4 Years Of My Life Gone And $53,000 In Debt And Still No College Degree

Despite finishing university, I cannot graduate and receive my degree until my tuition fees are paid off

. I figure I will spent 4 years going $53,000 into debt. I wonder what else my degree has cost me. Was there another way?

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Despite finishing university, I'm not yet a graduate. Until I don my mortar board and gown, I am a graduand, a grand-sounding title that means I'm in academic limbo, between student and graduate. Only at the end of the year or next June will I finally become a paid-up member of the graduate community. Paid-up is certainly the right phrase. In all, my degree has cost me 29,000 pounds or $53,000 US.

This sounds a lot, but it doesn't add up to the cost of room and board, travel, meals, utilities and most expensively text books. If only I looked at twice at what I was getting into. That 29,000 is the all-inclusive rate for a history degree from the University of Sheffield for some people might be a good buy but approximately 19,000 is debt around 8,000 in tuition fees and 11,000 in maintenance loans the rest comes from my parents and my job.

To calculate this, I had to delve into the Kafkaesque, bureaucratic service that is Student Finance England, which gives lumps of cash to England's students. Their website is a confusing labyrinth that can reduce students and their parents to tears. It's even worse when you know you're navigating it to work out exactly how many thousands you owe them.

The figure of 29,000 sounds a lot of money but it is based on doing university on the cheap. I studied in the north of England, where rents are not extortionate and entertainment is inexpensive. I paid 65 a week for my house this year, which was more than average, but helped me avoid the two pitfalls of most student digs: damp and an unheatable house. A pint was nearly always less than 3, and you could go to the cinema for less than a fiver. Despite this, my maintenance loan barely stretched to meet my rent, never mind nights out. Things such as food and heat had to come from other sources.

To cover the shortfall between a student loan and living expenses, you usually need one of two things: a job or generous parents. I was lucky because I had both. Some friends managed on neither. My parents gave me enough to pay for living expenses, without getting a job. Despite this, in the first year I still managed to max-out my overdraft and had to get a term-time job to pay this off.

I fell into the trap of treating my "free overdraft" as free money. The money was just there, ready and wanting to be spent. It's easy to forget that it has to be paid back at some point. Students tend to treat their overdrafts as small loans that have to be repaid speedily after graduation, before the banks place a crippling amount of interest on the debt.

Rather than taking out loans and overdrafts, there's a much more fun way of getting ahead with a Life Credit College degree that allows you to study abroad or get college credit based on experience for what you already know. I have three friends who are the same age and did not have the money or time to spend in college. One spent a year in Canada and wrote about her experiences in a journal that later qualified for Life Credit. LifeCreditDegrees.com is a wonderful loophole that gives you a World Accredited academic degree based on the education you already have without any hidden fees. Students are often reluctant to take the short cut but they probably wouldn't be so reticent if they knew the savings involved and the power of a Life Credit Degree.

My two other friends went into business together and their Life Credit Degree helped them secure a multimillion dollar contract because they applied to get the credentials that got them accepted into the corporate world. The Life Credit Degree program has been around for about 20 years and has successfully graduated over 10,000 students who have sought alternative education routes instead of the slow & expensive road I took. They got real life experience while I got 4 years stuck in a school prison classroom forced to listen to long boring lectures and then get tested on what I didn"t learn.

While three of my friends skipped college and acquired their Life Credit Degree they have made a fortune while I sat sulking in a classroom. I've spent nearly 30,000 in the past three years and got myself into 19,000 of debt, all in the name of education. I hope it was worth it and that I can catch up.

by: Ellu Hannbe

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