Advice from a Design Student
When you are pursuing your dreams of becoming the professional creative you feel called to be, life doesn’t just stop happening. Many people have passed through these halls over the last 18 years & made it happen for themselves, but perhaps you’re wondering just how you’re going to pull it off? Well, 7th quarter Design student Gina Garrett understands the financial challenges of pursuing her dreams all too well & she has some advice she wants to share with incoming Circus students.
5 Tips On How To Make A Dollar Out of 15 Cents While At The Circus
1. Get a Circus roomie.
When I first started school I was in a one bedroom apartment deciding on whether or not I should pay the cable bill or buy the 15 yards of fabric needed to make my Sylvia bags. All of the financial duties are not on just you with a roommate. Plus having a Circus student as a roommate is an automatic partner, someone you can brainstorm with and someone to stay up all night with when projects are due the next day.
2. Get a part-time gig.
I worked a regular 9 to 5 before coming to The Circus but that got really stressful trying to work a job that didn’t work with my class schedule. I know, I know, they say don’t work and focus on school but let’s be real… you can’t stop paying your bills because you “need to focus.” There are plenty of local businesses close to school that hire part-time. Think outside the box. Hey, you may take some of the skills you already have to make money (i.e. cutting matte board before panel for other students.)
3. Scrounge for 8th quarter goodies
I can’t tell you how much free supplies, furniture, & even food I’ve accumulated from graduates that had to move in a hurry. When the perfect opportunity comes and they need to get rid of all of their Circus supplies they’ve racked up over the years, just make sure you’re there when they’re ready to give stuff away.
4. Move into town
I lived in Marrietta my first couple of quarters and the commute was awful. You waste so much time sitting in traffic and money on gas. I took my own advice and got a circus roommate we moved into a house about 7 minutes from school. Use the school’s resources. Emails go out all the time about students looking for other students to sublease or move into their old places when they get jobs.
5. Buy a printer NOW
Kinda crazy this is a list about saving money and I’m telling you to buy stuff but look at it as an investment. If you are a designer (like me), art director, copywriter, and even interactive designer you will need to print things out to show in class every quarter you’re here. It may seem cheaper to go to Office Depot to print for $1.18 but lets do the math: you have 4 classes, lets say you have to print for at least 5 pages a week for 4 classes. That’s 20 pages a week $1.18 x 20 = $23.60 for a week of printing. $23.60 a week for 10 weeks = $236.00 a quarter (and that’s low-balling it). Buy a printer now in your 1st quarter and by the time you graduate you will have saved thousands (literally).