FIVE TIPS TO HELP SINGLE PARENTS AFFORD THEIR MASTER’S DEGREE

Updated November 22, 2022 · 1 Min Read

Financial help for single parents attending grad school is usually necessary. Read up on our guide to finding help for single parents to afford grad school.

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Tips to Afford A Master's Degree

  • Sell Your Junk
  • Freelance Tutoring
  • Consider Options In Odd Jobs
  • Cut Back On Minor Daily Expenses
  • Appeal For A Personalized Payment Plan

Attending graduate school as a single parent presents several challenges, finances being one of them. Coming up with the money to put toward a master's degree is simply a matter of looking in easy-to-overlook places for savings and earning opportunities. The following methods are all highly effective forms of help for single parents to afford grad school

Sell Your Junk

Consider using the things that you have laying around the house as an opportunity to dig up a little bit more income. The average person has thousands of dollars of unused miscellaneous in their home that could be liquidated just by putting them up online for sale. It may not be possible to immediately turn every bit of junk in your house into cash, but after a few weeks of just putting a few things online here and there, you can quickly find that you had more profitability in your home than you ever thought before.

Freelance Tutoring

Consider becoming a tutor in an area of study that you have an interest in getting your master's degree in in the first place. Even if you don't have your masters degree yet, chances are that there are plenty of people who could benefit from credible lessons taught by someone with your level of experience and it. There are plenty of online platforms where you can find people that will pay you to teach them more about a subject that you've already been studying, so don't hesitate to take some time looking for them.

Consider Options In Odd Jobs

If you don't have enough extra money left over from your job to put as much toward the massive as you thought, consider looking into the job market. There are plenty of side gigs available on online job boards that can only a couple of hours of your time during week to build up a small stream of side income. Even if it doesn't make you a millionaire overnight, having a couple hundred extra dollars a week to put toward your master's can quickly add up. If you develop a reputation for being able to pull off odd jobs reliably, you can find that the work becomes a lot more frequent down the line.

Cut Back On Minor Daily Expenses

Think of your least important expenses and consider the ways that these can be cut down every now and then. Even if a morning coffee only cost about three dollars, buying it every single day could easily add up to nearly $100 less at the end of the month than you would have otherwise. Make a list of all of these little micro-transactions that seem to creep up onto your receipts a regular basis and see how much you can save by cutting them out.

Appeal For A Personalized Payment Plan

Consider making a case to the master's program directors to highlight your eligibility for a personalized payment plan. Certain programs make considerations for those who make it apparent that they are completely willing to put their best foot forward and can be wisely invested in. If you make your financial situation completely clear and demonstrate genuine willingness to do your best in the program, you may find that the help for single parents to afford grad school are more generous than you expected.

Related:

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