A FEW days or weeks or about a month from now, some US college seniors are going to walk down the aisle for their graduation ceremony.
If you belong to the early bird batch scheduled to graduate in February and March, you have a jumpstart in the job market hunt.
However along with early graduation come early expenses and unless one managed to save up, graduation expenses can pose a pretty hefty dent on your pocket and the wallets of your parents.
So rather than spare you the anguish of counting the costs of graduating expenses, let's just forge ahead now shall we? But let's leave out the student loans and other expenses like the cash advance or payday loan your parents made out of the equation first.
As enumerated by student columnist Jill Steinke of The Spectator Online, the publication of the University of Wisconsin, a student has to find the most affordable yet presentable cap and gown for starters which may set him or her back by US $55.
Graduation invitations issued to distant relatives cost about $50 for 25 people and this doesn't take into account the time and money spent making them or having them made by someone else.
And then there is the graduation party which means food, drinks and decorations.
I'll leave the math to you on that.
But there are some things you can do to save up on those graduation expenses.
For one, you can borrow the graduation gown and cap from your special someone or from friends.
Have them laundered and buy tassels worth US $5 from a bookstore.
Concerning invitations, you can cut down costs by not buying them.
The best thing about this is you can ask for donations from friends, family and others who are even remotely related to you.
To further ensure that you contact them on time, personal letters on e-mails will do the trick.
How about the food, drinks and whatnot for the graduation party? There is such a thing as potluck, where you can ask family, relatives and friends to bring in some food for the special occasion.
Hey, graduation only comes once or twice a year--depending on how you fared academically--so emphasize that point when asking for donations for your graduation party.
You can even get creative and ask your local state officials or congressmen to sponsor some graduation parties for your school as a measure of goodwill so to speak.
But either I'm digressing or am totally off my rockers by suggesting this.
Still, it's a start on the road to a career as a lobbyist.
At any rate, most of your time may be spent on job-hunting, which would help bring down costs once you do land a job.
Whether it be stamping food prices at a local store or filling in papers as a clerk, the fact is that you got a job for starters and it would help pay off those graduation expenses.
So if you still have sometime before graduation the best advice is to save.
Better yet, if you can secure a good online loan with the right conditions it could help you pay off part of your loans while you get settled down to your initial career.