Image via Wikipedia

It isn’t exactly news that the cost of higher education has shot up tremendously in the past ten years. It is also not news to people that they are going to carry this debt around for years after graduation. Add into the fact that many graduates can’t get jobs in their field of education, and getting a college degree becomes questionable.

The first thing to remember is that having a degree means earning more money over your lifetime than without one. But you don’t have to leave college with so much debt that take decades to pay off. Avoiding 20 years of payments requires taking a good look at the field you want to enter, and community colleges.

Investigating your career choice is an obvious one, but why are community colleges important? Simple. A community college is cheaper and you can transfer your credits to many schools. Don’t waste your money taking a humanities class at the expensive university. Take them at the local community college, as long as the school of your choice accepts the transfers.

Most of the time, it is possible to cover the cost of classes at a lesser college with Pell grants, a little cash, and small loans. No need to take out a $12,000 loan for the first year and second year of schooling. This is also a perfect time to save what money you can for the more expensive years to come.

Work the numbers right and you’ll be graduating with a bachelor’s and a small debt load. Life is much more pleasant when there isn’t so much student loan debt to worry about.