If you want to have a college degree from a University, but think the cost is mind boggling you are not! As an example, if you live in Arizona so you would pay in state tuition at ASU. Without adding in the cost of housing if you already live in an apartment, your total yearly costs would be around $18,000. Your task is to find a way that you could save as much money as possible and still meet your ultimate goal. And while you may not spend all of your college years at that specific university, you will still be able to get your diploma from there.

The first thing to do is have a plan. You have to get all of your ducks in a row, and make sure that everything would be acceptable according to the universities guidelines. Then  set out to find alternatives to taking classes at ASU that would be able to transfer into ASU when you are ready to finish up. After all, what a nightmare it would be to take a bunch of classes only to find out that they would not transfer in to ASU or any other state university.

Almost all of the general elective classes can be taken at a junior college. Perhaps enroll in the local community college which is only a few miles from your house since they are located all over the Valley. Your cost if you are an in state student there as well would only be $71.00 per credit hour, which is significantly less than what you would be paying at ASU. You are also able to save a ton of money on the textbooks too by buying used ones. Another advantage of the used textbooks is some of them are already highlighted, and the people that did the highlighting did a good job of it!

Another thing you can do is check into online colleges. There are so many out there that are accredited, so you know that the credits will transfer. Not only do you save a whole bunch of money by taking some classes online, but for the most part it is all entirely on your schedule. You can knock that stuff out on weekends or at night when nothing else is going on. And you don’t even need to leave the apartment.

So you are saving a ton of money on your education. And you know that when it comes time to finish up, you can just transfer your credits over and walk away with a diploma from ASU.