune. He said something that really stuck with me. He mentioned during his speaking event that despite common perceptions, now was actually the best time to go into journalism. New innovations are being done to effectively tell a story. His words hold true to what this fundamentals of online media class is all about: figuring out ways to effectively tell a story thorough the use of digital and online platforms.

Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video

If you happened to read my about.me page (it’s a widget on the sidebar of this blog) you would read that I like to study the idiosyncrasies of things, the deep down meetings. So in order to fully realize how I have benefited from this blog, I would take down short notes and tidbits in class whenever my professor mentioned something important. Below is a list of the things I have learned in this digital media class from the notes I gathered and from this blogging assignment.

  • Visuals are important in a blog. Photos that could tell a story if they stood alone.
  • Blogging is a lot more enriching if you are 100% part of the process. Learn to code.
  • Don’t just put your own thoughts in a post, email people, get quotes.
  • Coding and graphic design are just as important as writing and communication skills. LEARN TO CODE.
  • Be genuine and leave comments on other blogs to get traffic to yours

All in all, my blogging experience has been positive. I learned a lot about building a solid base of content.  I know in the near future (January 2014) I will set up an entertainment blog (Movies, TV, Analyzing) to help become the career that I want which is to work at Entertainment Weekly magazine. Look out for me when I come to mass communication week 2015 as a speaker. Save the date! October 19, 2015.

[Update: 1/9/14: Found this cool article on The Daily Muse on how to upkeep and write good content for a blog]

MOOC’s: Open Learning

Open Learning

“You blew 150k on an education you could have gotten in $1.50 in late fees from the library.”

-from Good Will Hunting (1997)

Photo Courtesy of Colin AshbyScribbles in a library study room

I’m a believer in self-taught education. I like being around people who are considered autodidacts (people who self-teach themselves). There is something great about watching a person demonstrate or talk about something they care about. They talk with so much passion and knowledge yet they never went the traditional classroom route to learn it. I’m sure most people have come across at least a few people like this (have you seen the vast amount of 12-year-olds teaching things on YouTube?)

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have given people, regardless of location or experience, the opportunity to learn. Moocs have been covered a lot lately in the news. Embracing the thought of people wanting to learn outside the traditional classroom, I put compiled a list of some great sources to find free courses available to people (offered even from high-end universities).

UCLA

UCLA offers many open and free extension courses on writing. Some of the topics include: Working on a Personal Brand, Screenwriting, Writing a 1-Hour Drama Pilot. There is basically a course for almost anything a person can think of. You may notice there are courses that cost money, but plenty that are available for free.

Stanford

Stanford University has a program called S.E.E. (Stanford Engineering Everywhere) that offers ten open courses for anyone to take. The courses use the same lecture videos and assignments that regular Stanford students use (and the courses are free!). Some of the courses they have include Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Computer Science.

Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon University has a program called the Open Learning Initiative. The program is just that, open learning available to anyone. They have courses on biology, math, psychology, and more. There motto is “No instructors, no credit, no charge.”

iTunesU Store

iTunes offers the free app that can let a person took for and take free courses with no additional materials like textbooks needed.

Udemy

Udemy is the ultimate in free online learning. Their goal is to “democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the worlds experts.” The website allows anyone to take or teach courses.

The point of this post is that students often feel restricted by many things. They feel trapped by their major, unable to take interesting free electives. They think that their degree may limit them, and so on. This does not have to be the case. Working towards your college degree is worth it. In my experience, through taking some free open online courses, I was able to build upon what I was learning in the classroom. I was able to explore more into my major than ever before.  Through the exercises and assignments, I was able to refine my thinking about how to use my degree to my best advantage.

So next time that winter/spring/summer break rolls around, consider using the resources above to take some free courses.

MAIP Summer 2014

In this blog I frequently talk about how to utilize a college degree to the max.  Speak with professors, attend events related your major, get experience in your major, and so forth. One of the great ways to expand upon what you learn in the classroom is through internships. Internships let you test the waters for a certain career sector and let you gain real-world experience.  When I heard about the MAIP summer 2014 program and how they give students the opportunity to work at real advertising agencies, I knew I had to apply.

