Book Review: Debt Free U by Zac Bissonnette

This fascinating book by Zac Bissonnette tackles that serious concern of many a modern day parent and student...how to pay for college without incurring a high debt load. The book was published in 2010 and the author was 21, and in college, when he wrote it.  He has thought long and hard about college and has come up with powerful arguments and data to support his belief that no student needs to incur vast amounts of debt in pursuit of a college education.

  I advise that any parent whose child might be going to college read this book. I don't agree with everything Zac says, but he thinks so "outside the box" about college that the book is worth reading just to get some fresh ideas flowing about college.

 In a way, this post is a follow up to a post of a few weeks ago when I discusssed some thoughts I have about college.  Among other things, I stated that I highly desire that our children graduate from college with no debt.   How reasonable that is, I don't know.  Our 7 children were born in 11 years so obviously we COULD have many kids in college at once.  While Kevin's salary is good, it isn't enough to pay for college for all of our children to expensive places.

 But then, Zac argues that parents should NOT pay all their children's college expenses.  He himself got zero help from his parents as they were poor. 

There are parents who feel that they have an obligation to pay their children's way through college. My own parents felt that way. I appreciate the thought behind it, but I believe it is beneficial for most students to have a "stake" in college. I was fortunate enough to have scholarships and fellowships that paid for more than 95% of my college expenses. And I needed to maintain a high grade point to keep those scholarships, so I was motivated. I have known some young people who bounced happily off to college, partied a lot and generally had a great time on their parents' money. Other young people are very responsible with their parents' support and work hard.   It obviously depends greatly on the temperament the young person.

Zac advocates that students work to earn money in college, and either go to community college for a couple of years or go to an inexpensive state school.

I have some reservations about both those pieces of advice, but again ... it is thinking outside the box, and that is helpful.  First, I have some thoughts about working many hours in college.  Zac advocates an average of 30 hours a week, with the student working more hours when classes are not in session.  Well, I didn't work much while in college but then my courseload was so intense that it was moderately hard to find time. I was in engineering and many of the classes were challenging.  On the other hand, I started working 15 hours a week on research as a junior in college, and somehow found the time. So I could have worked as a freshman and sophomore.

Zac's love of state colleges is that they provide a large varietyof majors and they are tax payer funded.  Well, as a homeschooler, I've already rejected the idea that we should go entirely for the "bottom line" as it would be cheaper for us to send our children to public school than homeschool them.  I have serious reservations about some state colleges in that they are "party schools."  Actually, I don't subscribe to the idea that a young person must "go off to college" to be well rounded in life.  I believe living in a non college environment while attending classes as a commuter student can be a fine, healthy option for those students who feel led to go to college.

But I do appreciate Zac's concern about private colleges and how expensive they are.  There are cases where students get huge grants and scholarships. That's great.  Other times, large loans are lumped in with the financial aid package and students are encouraged to "go to school now, worry about paying it later" and that can lead to disaster and discouragements for decades after college.

Zac also discusses the financial aid issue at great length, including the infamous FAFSA.  This document is full of complicated formulas for determing what aid a student can earn based on family income and the student's own savings. One interesting and sad fact is that students with a lot of personal savings through working hard in high school are penalized compared to those students who have almost nothing in savings.  So a student who sits around all summer playing video games has an advantage (on the FAFSA) over a student who works 40 hour weeks to save for college.

So again, if you will likely have a child going to college, I heartily recommend this book.