January 28, 2022 marked my one year anniversary of paying off my student loans . Reflecting back on choosing to pay off my student loans leaves me with several take a ways that I want to share with you! In September 2020 I decided to become debt free by utilizing the debt snowball method to pay off all my debt. Before this I had struggled to save and really understand basic financial principles. As a first-generation college student, I received a scholarship to attend undergrad for free, but the scholarship did not cover summers. During the summers I took out student loans to cover costs without paying interest rates or how much I was taking out. By the end of undergrad I had amassed a little under $17K. Fast forward to graduate school I received another scholarship that covered my education. At the time I was a teacher in a new very expensive city and I had missed the cutoff to have my paycheck last me throughout the summer. So, I decided to take out a loan for two summers to keep
Last week my office hosted our very first summer camp for transition age youth with disabilities. Many of the students were away from home for the first time and had never been exposed to a college environment before. The aim of the camp was to provide the students with an introduction to college life to assist them in their transition from high school to college. The students had a great time and so did our office. But that got me to thinking on what would I recommend for first time college students. As a first generation college student myself there were so many things that I didn’t know and I wanted to make sure our campers would be better prepared than I was. Take a look at my top five giveaways for first year students: 1. Advocacy Many times students are so used to their parents doing everything for them that when they get to college and staff cannot event speak to their parents without consent they are like fish out of water. Things do not just happen in college. You