Dwindling federal and state aid; drops in fund raising and lower endowments have forced many universities and colleges to raise tuition prices and reduce financial aid programs. The news on education costs is mighty grim, but you still have a few creative ways to keep your dreams on track.

So, what a cash-strapped student can do? These are six alternatives to student loans, which can make your life easier after the graduation.

1. Accelerate your college education. Accelerated classes will cram a semester’s worth of learning material into 6 or 8 week sessions. These classes, while intense and harder, will help you to move up the graduation date. You can land your degree at a reduced cost.

2. Join a transfer student. This may save you some serious cash. All credits earned at an affordable community college might save you nearly a thousand dollars in tuition.

3. Go where students are wanted. There should be university or college near you that’s dying to have more students. Find a school, fire off the application and watch your college education cost drop.

4. Find a tuition-free school. Overwhelmed by the likelihood of paying massive student loan after the graduation? Why not join a tuition-free school? You can get the college education without a hefty price tag. And the catch? You may need to work. Some colleges require students to work ten to fifteen hours a week

5. Lock in a tuition. If you can’t stand how college tuition keeps on shooting up? You should consider locking in a tuition rate for 4 of 5 years. You will be guaranteed to have a more affordable tuition.

6. Work in community service. Why don’t you do some good while wiping out a huge chunk of student debt at the same time? College graduates can cancel a portion or all of their federal-student debt by taking public-service jobs — usually lower-paying positions that serve low-income residential areas — or by volunteering. Student loan-forgiveness programs can be given to everyone from nurses to teachers to Peace Corps volunteers to young doctors and lawyers.

Every student wants to have a successful career in the future. To have a successful career in a specific field means that you have to study and go to college to be equipped and prepared be able to land a decent job and start building your career. Unfortunately not everyone can afford to go college because of amount of money you need to fund your education. Many availed of the student loan to fund their education but it can be hard to start a career with debts at the back of your head and the best thing to do is reduce that debt to pay off your student loan quickly.

Try to pay while still in school. Although most of the student loans do not require you to make payments while taking fulltime classes, it would be better to start making even small payments while still in school. This way by the time you got out of college, the amount you have to pay will less and you will be saving money in interest since you wont be charged of interest until you got out of college.

Pay on time. You should be responsible enough to make at least the minimum payment on time because some companies will increase their interest rates once you have missed a payment. Paying your student loan on time is also a good start on establishing and strengthening your credit history. You can also use your payment history as a basis when you request for a lower interest rate.

Pay more than the amount due. A good way to payoff your student loan quickly is to pay more than the minimum amount due if possible. This way you can payoff your student loan quickly and again can save you a large amount on money in interest.

Paying off your debt quickly to save money on interest does not limit to student loans alone but also for any type of loan. This way you can eliminate your debt quickly and one less problem for you.

There are many of students who use student loans to pay for their college. There are several types of student loans and a huge list of lenders that are willing to lend students the money they need to pay for their college. Like most of the lending companies, a student must have good credit record to be approved for a student loan. Having a bad credit may cause difficulty in getting approved for a student loan but it is still possible to obtain a student loan despite having a bad credit history.

Student loans can be generally broken into two types which is the Federal Loans and the Private Student Loans. Pell Grant and Stafford Loan are the most popular federal loans for students. Pell Grant is given to those students that are in financial need that does not have to be repaid while Stafford loan has to be repaid.

In the event that the federal loan available is not sufficient to pay for your college, you can consider and look for private student loan lenders to pay for college. It may be difficult to get approved by private student loan lenders as they check your credit history thoroughly and most students has not enough credit history and has bad credit history.

There are some private lenders that specialize in lending money to those students that have a bad credit history but the interest rates are high. A family member has to cosign your loan if you want to apply for a loan with a bad credit history. Student loan for those people that have a bad credit history is tough to get but be patient and you can use the internet to look for those companies that provides student loans to those who have a bad credit history. One other option also is to apply for a Stafford loan wherein you will not need any cosigner and they don’t look into your credit history.