Reviews

Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, Or Mooching Off My Parents by Andrew Tobias, Zac Bissonnette

rhymeswithjoey's review

2.0

I had heard some excellent things about this book. However, I was displeased to find it is voiced to parents rather than students trying to pay their own way. No worries, I can easily translate "your child" to "you". My major problem with reading this book was it wasn't very helpful with things I didn't know already and felt more like an expose on the higher education system. I felt the title is misleading to the topics actually covered.

There is some advice, however like another reviewer said, by the time some people pick up his book, they already have the idea that debt is bad and are looking for more "meat" rather than "milk".

GOOD READ for parents helping their kids out with their education and have no idea where to start

BAD READ for students trying to pay for their own education without parental help OR for parents who already have a grasp of Debt is Bad 101

msethna's review

4.0

Thanks to my husband’s personal finance expertise a lot of this information was already something I had heard before. That being said, it was a good reminder about ways to keep yourselves and children from going into debt while in college.

glowing_embers16's review

3.0

Not gonna lie, the first 100 pages were a struggle to get through, but after that I tore through the book pretty fast. "Debt-Free U" is geared toward the parents of college or soon-to-be college students, but it's still not a bad idea for college aged kids to read this, either. To be honest, I didn't gain a whole lot of new insight because I already live by the same principles Bissonnette believes in - don't get student loans, save up, work through college, start of at community college if you feel that's the better route. However, I wouldn't not recommend this book to others. It does give you some ideas.

jedore's review

4.0

Written by a young [I'd venture to say born] entrepreneur with capitalism flowing through his veins, this is a helpful read for parents getting ready to be sucked into the college hurricane. Zac's age gives it relevance and a youthful ballsiness that I definitely appreciated. That being said, unless your offspring is a mini-Donald, plan on adapting many of the suggestions to the reality of him/her. Zac's idea of fun is significantly different than my kids...and, frankly, me. I place a high value on the social aspect of college, albeit I won't pay Harvard prices for it. My son currently attends a community college (as a result of a woefully lacking high school transcript) and even he agrees that his younger sister would be miserable there. He is counting the days to learn among more passionate learners his age. This book validated what my gut has been telling me since my kids were in elementary school and I had a hyper-parent suggest I start building their college résumé...don't get caught up and lose your shirt in the middle/upper class American hype.