Any College survivors with no student loans or debt?

I'm a senior in college and I don't have any loans or debt but only because my parents have paid for everything, otherwise I would be up to my ears in debt.

I owe $80,000. But it was worth every penny. I have a great paying job with a lot of potential for growth.

Hi Maddie! I worked for about four years to save up money for college. And when I finally started, I worked my tail off. I had a federal work-studies job for 15 hours a week. I also waited tables at night and on the weekends. I watched my budget by eating cheaply (rice and beans!), keeping my thermostat low, riding my bike instead of driving, living in a cheap apartment, etc. I never went out to dinner/movies etc (unless a guy was taking me out on a date - haha!)

I ended up graduating with no debt at all! It was tough work, but worth it!

Hello, I'm definitely a partaker in the Financial Aid/debt scenario. I will tell you that most inevitably unless you go part time with a full time job or have someone pay for all your schooling you will go into debt. Especially with something like a nursing program because you will not have time to work as a lot of the time you are working internships and they have a TON of homework as you are catering for someone's life and well being.

I personally am in a good spot as my husband is working full time and allowing me to go to school. I still have to pull debt though because we do not have the money out of pocket to pay for tuition. This does allow me not to work for now but I will eventually as I'm interested in doing work study to really tie down the debt as it's added up since I've gone into my Junior year. The thing you need to remember is that this is an INVESTMENT into your future. You can either work at McDonalds or a cell center for the rest of your life living paycheck to paycheck or you can go to school with some LOW INTEREST federal debt and pay it off with a high paying job and then some. It is definitely by far the latter that I think is much more fulfilling and it's way better then credit card debt.

FAFSA will give you enough money to pay for tuition and a bit extra to pay for living expenses. You can work but I wouldn't recommend more then 20 hours a week. They say the ideal is actually 9 hours! Also there is not just loans in the rewards package for school. You can also get grants to help out... I got grants to pay for most of my school because I barely make anything. Honestly the less you make the better off you are. And look into work study... it can save you tons of money!!

AND text books. Oh lordy... Have I found the way to make these affordable. You can RENT text books!!!! Just look it up online and sometimes schools give links for this... Seriously, rent your text books! I spend maybe 150-200 instead of 500-600 for books. All you need is the ISBN numbers....

I really hope you go into school! Don't let loans and debt scare you. They will not eat you like sharks when you graduate and work really well with people after its all done and over with from what I've seen.

Good luck.

I put myself completely through college, BS and MS degrees. I worked full time the entire time with the exception of one semester where I took 21 units. I had a bit of credit card debt when I was done, but I managed to do it without any student loans or financial aid.

I am currently working in the financial Aid dept. at a Canadian college. It is worth talking to someone from the school you are planning to attend. Not sure about others places, but our province has grants that you can apply for and as long as you pass your classes you won't have to pay those amounts back. Also our college has tonnes of scholarships and bursaries that students can apply for every sememster. There is also a great website www.studentawards.com that you could check out. Good luck!

4 years college (private), 2 years grad school (out-of-state tuition at a state university); last loan payment made just before my 40th birthday

I don't have any debt from school, but I only have a bachelor's; I'm sure if I went to grad school, I would have accumulated some. No debt because I got a boatload of scholarships from being Valedictorian in high school and having high ACT scores. I applied to as many as I could and that covered my expenses through school. I didn't work at all (wanted the full, stress-free college experience :-D) until the summer going into my senior year.

When I went to college, my parents saved up enough money for tuition for all 4 years (in-state university, about $2k per year back then between '97 and '01). The housing, food, etc. went on my credit card and I lived on campus all 4 years. I never used the credit card for ANYTHING else, and it was totally paid off when I graduated. I had a job working at a movie theater and a drug store after that, and I saved nearly all my money to pay debts.

For graduate school, I was given a generous stipend. I lived with my parents since the university I went to for grad school was only 25 minutes away from their house. The stipend paid for my car, gas, etc. However, the stipend was high enough that I could have gotten an apartment if I wanted to, but...my parents were being super cool letting me stay, so why move? I enjoyed making the money simply to teach A&P to nursing students.

So when I was done with school, I had no debt at all except for a car payment, but that was paid off a year later since I always pay extra every month on car payments.

I'm sure my experience is very different from others, but if you don't need to use a credit card, then don't. That's how I stayed out of debt. Sure I was missing out on a lot of things that others were doing...including going out on the weekends, vacations, buying new clothes all the time...but I currently have no debt from those years and most of the spenders do.

My daughter (an RN) got her 4 yr degree without going into debt. She got her STNA in high school and got a job at a hospital with that, then the hospital helped pay for college. They didn't pay for all of college, her dad and I paid for the rest. But any job that pays for some college is better than nothing!

Hahah-that is a good one! Luckily, my parent were very gracious and paid for a large portion of my undergraduate schooling but I have some debt from that. Also, I received a scholarship for all four years which really helped. However, grad school is all on me so that is where most of my debt will be from.

I knew people in college that did work study--worked at the university and their earned money went towards their tuition.