The cost of college can be backbreaking to just about anyone. No matter how much budgeting you’ve done, money you’ve saved and scenarios you’ve outlined, the sticker shock can be unsettling.
South Carolina public universities aren’t cheap. This is especially true compared to our neighbors to the north. According to US News and World Report, the total cost to attend Clemson for in-state students is 34K. This is $9K more expensive per year than the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill).
These numbers aren’t applicable to every situation, and the spread is different depending on the schools you’re comparing, but you get the idea. Public universities in South Carolina are higher on average than their counterparts in North Carolina. Now that we’ve established this to be true, what can we do to help pay for the difference?
Outside of 529 plans and traditional savings options, there are other tools that you can use to help pay for your kids to attend the college of their choice. Let’s explore a few of them.
Scholarship Programs
The state of South Carolina offers several scholarships for prospective students. The SC Hope, Life and Palmetto Fellows are great ways to help supplement the cost of college. This is especially true for students who have academically excelled in high school.
There are also needs based grant and additional tuition assistance programs available. The ROTC program is even more lucrative, if there’s an inclination toward the military. All of these can be found on the SC Commision on Higher Education website:
https://www.che.sc.gov/students-families-and-military/scholarships-and-grants-sc-residents
Tuition Assistance
Many prospective college students work a part time job to either save money or gain much needed life skills as they transition to adulthood. Since they’re working a job anyway, they may as well make the most of the benefits being offered.
Multiple companies offer tuition assistance for part and full time employees. This is nothing new for those of us that have been employed at large companies where we were working 40 hours a week or more. What may be new is finding out companies like Chipotle and Chick Fil A offer tuition assistance, scholarships or both.
Using Chipotle as our example, employees who meet specific requirements are eligible for up to $5,250 per year in tuition assistance. The requirements are more than reasonable. Employees need to work for 15 hours for 4 months in order to qualify.
That’s easy money, just for holding down a part time job that they’d probably want or need to do anyway.
Check out the following site to find additional scholarship opportunities: https://scholarships360.org/
Tuition Exchange
This one is a bit harder for us in the Greater Charlotte area, but it’s still an option. Many schools, most of them private, have something called “Tuition Exchange.” This is a program designed to offer free or reduced tuition to faculty and staff of certain institutions.
I personally know a couple who’s been able to send both of their kids to college, free of charge, simply because one of them works at a college that’s part of the program. The best part is, in many cases you can either go to the school where the parent or guardian works or decide to attend one of the partner schools (as long as you qualify for admission).
Most of the member schools for South Carolina would be quite a hike for those of us in and around Charlotte, but schools like Queens University and Pfeiffer University are close enough for consideration.
Visit the Tuition Exchange website to learn more, including which schools participate according to state: https://telo.tuitionexchange.org/schools.cfm
There’s no doubt I’m simplifying all of these options. There are any number of barriers and forms that would need to be included for consideration. But, the good news is, you have options. There are ways to send your child to college without completely depleting your savings or putting them in debt upon graduation.
Having trouble kicking them out of the house after they’ve graduated?
I’m here to help you save money. I can’t work miracles.
