How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University

Two Republican governors in recent years have championed big price cuts in higher education, pushing their states to offer a four-year bachelorâ��s degree for a tantalizing $10,000. Now Maryland is forging into this price-slashing discussion with a plan that will enable students to get a bachelorâ��s degree from a public university for $20,000. This week, the University of Maryland University College announced a discount for graduates of the stateâ��s community colleges. The UMUC Completion Scholarship will cut $4,440 off the price of a bachelorâ��s degree for students who transfer into the public online university with an associateâ��s degree from one of Marylandâ��s 16 community colleges. Figuring that a two-year degree costs an average of $8,000, according to a UMUC spokesman, the price of the remaining…

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Two Republican governors in recent years have championed big price cuts in higher education, pushing their states to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree for a tantalizing $10,000.

Now Maryland is forging into this price-slashing discussion with a plan that will enable students to get a bachelor’s degree from a public university for $20,000.

This week, the University of Maryland University College announced a discount for graduates of the state’s community colleges. The UMUC Completion Scholarship will cut $4,440 off the price of a bachelor’s degree for students who transfer into the public online university with an associate’s degree from one of Maryland’s 16 community colleges.

Figuring that a two-year degree costs an average of $8,000, according to a UMUC spokesman, the price of the remaining credits to finish a bachelor’s degree would be about $12,000 for eligible students. Students would be guaranteed that rate for up to four years in all of the university’s undergraduate programs.

Total price: $20,000.

That doesn’t include other scholarships or grants that a student might obtain for financial need or academic merit.

“Community college graduates are a solid investment because they have already invested in themselves,” UMUC President Javier Miyares said in a statement. “The new UMUC Completion Scholarship provides a well-deserved incentive to keep going and earn a four-year degree that will pay even greater dividends in the future — whether that is a new job, a promotion, or a whole new career.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) have pushed their states to develop pathways to a bachelor’s degree priced at $10,000. Critics say such a low price undervalues what colleges and universities do and threatens to undermine quality. But some analysts say that $10,000 is a reasonable target for a no-frills degree.

Now Maryland has determined that a bachelor’s degree at twice that price is a good idea.

“Together, with our highly-regarded community colleges and UMUC’s innovative leadership, we will continue to expand opportunity and ensure Maryland students are not only able to compete nationally, but globally as well,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said in a statement.

How many students will take advantage of the discount is unknown. In 2012, nearly 14,000 students earned associate’s degrees at Maryland community colleges. Many community college students who transfer to four-year schools want a full campus experience rather than the online education that is UMUC’s specialty. But working adults often prefer the flexibility of online courses.

A community college advocate said the UMUC price cut might spark competition from other schools.

“I think there’s more to come, which is good news for students,” said Bernard Sadusky, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges. “There’s going to be a lot of initiatives. I think you’ll see some other colleges doing the same thing. Competition will drive innovation.”

UMUC, based in Adelphi, has 39,557 students in the United States and thousands more overseas. It is the nation’s largest public online university and a member of the University System of Maryland. Its domestic enrollment fell about 6 percent this year.

Frostburg State University, in western Maryland, offers a similar scholarship to community college graduates who had a B average or better. The scholarship, worth $2,500 a year, was announced in late 2011. With it, the price of a Frostburg State bachelor’s degree for some students could also be about $20,000 or less.

The lowest price at a four-year university in Maryland, according to College Board data, is at Coppin State in Baltimore. There, tuition and fees for Maryland residents total $6,252.

If that price were frozen for four years — which is unlikely — a full-time Coppin State student who paid the full rate could earn a bachelor’s degree for about $25,000, not counting housing, food, books and other expenses.

Baltimore has the least-expensive community college in the state, with tuition as low as $88 per credit hour. A graduate of Baltimore City Community College who paid full price for an associate’s degree and then transferred to Coppin State might be able to obtain a bachelor’s degree for about $20,000 or less.

In the District of Columbia, a student who obtains a full-price associate’s degree from the community college within the public University of the District of Columbia and then obtains a bachelor’s degree from UDC might pay slightly more than $20,000.

