Don’t Drop!

Throughout my first two semesters at Hanover, many students dropped courses they struggled in, leaving them with 3 instead of 4 classes.  While having less homework and extra time is nice, those students still pay the same tuition as every other student—and when the tuition is near $20,000 a semester, each class is worth approximately $5,000.

Before dropping any class, consider the extra money you may have to spend later on an additional semester of school when you don’t have enough credits to graduate in four years or meet graduate school requirements.  Other students struggle through an entire course–they don’t drop it but end up having to repeat it the next year because they either fail it or don’t achieve their goal GPA.  This is a great way to spend another $5,000!

In this way, it is very important to study hard and choose your courses wisely (I find talking to upperclassmen and professors about specific classes BEFORE I register for them to be extremely helpful).

An alternative option:  some students take classes during the summer at universities near their hometowns.  The upside is that the associated tuition costs are generally much lower than those of a liberal arts school.  That way, a student can try to get enough credits to graduate a semester early and save about $20,000…maybe a get a brand new car?  Obviously it is imperative to make sure that the courses will transfer to the credits required, however.

Placement Tests!

For first year students, make sure you place into the correct math and language classes before you spend thousands of dollars on a class you may fail.  I have heard so many stories about students placing into an advanced math class, only to fail it an end up taking the basic math class the next semester and then the advanced course again to replace it.

One thing that really scared me about Hanover was that, once placed into a certain foreign language class, you could not move down a level.  By some lucky guesses, I placed into a junior level French class; I was not certain that I could handle that high of a level (because I haven’t taken French in two years), so I decided to switch to a class in introductory Latin instead of running the risk of wasting class space.

Write it out

At Hanover, students are not allowed to declare a major until Sophomore year, but I am once again channeling my planning skills to get the most out of my money!  I would recommend to all students to read the course catalog for your college in full, particularly those courses for your major.  Create a plan and mock schedule for the next four years to get a general idea of what courses you will take as well as where those courses will take you.

By planning ahead last summer, I realized that along with my Biology major, I can either double major in Chemistry or have two minors.  I would never have thought that I could do so much in four years if I had not taken the time to write it all out.

Another reason to plan out your courses is to make sure that you can graduate in four years.  It would suck to take too many electives and end up needed the course space for school or major requirements.  If you go into college undecided about a career, it may be a little difficult to plan your junior and senior years, because most of your classes will probably be for your major.  In that case, take the classes required by your school during your first years—that way you can take a wide range of classes to hopefully spark an interest, and if it takes you over a year to decide on a major, you will hopefully not have to pay for a fifth year’s tuition.

Planning Classes

At Hanover, we recently scheduled classes for next year.  As I mentioned in my last post, one course at any typical liberal arts school averages out to approximately $5,000, therefore I think one of the best ways to save money while in college is to pick the right classes.  With some thorough planning, you could graduate a semester early and save yourself over $20,000; yet with a few wrong choices, you could end up needed to stay an extra semester in order to graduate.  In my next several posts I will discuss and give tips about how to choose the right classes to take.

My first tip:  At Hanover, our one-class, one-month term is coming up.  Many students choose to take blow-off classes, like ‘How to Play Beach Volleyball.’  Not to diminish this class, but is learning to play beach volleyball really worth $5,000?  Instead, I recommend choosing valuable classes that will help you in your career and/or life so that you maximize your monetary return on your college education.

For example, I’m using my elective space to take introductory classes in Psychology, Communication, Computer Science, and Economics.  That way, when I am a professional, I have some background knowledge in a wide variety of areas important to whatever medical business I enter.   Plus, I can always learn to play beach volleyball for free at my local community center 🙂

AP Classes

A few days ago I was reviewing my “course history” at Hanover, and it dawned on me that the AP classes I took in high school indirectly return A LOT OF MONEY.  I took 5 AP classes in high school and received 6 college credits (my calculus score was high enough to count for two math classes).   6 credits—big deal, right?  Well, with tuition of about $40,000 per year (averaging to approximately $5,000 per course), I saved myself $30,000.  I would say $30,000 is a big deal!

With all the extra course space I gained from these AP credits, I could either graduate a semester early or take a greater number of specialized courses—those extra classes might put me ahead of other pre-med students who had to use the same class space to take the basic courses I already earned credit for.

So take advantage of any AP course offerings while you are still in high school!  Check the colleges you are considering—what AP scores do they accept?  Take practice exams and buy preparation books.  The next time you complain about having to study a little bit harder or about having to pay the $95 fee to take each AP exam, think about $5,000 returning into your bank account.  That should cheer you up and it might even motivate you to study a little harder 🙂