Dear College Kid is a series I decided to write to my younger self, if I could somehow teleport myself via time machine to my late teens and early twenties. I hope other college kids find these letters, and garner some foresight that I myself had lacked. I hope it changes their lives.
Dear College Kid,
Are you in an undergraduate program trying to plan what classes to take? Or better yet, are you a high-schooler, looking far ahead into your future, trying to figure ways to save? Here’s some advice:
Try to graduate in three years or less, and save $$$!
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The first step: Stop the Negativity!
You may be saying to yourself some of the following negative self-talk, but I want to address them now and talk you out of that nonsense. Nip it in the bud, so to speak.
Avoid the following negative thoughts:
- “Graduating in three years requires a special program, which my school does not have.” Not true at all! I myself graduated from a four year undergraduate college, in a three year span of time. All you need to do is hit your particular program’s requirements, and that’s it! Just make sure to plan ahead.
- “Only Einsteins and nerds finish early because you need to be very smart in order to graduate in three years or less.” You need to be very organized to finish early, not necessarily smart. It may require a bit more effort, but it does not mean that some people are born with the ability to do this and others are not. Everyone should at least try. If you don’t end up finishing in three years, you should be just as proud to finish in three years and one quarter. Every little bit that you shave off of your schooling counts!
- “Graduating early means I won’t have my FULL college experience! I will miss out on some of the fun my friends are having.” Actually, quite the opposite! Finishing school in three years freed up that last year when all my other friends were still in school. It gave me the chance to work three jobs, and I had a more flexible schedule than my friends who were still in college! While they had to plan for tests and study for exams, I was able to move my work schedules around to make time for lunch dates, or hang out nights. If anything, I was able to experience MORE than they did!
- “What difference does an extra year make? Shouldn’t I just take classes that I am interested in or that I enjoy FOR FUN while I’m at it? What’s another couple of thousands of dollars?” If I could kick my young self for having this kind of mentality, I would. Back then, I did not understand the value of compounding interest. I did not have a sense of the value of time. I did not realize that something so small now, can make such a big difference later. The money you save from finishing undergrad early can be invested into something that will give you a higher return over time, rather than be taken out as a loan that will be charged interest over time. Instead of losing money, you could be earning money. Time is on your side, and investing early is the way to go!
Ways To Graduate Early
There were many things that I did to allow me to graduate one year early. If I had a do-over, I would do even MORE, to try to shave off a little bit more time. Here are some tips!
- Take as many AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Bachelaureate) courses in high school as you can. I did the work in high – school. I took 11 AP courses in high-school. The great thing about these is that some colleges accept certain AP classes as credit towards general education college courses! I entered my first year of college as a “sophomore” and had first choice in which courses I wanted to take, which made it even easier to plan ahead!
- Plan your course of action. When I entered college, I was given a list of classes that I was required to take in order to graduate early. I kept that list throughout my whole college career and when it came time to choose classes, I would simply go through the list and find classes that I wanted to take but were also required. It wasn’t until my final trimester (we were on the trimester system) that I took a class that was not a requirement, for fun. Why did I do that? Because it gave me the units I needed to be considered a full-time student, which had a flat rate and which actually made the tuition cheaper than if I paid per unit to be a part-time student. Go figure!
- Take as many units as you can handle. The minimum units you need to be considered a full time student was 12 units. You can likely graduate in four years taking 12-15 units a trimester. But I had other plans. I was taking 16-20 units a trimester, and one particular trimester, I believe I took 22 units. The exception was my final trimester, where I took only 12 units, the minimum to be a full -time student.
- Stay focused. You are here for SCHOOL. The biggest excuse I heard recited to not take more than 12 units at a time was that early twenty-somethings want to enjoy life. They don’t want to be focused on JUST school work. They want to have time to go to parties, hang out with their friends, make new experiences. But you are at college for school. Focusing on that doesn’t mean you won’t get those new experiences, or have a good time.
- Don’t listen to the naysayers. When I told others that I was going to finish college early, there was a lot of pushback. In the early stages, I had a lot of people telling me it would be difficult to do, that I would stress myself out too much and hate college all-together. When that didn’t happen, they said that I was missing out. As it got closer towards the end of my college career, I started having people trying to convince me to stay. “Just take classes for fun!” To which I replied, “I’d rather live life, for fun.” Don’t listen to the naysayers who think you can’t do it. Don’t listen to people trying to convince you you’re missing out. And definitely don’t listen to those who try to convince you to stay even longer, and spend more money or take additional loans. The person you should be living life for is yourself, and your future self will thank you.
If you need further convincing, maybe math will do the trick.
Tuition Costs Saved by Graduating in 3 Years: $8,000
Additional Money Earned by Working 3 Jobs in the Final Year: $18,000
The Difference: $26,000, which I funneled into student loans and credit card debt.
Hope this helps kick ya in the rear and get you faster towards getting out!
Sincerely,
TheDebtist
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
