Today, college students are facing a lot more than a sluggish job market and high cost housing at graduation. With rising tuition cost, limited grant-based aid and aggressive credit card companies campaigning on-campus, students are graduating with the highest levels of debt ever. Reducing or eliminating debt accumulated in college is not an easy task, but it is doable with proper budgeting and planning.

There are two major types of financial aid offered to college students: grants and scholarships, which are free, and loans, which has to be repaid later. Monitoring the amount of student loans accepted each term is often ignored by many college students. When the financial aid award package arrives, students are first and foremost concerned with rather it will cover that year’s tuition and fees. Not much attention goes into rather the awarded amount is too much and which awards, mainly loans, is not needed.

Preparing a budget each school term can give students an idea of how much is needed to cover necessities such as tuition, books, and personal items. Simply accepting the amount the financial aid office calculates can be very costly later. (more…)