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Tulane University's Biloxi Campus is one of the best values for your education dollar in America. Compared to other top schools in America or the Deep South tuition, remains a bargain. For that you are receiving an accredited degree that will allow you to join the elite of South Mississippi society or will help you in your future endeavors no matter where life may take you. |
Having said that, I also realize that it is hard to justify thousands of dollars in the here-and-now with the mere promise of a better life in the future. For that reason, allow me to offer some suggestions for easing the financial burden.
It is elementary accounting (usually expressed on the Income Statement) that Revenues minus Expenses (or costs if you prefer) equals Profits (or at least reduces Losses). To that end, you have some options that will help you raise the revenues (bring more money in) that you have coming in, or to lower the expenses (cut your costs) that you are paying out. I assume you already know the obvious (get a job, do some babysitting, etc.) so let me focus instead on some relatively unknown suggestions.
One thing that helps both Increase Income and Cut Costs is to: GET YOUR DEGREE OVER WITH!!!!I see too many students taking the slow path to their degree which increases the number of semesters they have to pay tuition while at the same time delaying those better paying jobs that they will almost certainly pursue once they have a diploma. GET YOUR DEGREE OVER WITH!!!!
1. Election Worker Jobs: Each year Mississippi has an election cycle. This means that the counties have to hire hundreds of election workers (called Poll Managers) to run the balloting that occurs in each precinct on Election Day. Guess what- these are paid positions! In Jackson County a Poll Manager is paid between $75 and $95 for working one day plus $10 for attending a one-hour training session with no money taken out for taxes due to the small amounts involved (other counties do it differently). You have to be a registered voter in the county to be considered. When you consider that there are three to four balloting days per year, then serving as a Poll Manager can pay for 15 to 25% of a semester's tuition.
Warning: it is a long day (a little before 7 AM to a little after 7 PM with an hour for lunch) so the hourly rate isn't very good, but the daily rate is excellent! How much would you make in a day working at a minimum wage job where they take taxes out?
So how do you get hired to do this? Your county Election Commission hires people for the General Elections that occur in November (and any Special "oddball" Elections) while the political parties (specifically the Democratic or Republican Executive Committee) hire election workers for the Primaries and Run-offs that take place earlier in the year. If you are hired for the Primary Election then there is a good chance that the Election Commission will call you to work the General Election. You can find the Election Commissioners in the Blue Pages of your Phone Book (try the Circuit Clerk's Office as a substitute) and the Executive Committees by contacting their respective Mississippi Party Headquarters.
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The key is to let people know that you want to work and to be flexible. Everyone wants to work in their own precinct so if you are willing to work in ANY precinct then your chances of being hired go up. Likewise if you are a Democrat/Republican but willing to work for either party then your chances of being hired go up. The other advantage that you have is that you are younger than the average Poll Managers who tend to be retirees and may have trouble reading names or dealing with technology.
2. Work for Companies that have Tuition Reimbursement: Many companies here on the Mississippi Coast have some form of Tuition Reimbursement. The key is to find these companies and find out which jobs are covered by their reimbursement plans. Many plans are different: the casinos tend to reimburse you based on how you do on your grades in a semester while I was told that Chile's Restaurant will give you $200 a semester for completing/passing the course no matter what your grades are. You may already be working for one of these companies and not know it! Do I need to say it? ASK!!!!
Based on research done by my students in the past, we have found that the following companies offer some form of Tuition Reimbursement (If you know of any others, feel free to contact me):
Chile's
Grand Casinos
Beau Rivage
Casino Magic
Palace Casino
Isle of Capri Casino
Treasure Bay Casino
3. Go to Work for the University: Full-time faculty and staff may not make much, but they are entitled to one or two free courses a semester if they can take them without interfering with their jobs. Plus their kids can het a break on their tuition.
4. Join the National Guard / Reserves: For one weekend a month you get paid based on your rank and if you qualify for the Reserve G.I Bill you get paid $200 per month for each month that you are in college full-time (as long as you are willing to give the Reserves six years of service). Not for everyone, but it could be for you.