The College Board data indicate that Virginia does not offer a way to obtain a $20,000 bachelor’s degree for students who pay the full in-state price at public colleges.

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Personal Finance, baltimore, competition, count, maryland, online, republican, saving for college, saving strategy, state, umuc

Use the Winter Break to Stash Some Cash

Obviously, one way to earn some money is to get a part-time job. Holiday or seasonal jobs over your break or January term are also good ways to make some extra money without cramping your studying style too much. For the first couple weeks after Thanksgiving, you may find yourself in a little bit of an exam crunch, but after your tests you won’t have to keep your mind on anything but the money you’re making. If parents have time to do a part-time seasonal job as well, you could easily put $2,000 to $3,000 toward the college kitty in a little over a month. If you already have one, you can always offer to work extra hours, try to pick up a…

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Obviously, one way to earn some money is to get a part-time job. Holiday or seasonal jobs over your break or January term are also good ways to make some extra money without cramping your studying style too much. For the first couple weeks after Thanksgiving, you may find yourself in a little bit of an exam crunch, but after your tests you won’t have to keep your mind on anything but the money you’re making. If parents have time to do a part-time seasonal job as well, you could easily put $2,000 to $3,000 toward the college kitty in a little over a month.

If you already have one, you can always offer to work extra hours, try to pick up a shift here and there or impress your boss and shoot for a promotion. If nothing else, your willingness to work and your diligence should net you a raise (one would hope!). If you’re pretty sharp, and let’s make that assumption based on the fact that you’re in college, you can put up flyers offering to tutor K-12 students and help them out with whatever your best at, whether it’s math, science, English or Spanish. An hourly rate of up to $20 is certainly not unheard of, and you should be able to work a tutoring gig around your existing class schedule pretty easily once classes start up again.

Another way to get some extra cash is to have a garage sale. Face it, much of the stuff you’re leaving behind is stuff you most likely will not use again. By the time the holidays roll around you have a pretty good idea what things are extraneous to your new college life. Or if you’re more motivated, start an eBay business and clean the clutter out of your (or your parents’ house). Let someone else enjoy the old lava lamp from your room while you earn your degree. With that fancy education, you’ll be able to get a job that will pay you enough to buy two lava lamps. New ones.

Dig a Little Deeper

Apart from the traditional part-time jobs and other methods of earning money that are out there, you can also try a few avenues that are not only more flexible time-wise but also tend to be less tapped out than the job market. One avenue you could explore that could actually be fun is to be a secret, or “mystery” shopper. Many legitimate companies, like National Shopping Service, will actually pay you to eat out at restaurants or buy groceries that you get to keep. You definitely won’t get rich doing it, but it’s fun and the combination of money earned from the work and the dollars you could save on food and entertainment expenses could go some way in padding your bottom line.

In a similar vein, if you enjoy television and radio, you and your family could apply to become Nielsen households. You don’t really have to do anything differently except wear or carry a small device that monitors what you watch on TV and listen to on the radio. They are somewhat selective, but if you are accepted, each member of the household who agrees to wear the device receives a small monthly stipend that, if pooled together, could amount to an additional $1,000 or more per year that can be funneled toward college expenses.

Bottom line, if you think about it, is that every $20 extra dollars you put aside per week amounts to an additional $1,000 per year in savings. Think about how you can make an extra $20 or even $40 per week. Collect cans and bottles and redeem them. Donate bodily fluids (certain fluids can actually be quite lucrative), if you’re old enough to do so. In four years, you won’t miss the plasma and you’ll love not having the extra principal on your student loan bill. I know it sounds (and is) a little outside the norm, but hey, college is supposed to be an experience right? Think about the stories you could tell your grand kids about walking to class uphill both ways in 40 feet of snow with an IV drip attached to your arm, draining you of precious bodily fluids. That alone is worth the light-headedness.

