Paying for college

Going to college is a huge benefit to anyone. It allows one to earn a degree and become proficient in an area of study if one puts in the work. However, this beneficial education does not come free, it is very expensive. For example, to attend George Mason University as an in-state resident will cost $9,240 a year while out of state costs $27,564 a year. That doesn't even include room and board. Living on campus will cost you between $5,050 to $6,690 a year depending on ones living situation. These are tremendous expenses that one must pay. They do not have a choice if they want to attend the university. If one can not afford to pay it themselves, there are ways to assist them.

One way to pay for college is to save up your money and make financial decisions that will benefit the individual. Instead of buying something one wants, they should put that money in their savings for college. According to Smart Money, "Every dollar you pay up front saves nearly $2 in interest if were to borrow that dollar". That's a lot of money one ends up losing if they have to borrow money. They will eventually owe more money back than borrowed. To avoid that, it's best for the person to save up as much money as they can.

The FAFSA is a great way to help pay for college. The FAFSA determines how much money one can receive from the government in the form of grants, depending on the family's income situation. This is money that one does not need to pay back, A great advantage for everybody. However, it is not guaranteed and it's not always a lot of money, so one needs to continue saving.

A great way to make college cheaper is to attend community college first. It is significantly cheaper than attending a university right away. If one were to attend NVCC first and took 16 credits, it would only cost in-state students $2,324 and out of state students $5,440. This is significantly cheaper and saves one a good amount of money. With the money one saves attending NVCC first, they could potentially save up enough money to pay for GMU without taking any loans.

Loans are not they best way to pay for college. I would personally try to avoid them as much as one can and use them only if they're last resort. The reason to avoid loans is because one has to pay them back in a certain time period with interest. This interest causes one to lose money because they end up owing more than they borrowed in the end. It also becomes a struggle to pay back these loans when one graduates because no one is guaranteed a job. If one has no job, they will struggle to payback the loans and might end up losing other personals to cover the debt. Do yourself a favor and try to avoid loans. You will just lose money rather than gain it.

There are many ways to pay for college. One just has to find what works best for them. It will be worth the expense in the end, one just has to know the proper ways to pay it. One can save themselves debt if they can do this without losing money in the end. After all, everyone knows it's all about making money, no one wants to lose it. Many go to college just because it increases ones chances at making a bigger paycheck in the future.

Works Cited:

Bodnar, Janet, Anne Kates Smith, and  Kiplinger. "7 smart ways to pay for college - 1 - education & savings - MSN Money." Money: Personal finance, investing news & advice - MSN Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://money.msn.com/college-savings/7-smart-ways-to-pay-for-college-kiplinger.aspx>.

"GMU Admissions: Undergraduate Tuition Costs." GMU Admissions: Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://admissions.gmu.edu/common/undergraduateTuition.asp>.

"George Mason University - Office of Housing & Residence Life." George Mason University - Office of Housing & Residence Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://housing.gmu.edu/general/rates/>.

"How to Pay for College - SmartMoney.com." Online Investing: Stocks, Personal Finance & Mutual Funds at SmartMoney.com - SmartMoney.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/student-loans/how-to-pay-for-college-1305005764769/>.

"Tuition & Fees - Future Students :: Northern Virginia Community College." Northern Virginia Community College. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nvcc.edu/future-students/paying-for-college/tuition-fees/>.

Keep Up

One of the most important things one can do in college is keep up. If one falls behind, it can potentially leave you struggling to learn new material and can cause your grade to slip. College classes move at a very fast pace, and one must be able to get use to this before suffering the potential consequences.

One thing that makes many students fall behind is not doing their work in time. Many will procrastinate and say they have time to do it later. However, when the due date comes they don't have the assignment completed, leaving them behind. If one skips one assignment, they will have to make it up while doing others that have an upcoming due date. All this extra work can create chaos and leave them worried about old material instead of focusing on the new material. While the teacher and the rest of the class have moved on, the student fallen behind is stuck playing catch up, causing their grade to slip and fall behind where they should be.

Another reason for falling behind is poor attendance. Many will choose to stay in bed because they stayed up too late doing other things and wake up exhausted and out of energy. When one skips class, they miss out on important material they need to know. Because of the brisk pace college runs at, one can not afford to miss many classes. Even missing just one can put you behind farther than expected. It is very difficult to catch up once fallen behind, so one needs to attend class as much as possible. If they do, they will keep up in the class and be at pace with the teacher. If not, one will become very stressed as they try to catch up.