5. Get paid to Surf: I've never tried it but there are ways to be paid to surf the internet. Basically you allow a company to dictate the advertising you see in the Browser and/or Banner Ads. They then give you a certain percentage of the profits they receive from the advertisers. Feel free to give them a try. You might not make much but who knows?
6. Sell your stuff on eBay: There is no end to what sells on eBay. If you have any special talents then feel free to try to make money off of them. A couple of hundred a month is the same that you would make in the National Guard Reserve G.I. Bill program.
7. Sell your textbooks! I am always amazed that people want to keep their textbooks so that they can stick them on a bookshelf somewhere and "look smart." If you have the 6th edition of a textbook, then sell it on eBay or Amazon.com and go buy the 5th, 4th, or 3rd edition instead. You can get $50 for your current edition textbooks and buy earlier editions for $5. Now who "looks smart"!! (Or even better, go to the thrift store and buy a similar textbook for a quarter. It may not be the same author, but an Accounting textbook is an Accounting textbook. You should still be able to use it as an occasional reference.)
8. Offer to tutor: If you did well in a class, offer to tutor students the following semester. While you may have more brains than money there are plenty of people with the opposite problem. Be careful here! Some people may want you to write their papers for them. If you do so then technically you are part of the "Cheating Scandal" and you can be expelled as well.
1. High Speed Internet at home: Is this really necessary? Since you are a student at Tulane you already have access to the highest speeds around while on campus. DSL or Cable Modems at home can cost $40 per month. That is almost $500 per year while you can get a regular dial-up service for less than $20 per month ($200 per year). Some dial-up services are only $10 per month. About the only function that requires high-speed internet at home is the downloading of music and unless you do it illegally that is just another drain on your finances. With a little planning, while at school you can do your high-speed work and at home access your email and do other simpler tasks and save $300-$400 per year in the process.
2. Cable Packages: Basic cable runs between $30 and $40 per month or roughly $400-500 per year. This pays for (as a student of mine said) "60 Channels of Nothing!" Also, who has time to watch television? My students are constantly complaining about not having enough hours in the day but I doubt that any of them would give up their HBO much less their regular cable channels. Many students have families so giving up Cable TV altogether is not really an option, but do you really have to pay an extra $20 per month to see HBO or could you wait for the videos? I Promise You This: the less appealing you make the Boob Tube, the more time you will have to accomplish your real goals in life. It is an addictive force that sucks the life out of you. To say nothing of the money.
3. Low-end Mac: It costs big bucks to stay on the "Bleeding Edge" of technology. However, not everyone is addicted to the internet or their computers. If you can get by with less of an internet connection then you also can save money on your computer as well. If you just use your computer to write some papers and check your email and maybe a little bit of web browsing for the news on Yahoo or Google, then you do not need the latest and greatest (and most expensive) computer. On eBay, for less than $100 to $200 you can get a perfectly good computer system that will perform these basic functions. When looking at older equipment I recommend Apple's because they tend to work better over the long haul.
The most basic computer that you should buy is a Macintosh 7500 or 7600 with at least 32 megs of RAM (more RAM is better: a lot better). You will also need:
-Global Village Platinum external serial modem ($10-20 on eBay)
-video adapter for your monitor as well as the obvious essential hardware ($5-10 on eBay)
-monitor ($20 at a thrift store which is less than the shipping cost on eBay)
-keyboard and mouse (should be included with the computer but will run $5-10 on eBay)
-If you want a little more power, instead of buying a Mac 7500 or 7600 you can buy a Mac 8600 or 9600 for a few more bucks. Or to supercharge any of these you can buy a G3 processor replacement card from Newer Systems ($30-100 on eBay) which will bring these systems up to today's standards.
As for Macintosh Software I recommend:
-Macintosh 8.1 operating system (or 8.6 if you have enough RAM) : $10 on eBay
-Clarisworks 4.0 : $10 on eBay
-Quicken 5, 6, or 7 : $5 on eBay
-Claris HomePage 2.0 or 3.0 : $10 on eBay
-If you really need the Microsoft Office suite, then you should try to find one that is the Academic or Education (Edu) version (Office 98 or Office 2001). You can save a few hundred dollars this way.
