How Do You Graduate College With Less Debt? Proper Planning.
The following is a guest post by Bill Wozniak, Director of Marketing at ISM Education Loans.
To graduate college without high levels of debt tarnishing the great work you’ve just completed, proper planning is the key. This planning needs to start as soon as possible and long before arriving on campus for classes. In fact, you need to start thinking about your post-graduation debt load before you even choose your school!
Higher education usually occurs in the first quarter of a person’s life, and is often the most expensive thing you’ll purchase other than a home. The simple timing of the decisions surrounding education, paired with the cost, can often be a recipe for disaster – or at least discomfort – for young men and women. Fortunately, some or all of this pain is unnecessary and avoidable.
Most families have heard the message loud and clear about the potential benefits of postsecondary education, as shown by the number and percentage of today’s students that continue on after high school. That’s great, but just as important is picking the college that is the right fit, and choosing the funding methods that will create the least amount of debt after leaving school. Let’s start with the first item today, and the second in the weeks to come.
When I visit high schools around the state of Indiana, I always advocate for a much more active and deliberate process for choosing the right college. Some families do this very well, and know exactly what I’m talking about. However, many don’t know where to even start this often-confusing process. So how should your family go about picking your college or university?
- Narrow your options: The search tools readily available online make comparing institutions and focusing your search much easier than in the past. Thousands of choices become a handful after simply entering a few bits of information on the items that are non-negotiable for your school choice. Dealing with five to ten or even 15 true options can be very beneficial as opposed to having no plan while staring at a thousand names that blur together.
- Find the right fit: Using your preferences of major, school size and location as the first few criteria to run through a search tool is a good minimum starting point. Once you pare down your options, compare their academic standards and cost of attendance, and a group worthy of deeper examination will come into focus. While too many options can make the decision overwhelming, too few options may make your choice seem limited. If you feel that your initial preferences left you with a list that’s too limited, adjusting input data such as your preferred location should produce a new group worth considering.
- Consider your budget: Taking some time with a loan repayment calculator tool can quickly illuminate how large your debt can grow unless you manage it carefully. Remember that in some cases, education loans are accruing interest for the four or more years of undergraduate school, through graduate school, and during a year or more of forbearance/deferment before repayment begins. Even at interest rates in the single digits, with a repayment time of ten to twenty years or more it is sometimes shocking to see what the total cost will be. This is a critical but often overlooked part of the due diligence if any borrowing will be needed to fund your education.
Let’s work on increasing the examination process of choosing the right school. Choosing the college that is the perfect fit on multiple levels will pay dividends for a lifetime. Days or weeks of effort before classes may save years of effort, expense and frustration after classes!
Guest Blogger Bill Wozniak is the Director of Marketing at ISM Education Loans. He writes about preparing for college on the ISM website. He is happy to answer your questions about college preparation at outreach at ismloans dot org. If you are a resident of Indiana in need of a private student loan, please visit the ISM Student Loan Marketplace.
