Is it possible to pay your way through college? Given that the average cost of putting someone through college is between $80,000 – $100,000 then the truth is that it may be possible but it will be very difficult. Something which you can do however is work through college to pay for your tuition fees, thus minimizing how much the experience will cost. My friend Tatiana Regan did just this when she went to college and whilst it was incredibly hard work, she was able to manage it. Tatiana Regan wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth and had to take out a loan to cover her accommodation and living expenses. In terms of her tuition fees, here is how she was able to cover them.
Jobs
In the first 2 years of college Tatiana found it pretty easy to work alongside her studies and because of the fact that she is a very smart individual, she could invest much more time in working and earning money and still get along just fine with her studies. When we reached the final 2 years of college however things got very difficult for Tatiana and she was sleeping around 5 hours per night because that was all the time which she could allow. A chance meeting with a friend at uni opened up a world of possibilities for Tatiana as she realized that she could work and make money online. Tatiana began writing and giving lessons online, which meant she could work and earn but it didn’t take up the same amount of time.
Sacrifice
Going into this Tatiana knew that she would have to sacrifice a lot and that meant that more often than not she had very little social life. Many people’s experience of university is made better because of the social side of things and whilst she would get out from time to time, Tatiana’s focus was very much on making enough money to pay herself through college and get an education, no matter what sacrifices had to be made. I must admit that at the time I thought this was a bad idea but 10 years on I know that I have a mountain of debt to pay off and Tatiana only has a very small percentage of that.
Organization
The level of organization which Tatiana needed during her time at college was incredible and probably something which I couldn’t have achieved. Tatiana knew that just 1 poor piece of work or missed deadline and she would feel as though it was all too much for her, as well as knowing that all the naysayers would be proved right. Tatiana therefore made sure that she had everything in her life on a calendar which she lived by as though it was a religious text. Through this organization however Tatiana never missed deadlines, nor did she show up late for work.
It took Tatiana a huge amount of hard work but eventually she achieved it and left college with just a small amount of debt.