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Personal Finance, college life, device, english, family, holiday, saving strategy, shopping, spanish, winter

Tips to Keep Holiday Gift Giving Affordable

Although we’re still in the midst of the holiday season, it’s time to start making post-holiday shopping plans. For those of us who try to be frugally-minded, after-Christmas sales offer an excellent opportunity to save money and plan ahead. Even if you don’t actually buy anything in the immediate aftermath of the holiday season, now is a good time to start planning for next year. And not just Christmas or Hanukkah: Valentine’s Day, Mothers and Fathers Days, and birthdays, as well. Many times, for me at least, gifts sneak up and become unexpected expenses that can throw off my budget for a week or two. As important as it is to save money when buying gifts, planning ahead and budgeting…

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Although we’re still in the midst of the holiday season, it’s time to start making post-holiday shopping plans. For those of us who try to be frugally-minded, after-Christmas sales offer an excellent opportunity to save money and plan ahead. Even if you don’t actually buy anything in the immediate aftermath of the holiday season, now is a good time to start planning for next year. And not just Christmas or Hanukkah: Valentine’s Day, Mothers and Fathers Days, and birthdays, as well.

Many times, for me at least, gifts sneak up and become unexpected expenses that can throw off my budget for a week or two. As important as it is to save money when buying gifts, planning ahead and budgeting appropriately can have just as positive an effect on your fiscal bottom line. For the most part, though, gift giving occasions are not really surprises. We know long in advance when we will have to pony up for our friends and loved ones. With the new year approaching, what better time could there be than now planning our fiscal generosity over the next twelve months?

Project and Budget

Look at all your gift giving occasions coming up in the next year. Gauge the importance of the occasion and how much you feel it is necessary to spend on each person for each occasion. Your mom’s birthday may require a bigger gift than your best friend’s cousin’s bar mitzvah, for example. Then total the amount that you will need for the year. That will be your twelve-month target savings amount.

Unfortunately, though, gift-giving occasions are not distributed evenly throughout the year. In my own case, I have two very concentrated stretches from February to April (thank you IRS for that extra bit of stress) and again in August and September. Of course, December can be tough for many of us, as well. So you will have to use shorter term targets, at least in the first year, while planning your gift giving. It helps to have a dedicated account — even if it’s just a mayonnaise jar on a shelf — for gift giving. Using myself as an example, I need to save more from January to April to take care of the gift giving occasions that come up during those months, than I will in the ensuing months during which I’ll have more time and can salt away smaller amounts over a longer period of time. Putting them in a different place will help you keep gift funds segregated so that they don’t commingle with your other money, thus keeping the rest of your budget on track and cutting down on any possibility for fiscal confusion.

Be Creative with Gifts (at Least During the College Years)

We are trying to be frugal. We want to get through college with a degree and with as little debt as possible. In order to accomplish this, it is possible that we may need to reframe some of our gift-giving ideas. Especially if you are a student who is paying your own way through college, people will be understanding. If they’re not, they probably don’t deserve a gift anyway.

Financial planner and author Ken Clark suggests writing meaningful letters to people rather than buying and giving gifts. According to Clark, “I’ve forgotten who gave me 90 percent of the gifts I’ve ever received and half of them don’t even get used anymore…. Chances are they’ll keep that letter a lot longer than that new sweater.” A letter is a great idea, but if you have a talent or a craftiness and want to do something more substantial, you can make something for your recipients.

I know its seems a little elementary school, but people on your list will happily accept handmade gifts from you while you’re toiling away in academia. Even if they’re not happy about it, they won’t say anything. During my undergraduate years, for example, I drew cityscapes of the downtown area near the university and matted them. These I gave as gifts to some of my out of town relatives who I knew would be more appreciative of them than some of my other potential gift receivers (i.e. my younger brother).

Apart from after-Christmas sales and making your own presents, you can just be creative in the way that you buy things. Look at CraigsList and eBay for deals on second-hand or used items that would make people on your list happy. If you have specific things in mind well ahead of the gift giving occasion, set up an alert for the items and keep an eye out so that you can get the best deals on them. There’s nothing a seller loves to see more than a last minute shopper who absolutely has to have the item that they are selling RIGHT NOW.

Plan ahead. Budget wisely. Be creative, and shop smart. Do these things and shopping for gifts will have a less negative impact on your college budget.

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Personal Finance, christmas, college, financial, gift, king, list, online, project, saving strategy, town, university