It is to ones benefit to stay caught up with the class. The classes won't always be fun and I know nobody likes to get up early to go to school. One just has to deal with it though so they can be successful. It will benefit them as they keep up with the class and have less stress. If one can't keep up with the class, they should consider dropping it or switch to a time frame that works for them. Whatever one does, they just need to make sure they complete all their assignments on time and stay caught up.

Netflix

Netflix is a product I would definitely recommend anyone to subscribe to. It enables you to watch a wide variety of movies and television shows for a low price of eight dollars a month. That's only $96 dollars a year which is a bargain. It doesn't sound like it, but when you consider the price of a movie ticket nowadays it $10.50, you could only watch ten movies for the same amount of money you could use to subscribe to Netflix. I would rather watch a wide variety of entertainment a year, rather than just ten movies a year. However, like every other subscription, it has its pros and cons.
One great advantage to this is the ability to cancel at any time. You are not bound to a contract and only pay for the months you use it. This makes it great to the customer as they do not feel bound to it and can cancel at anytime if they feel the service is not worth their time. Another great benefit of this service is its wide variety. It has many genres of movies such as action, comedy, horror, drama, and more. It also includes numerous genres of television shows. You will always be able to find something to watch because of its selection. You could discover your new favorite movie or tv show on there that you may have never heard of before. Because of its massive collection, you are constantly discovering new films you haven't heard of. This is always happening to me and I enjoy it. With its instant streaming, you can watch Netflix anywhere if you have items that can stream it. This includes an xbox 360, ps3, or your cell phone. It plays straight on there without you having to wait for a DVD to come in the mail. This makes it convenient and allows you to enjoy the films on the go even. You can watch it on the bus, in between class, or even in the car. You'll never be bored when you have this.
However, Netflix does have its downsides. Because of its wide variety, you can spend a good chunk of time just finding something to watch. You will find many things that interest you, but will have a hard time deciding on what to watch. Sometimes it has taken me a good 20 minutes just deciding what to watch. I'd rather use that 20 minutes actually watching something. It also doesn't always have the blockbuster movies everyone wants to see. You won't be able to find The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises on there, or other popular movies.
I would personally recommend this subscription to anybody. I have personally found it to be a good investment and I definitely get my moneys worth out of it. You will discover new things and have something to do when you're bored.

Debt and Saving Money

Saving money is one of the most important things a person can do. If one does not learn how to save money, they could lose it all and go into debt. Debt can really screw one over in life. It lowers your credit rating and stops you from doing things you would like to whether it be buying a new car or even a house. People go into debt because of their own personal decisions. This happens because many people choose to buy items with the money they don't have available. People go into debt because they buy more of what they want, rather than what they need. When it comes time to buying food or paying bills, it will be very difficult because of their decision to buy designer clothes or other items, rather than save money for future expenses such as taxes and other payments. There is nothing wrong with buying wants, one just needs to make sure they will be able to afford it without giving up necessary expenses in the future. Another big reason why people go into debt is because they constantly eat out, rather than eat at home. At first it doesn't seem like much, one feels that McDonalds's is cheap so they eat at that establishment a few times a week. However, they do not realize that those little purchases add up to a staggering amount of money. One would be amazed at how much money they could save if they cut down eating out to once a week. Not only would this save you money, it would also keep you healthier and decrease the amount of weight one would gain from eating out. That five dollars one will spend there will only satisfy them for a few hours. That money one saves can be used for more tangible items such as a new television or another item that can last a lot longer than a few hours.
Saving money is a lot easier than it sounds. One just has to learn to limit themselves and make better decisions. Cut back on eating out, and don't buy everything appealing in sight. One would be amazed at how much money they could save and use in the future. One never knows when they'll need money. They could lose their job or be in a car accident tomorrow and have medical bills. Those McDonalds receipts won't pay that bill, you will. A person with fiscal responsibility will have money saved up and will be able to cover these circumstances without racking up debt.

Works Cited:

Lau, Stephen. "Why Do People Go Into Debt?." SG & Singapore Map - Singapura, Singapur, Singapore Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/145566/debts_loans/why_do_people_go_into_debt.html>.

Blogging

In my opinion, I find blogging a waste of time. It causes you to write stuff online that most people probably don't care about and find uninteresting. Many people treat it like their personal diary, telling everything about their personal life to anyone on the internet. A lot of times, blogging can become pointless as one runs out of topics to write about, so they ramble on about something that will leave people wondering why they bothered to write that. Blogging is a way for people to express their opinions, leaving either people to agree or disagree, or just not even care at all.
Blogging doesn't show off a persons ability to write to their full potential. It causes them to write in an unstructured form so that they can talk about something. It doesn't show off true writing skill compared to an essay on a focused topic. It gives the writer a bad image, making it look like they are unskilled at writing. I am an example of this. I hate writing blogs because I find them a waste of time. I have to write about stuff for other people to read that probably don't care about it at all. I struggle every time  I'm writing a blog because it is unstructured and I waste my time trying to come up with ideas to write about. Blogging isn't going to help me in life because I never plan on doing it after english class. I've never had to do it up until this class and I doubt I'll ever do it after either. It is all opinion based, most of which others don't care about, and I feel like I could really showcase my writing skill not blogging.
Just because I don't like blogging however, doesn't mean other don't and that's fine. It is my personal opinion and we all have one. Blogging is a great way to stay connected with people that share your common interests and connect with them besides email or another form. However, I feel blogging is a bad idea for a college english class. In most cases, students are going to make stuff up when writing so that they can get it over with and get a grade on it. If they say they haven't done that at least once, they're probably lying. It doesn't showcase their true writing skill and understanding of the english language. It just shows their ability to mildly research on a topic and if they can get an assignment done on time.
I know this is all just my opinion, and it's my right to say how I feel about blogging. Getting ones opinion out is just one of the many reasons why many people blog, hoping to get people to agree with them and share their view.

Works cited:

"The Pros and Cons of Blogging." Hospitality Search Marketing ~ Travel & Tourism SEO ~ Blizzard Internet Marketing. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://newsletter.blizzardinternet.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-blogging/2008/09/17/>.

Procrastination

Procrastination is one of the absolute worst habits to have. It can damage your success and potential when in school. Many kids will end up screwing themselves over in school due to this habit. Almost everyone I know procrastinates, some more than others. However, over twenty percent of people will procrastinate and avoid tasks. They will do this by distractions or finding other things to occupy them. It's hard for most people to stop procrastinating once they start. Many will think it will be ok to procrastinate because last time they did everything turned out fine, or they will say they work better under pressure. I am an example of this. I procrastinate myself and find it hard to stop because I'm so used to it and I think that everything will always turn out alright. While some have other habits such as smoking, I have a procrastination habit. It is a habit I wish I could break. It is possible, but it requires me to put in a lot more effort and start learning to manage my time better. Time is another reason why many procrastinate. Most of us think, why do it now when we have time to do it later? But then that time turns into even more time, and next thing you know, it's the night that an assignment is due, and you have to rush to get it done in time. This leaves you struggling and rushing to get everything done before the deadline, whether you tried your best or not.
You can easily overcome procrastination, you just have to try and put in the effort. Try to tell yourself that the assignments aren't so hard and that they won't take as long as you believe. Also, try to work in a place where you know you won't be distracted. Many procrastinate because they are distracted. Try the library out for a change, whether it be the school library or public library. If you don't procrastinate, you will have time to do the things that you enjoy. Instead of doing your assignments last minute because you waited until the last minute to do your assignments, you could be watching tv or hanging with friends, rather than being rushed to get work done on time. I know everyone would rather be enjoying themselves, rather than struggling to complete their assignments.

Works Cited

"Procrastination." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2013. <www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination>.

"Procrastination - Academic Skills Center: Study Skills Library - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo." Student Academic Services - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html>.

Having A Plan

Having a plan for your future is critical. It is what causes you to take the classes you do when in college. It will decide your future and how successful you will be. If you are already in college, you should have a plan on what you want to achieve. If not, you should definitley start making one. Not having a plan, can seriously change the way your life turns out.

A plan can be one of any size. It can be short term or long term. For example, my plan is to get my degree in computer science from NVCC, and then join the Air Force. It's a short term plan that will eventually change the way my life is. Having a small plan is better than not having one at all. I am taking the proper classes I need to because of my plan. If i din't have what I wanted to do planned out, I could be taking pointless classes that will do no good for me, and just end up being a waste of money. I don't have everything planned out, but I do have enough planned so I know the right course to follow.

Having a plan will help you out just not in school, but also in everyday life. When at work, you probably have a daily, weekly, and monthly plan. It is there to help benefit the store and make as high a profit they can. If it didn't help out, the store wouldn't even bother making one. Many people use their own plan, whether it be daily, monthly, or their own rate. Give it a try. It could end up being a huge benefit to yourself and allow you to become more successful. You will never know until you try.