Community colleges are no longer the lower end of the college institution chain they once seemed to be. The every rising costs of traditional four year colleges have invoked a growing population of potential college students to evaluate their educational opportunities at the local and regional community college level. Staying at home or near home is more appealing to more and more potential college students. They realize the cost in doing anything today is a factor. And let’s face it being near or at home can be a money saver in many ways for the student as well as the parent. Room and board costs as well as food cost alone, still living at home is a huge savings.

As you are saving money on room and board and food costs you will also be saving a tremendous amount of money on college tuition. In a 2 year community college program you will probably see a bill of about $5000 -$6000 were as in a traditional 4 year college you may see upwards of $20,000 or more. You can still obtain an associated degree at a community college and if you want to further your higher education to a bachelors or masters degree you can then transition to a 4 year college. This is cutting your cost tremendously.

As far as the funds to attend a community college you are offered the same opportunities as attending a traditional college or university. There is the federal financial aid program as well as a private or alternative college student loan to get your funding. The chances of you being able to obtain the full amount through the federal financial aid program are greater because the cost is less. Of course, this will all depend on your families or your financial situation, if you are a dependent student. The program you enroll in will also be a factor. There is a common misconception that federal financial aid programs will not apply if attending a community college. This is false.

Do not let bad information cute you out of the best possible college student loans available. Community colleges have a financial aid office. Before you do anything, speak with a financial aid advisor. They are well trained in what you can and can not do. They will point you to the FASFA application and help you through it. This can be filed online as well as on paper and sent to them. Just do a word search under “FASFA” you will receive a wealth of knowledge.

Walking away from a college degree of any kind because of money in today’s world is silly. There are literally hundreds of options available to everyone. One only has to apply and see what you qualify for. So talk to your financial aid advisor weather it be a community college or a traditional 4 year college. There are funding options available. Go apply and find out what you qualify for. That college degree is important and you deserve to have it. Your family and friends will be proud of you for over coming this obstacle.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.