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Wouldn't college be a whole lot easier if you didn't have to spend so much time thinking and worrying about how you would pay for it? This paper summarizes some of the options you have for paying for school.

Paying for school

The average undergraduate leaves school with nearly $20,000 of debt according to a recent study cited in the USA today. A 2002 council of graduate schools poll shows that graduate students are much worse off-Master's students average more than $25,000 of debt while PhD students are carrying more than $35,000. It is common in professional degree programs (medical, law, and dental school) for students to be strapped with $100,000 or more of debt by time they finish.

While these numbers may seem scary to some, they aren't necessarily all that bad. Student loans taken to pay for a good education are a great investment. The problem is that so many students aren't putting that money to good use. It is easy to squander and party the money away, taking several extra years (and thousands of dollars) to finish a degree program. There is also a lot of useless debt that many undergraduates latch on tousually in the form of plastic.

Credit Card Debt

There is no excuse for using credit cards to finance your education. You should know by now that your worst enemy is the plastic you keep in your wallet. Nowhaving a credit card and establishing a good credit history while in school is a very good idea... if you can do it without becoming a slave to the card. But there is never a need for fifteen cards. Two or three should be more than enough (I have one that I rarely use and my credit score is about as good as it gets).

While some studies show that the average credit card dept is hovering around $8,000, I suspect that the average is really much lower (an article posted in MSN money supports this). I was shocked to learn that Nellie Mae, the nation's largest maker of student loans, says the average undergraduate has $2,200 in credit card debt while graduate students carry about $5,800. (see article). That balance is much more than the average student is saving for retirement, and represents something that is very wrong in campuses across the country. The minimum monthly payment on a credit card debt of $5,800 would be $145. It would take 27 years to pay that off and you would pay $8315 in interest (using the average 18% interest rate). Lesson: don't carry a credit card balance... pay it off!

Pell Grants and Free Money

It may not be easy to pay off your plastic

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