4. Save money on clothes: There is absolutely no way in this world that I would advise women on how to shop for clothes but I will say that I am always amazed at how much they are willing to spend for the most impractical clothes anyone could possibly buy. While in college you should buy things that can go with different outfits (yes women, we are talking about ensembles here). Do you really need to spend $50, $80, $100 on jeans with a special fade pattern? Or on Daisy Duke shorts? Would you wear that to a job interview?
As for the men, you should also consider the value of dressing upwards. If you have 6 pairs of jeans and two pairs of khaki slacks, perhaps you should question whether college is really for you. That might be an appropriate wardrobe for a plumber or someone else who has to get dirty for a living, but is that what you aspire to? You can start off with a navy Blue Blazer (wool please). By the time you are looking for a job, you should have at least two good suits in your closet, the first one should be gray and the second should be Navy blue. If you are ever in a pinch, you can wear the Blue Blazer with the gray or navy pants or the gray jacket with the blue pants. Stay away from faddish suits (three buttons or side vents or no vents). Suit sales typically happen in January and August at most department stores. Ask the salesmen in the Men's Department to help you find a good-fitting suit. A few other rules follow:
The bottom line for men and women: when you spend money on junky clothes, that is money you do not have to spend on clothes that you will need to upgrade your image. If you don't need them then they are not a deal, no matter how much "off-price" they are. Save that money so you will have enough when you need to spend some dressing yourself upwards. If you ever want to lower your image you can always cuss like a sailor, take a dip of snuff, pick your nose, or pass gas loudly in public.
5. Fix your car up rather than replace it: If you can do this you will save thousands each year. New cars cost at least $300-$400 each month (especially when considering insurance and car tag taxes on new cars). Keeping your college clunker running will cost at most $100-$200 per month. The problem is that your car repairs come in one lump rather than in even monthly payments. In order to make this strategy work, you either need to have $1200 in the bank or a credit card that has that much room on it AT ALL TIMES. If you need a good car for a special occasion, go to the airport and rent one for $30 per day.
6. Buy a car that fits your needs, not your desired image: The auto companies spend a lot of time, money, and effort convincing people that a car is an indicator of various things (sexiness, money, power, etc.). Don't fall into the trap. Most billionaires drive regular cars because they value their money more than their means of transportation. So should you. Right now new cars are being sold at great prices and outstanding used cars are being practically given away. Good deals usually can be found at Rental Car sales lots because the rental car companies have to regularly upgrade their cars in order to keep customers happy. These cars are typically automatic shift with underpowered engines which is perfect for the starving student who wants to save gas money.
7. Recreation not Entertainment: A night's recreation can be free (how much does it cost to walk the Biloxi beach at sunset) while a night's entertainment can run $50 to $100. When you graduate you can learn to entertain. For now, recreate! Each month the Coast tourist people put out a list of things to do for the month. Read it and circle the ones that are free. Send me other suggestions but for now, my other ideas include:
Visit the Stennis Space Museum : Free
Take up a sport (other than golf which has green fees)
Visit the places you went as a kid (Beauvoir, Scott Acquarium, etc.) the adult fees are not much more than they were for kids
8. Patronize places that offer student discounts: Some places do just that and others offer discounts that you may qualify for (i.e. if you are a military dependent you may qualify for military discounts). For instance, some insurance companies will lower your rates if you have good grades. Some banks will offer a student discount (although a credit union is probably free for most of what you need). Why pay more for the same services when some companies WANT your business? Be aware that some of these discounts are only for certain days of the week or certain hours on a particular day. Students of mine found in 2001 that the following area businesses offered student discounts:
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In conclusion, you can have it all but not all at once. You cannot afford college and lead the lifestyle of the rich and famous all at the same time on your dime. And if someone else is paying then why are you even reading this?
You don't want people to say you have "Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget." That is not intended to be a compliment.
I hope these suggestions have helped.
© 2003/2004/2006
Last updated 17 JUL 2006