How I Earned My Bachelor's Degree at 19 Years Old For Less Than US$3,000
- Bella Robben
- Jan 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 13
One of the best things I've ever done - learning how to get my Bachelor's Degree for under US$3,000! Please find below my exact steps and understand this was just my experience and situation.
Junior Year of High School
Yes, getting my college degree started when I was a junior in high school. You are probably thinking I was a fantastic student which could not be further from the truth... I was very a C's get degrees type of gal and on top of that COVID was brewing during this time!
But the key here is that my high school had a deal with our local community college so that we could take college level courses such as AP Lit, AP Lang, Trigonometry/Pre-Calc, Spanish 5 and other business classes. Essentially, I went to my high school counselor and said, I want to take as many of these as possible and so while I was doing a full-time school schedule, I also piled on 1 online college course. Although it may sound like I was busy... this was also COVID so I wasn't doing much.
Junior to Senior Year Summer
At this point, I was no stranger to online college courses so, I enrolled in a couple more community college courses and was taking these throughout the summer.
Unfortunately, these were not through the high school so my parents paid for these courses but 1) they were affordable since it was from the community college and 2) my parents had set up a 529 college fund for me which was more than enough to cover community college costs.
Senior Year of High School
During my senior year of high school, I continue on my same path of taking college courses as well as online community college classes. I got to a point where I hit the max amont of classes that I was allowed to take in high school. This was again during COVID so I had tons of downtime!
High School Graduate
Finally, I graduated high school and the grind did NOT stop! At this time, I was actually moving from Iowa to St. Louis so I enrolled in a community college in St. Louis where I could complete classes online. Because this was post-pandemic, my parents had a tough time finding a house in St. Louis so we moved to my cousins house in Florida for 2 months. While in Florida, I lived in a very small town with literally nothing so I decided to pick up a job at Wal-Mart... before you knock Wal-Mart I want to say that everyone I worked with is lovely, I was making US$17/hour and they matched investments that I had made from my paycheck up to 6%.
Essentially, Wal-Mart has a program called Live Better U where they pay for your college tuition. Things to note about this program:
It is not for every major (mostly business, leadership, optics etc.)
You have to have a few college courses completed going in
The program is fully online and accelerated
You have to be employed at Wal-Mart
There is no set amount of hours you have to be working at Wal-Mart
There is no contract to continue working for Wal-Mart
Once I enrolled in this program, I took a look at what courses I could complete at my community college versus the courses I had to complete with my university. Then, I enrolled in as many online community college courses (from Florida, out of pocket expenses) and enrolled in 2 online, accelerated (limit of classes) courses at the Live Better U college (SNHU).
Because my boss knew that I was mainly working at Wal-Mart because I wanted to pay for my school and when I was there I was a good worker. She let me stay on payroll when I went backpacking through Europe for the second time. I actually sumbitted my final paper when I was backpacking and earned my Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a Concentration in Marketing at 19 years old.
Oh! I was also able to complete an Associates Degree in Finance from my community college... girlboss WHO?
Other Notes
Ok, but my parents had this 529 set up for me with a good chunck of money in there... if I take it out then it will be taxes super heavily.
Set yourself up a Roth Investment account and it is legal for all of the money to get funneled into there! Not only are you saving tons of money on your degree but also investing!
are you said that you didn't get the college expereince?
Personally, I am not. The only way that I would've thrived at college would be if I had gone in a big city or went abroad and both of those options are very expensive. So this was the best for me.
how did you learn regular life experiences?
I still moved to my own apartment, bought my own car, learned to make friends, and more... although I think college does teach you important life skills, I don't believe that it is the only way to learn them.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS!!!!
DM me on Instagram or email me bellarobbenbiz@gmail.com