MAIP stands for Multicultural Advertising Intern Program. I had send a video component along with my application. After 6 hours of restless planning and filming I was finally able to come to a finished product. The video footage originally ran 12 minutes long but I was able to successfully cut it down to the stated three minutes.

Here is the video of me addressing MAIP, telling them how I am unique and what makes me a good fit for the program.

Your Career Starts Now

The time spent in college is the training wheels towards building a career. I say this because mass communication week ended last week at Texas State. The five day-long event brought media professionals to Texas State to talk about the changing world of digital media and how to prepare for a career in it. One encompassing theme was clear from all of the speakers: start doing our career now, don’t wait till you graduate.

During my fundamentals of digital and online media class (the class that required me to make this blog) my professor mentioned a reason behind why he requires the class to keep a blog:

There are different ways to provide content, to get you out there doing what you want to do. Start doing now what you want to do for your career, don’t wait” –J.Z. (The FDOM professor that gave this blog assignment)

Want a career in advertising? Start making advertising campaigns. Want to work for a creative media agency? Start creating your own content. Create. That is the point. Do the things that your dream career requires, right now, don’t wait until after college.

Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video
Editing my Austin Film Society Internship Application Video

“I don’t need to tell you what I know. At this stage, it’s important for you to tell me what you know.” –Newling (My Statistics Professor)

The way the theme of this blog (Why a College Degree is Worth It) ties into this is that college provides an experimental group for a person to build a career. There is a plethora of resources around a student in college that can help them build the career they want. Resources that will probably never be within arm’s reach ever again once they are in the real world. So go out now and start doing the career you want to do. Start experimenting to see how digital tools like Pinterest, Storify, WordPress, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and so forth can help develop your personal brand.

Become your own creator, make your own content, and become who you want to be.

“The great thing about education is that everything you have experienced in life will feel different once you have an education. Whether you get a job or you are on the street, you perceive things differently” -Roger Priebe (My Computer Science Professor)

This blog post was inspired by the speakers I learned about at mass comm week at Texas State.

Mass Communication Week at Texas State (Storify)

Mass Communication week started today. The five day event focuses on connecting Texas State students to mass comm professionals.  A series of events with different speakers from different media disciplines. Through the events the professionals are able to talk about the trends and issues concerning today’s media. Advice and insight is given to students nearing the entry into this evolving and competitive world.

Tumblr Comes to Texas State

mass comm week: day one

Events were held in Old Main
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

Things To Take From Woman’s “I Quit” YouTube Video

It’s 4:30 a.m. While most are soundly asleep, Marina Shifrin is at work. She works at a Next Media Animation as a video producer. She hates her job. She has had to sacrifice her family, relationships, and free time in order to get work assignments done. Her boss was focused on quantity and wanted as many videos with as many views as possible.

The day finally comes when she doesn’t want to do the job anymore. She makes a video, puts it on YouTube, and it goes viral just days after. Less than five days after the video, titled “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West’s Gone” is posted, she appears on The Queen Latifah Show. Towards the end of the video, Queen Latifah speaks up and offers her a job. “With your experience, I could create a position,” Latifah said. The job she creates for Shifrin is a digital content producer position. Shifrin is meeting with the shows representatives and still considering the option.

This story brings about something very familiar to what I witness a lot while in college. These people are ones that are constantly trying to choose your path for you. They tell you to major in this. They tell you to not major in that. They tell you to join this, do that, take up this, and so forth. It can cause a person’s brain to go into overload. What “correct” thing should the person do?

Navigating college is tricky path. You have to focus on balancing schoolwork, working a job, paying bills, and at the same time trying to gain experience in their field.  The important thing to remember is that you can build your own way of life. You have the power. It’s time to experiment and college especially, is a great place to do this. There are so many resources available to students. There are a variety of majors in college to choose from. Find a niche. Utilize all the things available to you. Take advantage of them. You shouldn’t let others decide what you will do. You are in control of your own self. Go out and make your highest goals come true.

“Sometimes I think that you need to forcefully close one door in order for another one to open a little easier,” Marina Shifrin [to Queen Latifah].

What I found while studying in the library
What I found while studying in the library
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby