THINGS EVERY STUDENT SHOULD KNOW

There are a lot of different reasons that people attend community colleges, but for me, the most significant one was cost. I was made painfully aware from the time I graduated high school that if I wanted to attend college, it was going to be on my dime.

While attending Mt. Hood has definitely ended up being a lot cheaper than attending a four-year university, any way you look at it, college costs add up.

Accordingly, I’ve gone ahead and taken the liberty of distilling what little financial advice I’ve gleaned over the past two years. May it serve you well.

1)  Stop buying textbooks.

I’m going to repeat that one, ’cause it’s a big one: STOP. BUYING. TEXTBOOKS.

There is literally no good reason on earth why you should ever, ever, ever have to buy another textbook ever again. The whole industry’s a scam! The markup is huge, you can’t get any money back for them, you’ll never use them again, and within three years they’ve published a new edition rendering the copy you have outdated.

So, there’s a few ways to go about this. Always wait two weeks before even thinking about getting a textbook – sometimes, instructors end up going over everything that they assigned for reading in their lectures, anyway.

Let’s assume that it’s a class where you really do need a textbook. Fine. Check the library! The Front Desk at the Library has textbooks for almost every class, and the staff are more than happy to loan them out to you, for up to two hours. Sure, it means you can’t do the reading at home, but if it saves you $100, it’s worth it.

But let’s assume it’s a rather obscure textbook that the instructor insists upon having. If they’ve published the readings they’ll be assigning in the syllabus, find some poor sap who went and bought the book and offer them $10 to scan their textbook/take pictures on your phone of the assigned reading. It seems ridiculous, but it’ll save you a lot of money.

Now, let’s assume you’re horribly introverted and the thought of talking to a person you don’t know, much less asking them a favor, fills you with breathless anxiety. Pretty much every textbook ever assigned will be available on Amazon, typically used copies far below what the Bookstore will charge you. If you can’t find a used copy, look for a different edition – the Third Edition of “Art Through the Ages” is almost exactly the same as the Fourth Edition, just $80 cheaper and with different page numbers.

Follow these steps, and you should be able to save yourself the cost of at least three textbooks a term, putting between $150-$300 right in your pocket each term. That’s money you could spend on gas, on food, on beer, on literally anything you like!

Speaking of gas:

2)  Get a bike!

With all the money you’ve saved not buying textbooks, that should free up about $200 from your financial aid, just in your first term. A quick Craigslist scan will show you tons of bikes in that price range. Community Cycling Center, located in Portland, also has tons of cheap, recycled bikes in that price range.

Buying a bike is awesome. It’s good for you, good for the planet, and, most importantly, will continue to save you money long after you buy it. Let’s say you ride TriMet – if you’re buying a monthly pass, that’s $100 a month, $1,200 a year! Spending $200 or so on a bike instead will literally put $1,000 in your pocket every year.

And if you currently have a car, you don’t need me to tell you how expensive it is, between gas and insurance.

3)  Stop working retail

I cannot stress this one enough. Retail jobs tend to be comparatively easy to get – shops/stores tend to have more entry-level positions available, more room for advancement, and require less experience, making them very attractive for college students who may not have a diverse résumé (or any résumé, for that matter) yet.

But the hours are long, the scheduling terrible, the pay is shitty and the work just plain sucks. Those of you who’ve worked retail know what I’m talking about; those of you who don’t, pray you never find out.

Instead, try and get a job at a bar or a restaurant, if you can. Restaurants also offer a lot of entry-level positions, as turnover tends to be very high. Little to no experience is typically required for hosting or bussing, the hours are really flexible, the combination of a guaranteed wage plus tips ensures that the time you spend working there gives you a decent financial return, and there’s tons of people who are usually happy to buy you alcohol should you be underage.

4)  Get a job on campus

If, however, you’ve applied everywhere in your area (and I mean everywhere), there are tons of opportunities to make money on campus. Those slack-jawed people sitting at the desk at the computer lab? They’re getting paid to sit and look at their phones!

Now, Work Study opportunities aren’t available for every student – it usually depends on your FAFSA information, so it’s worth checking in at the Student Services office. But if you don’t qualify for Work Study, there’s a lot of campus programs that offer something called a tuition waiver, which reimburses you for money you’ve spent on tuition.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Well, goodness, I’d love to get one of these fancy tuition waivers, but where on earth could I ever find one?”

Luckily, you’re holding the answer between your fingertips! The Advocate is a great way to earn tuition waivers or Work Study while you polish your writing skills, work with cool people, develop your résumé, and have a whole lot of fun in the process – right here on campus.