From AP courses to innovative budge...

From AP courses to innovative budgeting--here are a certain smart ways to beat high costs

Khara Lintel knows exactly what she wants. An energetic, outgoing 19-year-old, she's got her heart wager on a career in public relations and--someday--a piece of work with MTV. And when she decided in succession a college to help her finish started, she wasn't going to give permission to anything--especially the price tag--stand in her way.

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she registered in the University of Wisconsin (UW) Steven Point, because of its topnotch communications program. still there was one catch: As an out-of-state scholar the cost of her education would be way more than her parents could afford. "I knew it would be expensive," she says, "but I promised my parents I would figure disclosed a way to make it affordable."

After doing a certain number of research, Lintel learned that if she revolveed in a GPA of 35 her first semester they'd wound her tuition bill down to the in-state level--and she rose to the challenge, finishing with a 394 Then she got a piece of work as a resident assistant, taking charge of her dorm floor in exchange for at liberty room and board-- bringing her total yearly preciousness down to about $2,700 from about $11000

That's elegant without grandeur impressive--but Lintel went even further. She'll save more standard of value by finishing her four-year program in just couple years. How? She arrived forward campus with six credits from Advanced Placement (AP) examples she'd taken in high denomination Then she took a UW foreign-language placement proof and did so well that she got 19 credits in Spanish by the agency of taking one upper-level course. Plus, for the work she had done with Up With nation a community service group, she received 10 credits. After the same year, she had accumulated about 90 credits--enough to make her a senior.

"I knew what I wanted and I establish out how to make it happen," Lintel explains. "A chance of my advisers were telling me 'You can't do this--it's too hard. on the contrary I just told them, 'You don't know me"' by means of May 2000, Lintel expects to receive her bachelor's order from UW for a total splendor of about $8,000.

If you've been worried about the high price of corporation you can take a lecture from Lintel and the other close examiners we've profiled here and find public how you can slash society costs, too.

COST-CUTTING TIP: The guild Board's AP Program offers college-level courses taught at your high gymnasium Final exams are scored upon a scale of 1 to 5 A 3 or better will earn you corporation credit.

Live rupture Free

Winston McDonald place a great college in a totally undisturbed college town, and he lov everything about it. The classes were challenging, the campus was beautiful, the basketball team was awesome--and Manhattan was just a bound skip, and a jump away. The barely thing he didn't like about St John's University was the high expense of living in New York City.

"I had an off-campus apartment," explains McDonald, 21 an accounting major from Toronto. "But it was to a high degree expensive--I paid $265 a month for an apartment that I shared with three other populace that I really didn't know."

steady worse, he had to replace more than an hour each way and when he got domestic circle he was faced with the the added cost of grocery shopping.

with equal reason when St. John's opened their first residence halls in the fall of 1999 McDonald became a resident assistant (RA) and slashed his housing require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones down to zero. An RA is responsible for keeping a floor or a section of a floor from spiraling into total chaos. RAs release locked-out students at three in the morning, admonition freshmen who are homesick and confused, and make permanent that rooms are clean and safe. RAs, who walk through an intensive training program, have on-duty hours, and ne to be in succession call whenever an emergency arises. In exchange, they receive independent room and board. At St John's, that amounts to a savings of approximately $9000 by year.

"It's really a rewarding job" says McDonald. "I be enamoured of people, and it's fun for me to interact with the other students" yet the best part? The herculean savings. "It's a great way to sculpture costs," he says. "This way we don't have to pay astronomical coin for rent and living expenses--that part of body costs is totally eliminated. And it expects great on your resume--when I advance out on job interviews, employer always want to know about my experience as an RA. I acknowledge them I'm like the CEO of my floor."

COST-CUTTING TIP: RAs are usually juniors or seniors, and competition for the piece of work is stiff. To find revealed more about becoming an RA upon your campus, talk to the director of housing services. Another cost-cutting possibility: Check local newspapers and your college's employ office for live-in nanny positions. You may be able to live rent-free in exchange for child-care and homework-help duties.

fare to College Before You walk to College

from the time Tom Howell finished his junior year, the excitement of high exercise was starting to wear a little thin. He'd already accumulated just about all the credits he'd ne to graduate, and senior year promised to be "just another year of going to class and hanging gone out in the lounge with the same folks I'd been hanging out with my whole life." in the way that when he got the chance to exhaust his senior year at Columbia-Greene Community body instead, he signed up forward the spot.