With the increasing cost of higher education, it's a sad fact that many of us cannot afford to pay out of pocket for college today.  Some of us are fortunate in that our parents have set up college funds for us or we are academically gifted or athletic enough to have been offered a scholarship that covers the cost of our college tuition. However, the majority of us are left to come up with the cash on our own.  Essentially, we are therefore left with two choices, either work like crazy and hope to put away enough money to cover the cost of college, or borrow the money and pay it back later.  The first option would take the best of us quite a few years and in the process many of us would get side tracked and not follow through on our educational dreams.  As a result, the only alternative for the majority of us is to pick up the phone and talk to a Financial Aid counselor at our school, to find out about federal or alternative education loans to pay our tuition.  

Before you do this, you need to think about what you are about to do.  Sure, some of the financial aid package will be grant money that does not have to be repaid.  Some may even be scholarship or work study money.  But, rest assured, it is highly likely that some will be either federal or alternative loans.  If this is the case, you need to sit down and think through your situation.  Loans have to be repaid. Most times you can set things up so that you don’t have to begin repayment until after you graduate.  However, if you stop attending the college, this may trigger a repayment clause that causes you to have to start making payments even though you did not actually complete the program. This scenario is currently causing concern to a significant number of individuals who did not think through the process and jumped in and then needed to jump back out for one reason or the other.

We are not trying to discourage you from pursuing your educational dreams.  On the contrary, nothing would be more pleasing to know that you found this website helpful.  The only point we are trying to convey to you is, before you accept a loan you should have thought through and decided that you are able to commit the time and effort needed to complete the program that you are planning to start. 

You also want to make sure that the program you want to study will prepare you for a position that will allow you to earn enough so that you can payback your student loans.   To do this you should first speak to the college counselors to hear their view point.  However, you should not stop there; you should also speak to employers and other professionals in the same field and see what their experience has been.  People working in the field trying to make a living can give you a good idea about what you should expect if you become a professional in the same field.

If you have a good understanding of the field and the relating job environment, and you have thought through how you can set aside the time and effort needed to complete the program of study, then you would be way ahead of many of the others out there who are starting on the same path.  The main difference between you and them is that you know that you are making an informed decision and at the end of the program you know what’s waiting for you.  Education is an investment in you.  It is a bet that you are making on you.  Planning and thinking through your choices will only improve your odds and increase your chance of succeeding.