Saving on tuition – Advice from White Coat Investor

FANTASTIC advice from the White Coat Investor on making financial decisions as an undergraduate whose future may include expensive years of additional schooling and training. Honestly, I think this advice will be helpful to all undergraduates because the cost of living is crazy nowadays!

White Coat Investor’s message: Try to finish undergraduate  debt-free by LIMITING YOUR UNDERGRADUATE COSTS.

  1. Save on undergraduate tuition by choosing a school that doesn’t cost so much.
  2. Later on, choose the professional school that costs less. (Though I’m not at the stage of the journey yet, I’m iffy on this one. I think fit is more important there.)
  3. Live frugally.  e.g. If you don’t have to, don’t buy a car.
  4. Work part-time and/or during the summers.

Sidebar: I actually came to UBC to save on tuition because in grade 12, I knew for sure that I want to pursue professional or graduate school after undergraduate and I knew that I would need to save for that! I didn’t always have the goal that I do now so I originally applied to some schools in the States and got into some of my favourite ones. But this is how I made my decision at the end: if you want to be careful about your finances and want to minimize debt upon graduation, choose wisely between the school with a 50, 000/year pricetag vs the 10,000/year price tag. Pricey school might be better but not necessarily better. Don’t think that a more affordable school is not good enough for you because it’s public, it’s close to home, it’s not an Ivy League, etc.

You can be successful at any school. It’s up to YOU to make the resources and people surrounding you.

 

Working part-time during the school year

I’ve been thinking about getting an additional job (I already work)  since school started. I kept holding myself because I thought that I needed the time to focus on transiting from high school to university, adjusting to the amount of studying, etc. But now, I think it wasn’t so bad that I could handle more but I’m still hesitant to take on too much and have my grades suffer. Sigh… but academics are so important to me.

Any students who work part-time have any advice? I would love to know what you think in the comments or email me at shannayeung@gmail.com !

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