College is possible without horrifically burdensome student loans. Forethought and good decisions are necessary — either that or substantial wealth. I recently picked up some tips from credit union leaders who make student loans. I gave them an economic update and also reviewed the statistics that we all know: College graduates have higher earnings and lower unemployment than those who didn’t go to college or didn’t graduate. Then I listened to other experts. Here are a few things that I learned.

Completion of the degree is critical. The worst student loan defaults do not come from those with the highest debt. High debt is most often incurred for graduate programs such as medicine, law or business, and the graduates have plenty of income to repay their loans. The highest default rate comes from people who started—but did not finish—a program. Whether it’s an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree, completion of the program will boost income, usually enough to cover loan costs.

With this in mind, prospective college students should take a good hard look at themselves. Honor roll students in high school have the ability to finish college, if they avoid the temptations of alcohol, drugs and video games. The marginal high school student may get through a college program, but only if dedicated and persistent. College isn’t for everyone, especially at 18. Many people would be better off learning a trade or getting work experience. When thinking about college, the so-so high school student should take a few community college courses part-time and test the waters before borrowing money for full time study.

Time in college is expensive. A fifth year of college is common but hard to justify economically. Graduating in three years is often feasible and invariably cheaper. Begin with Advanced Placement classes, one of the best deals available to students. Surprisingly, many students in AP classes do not take the exam. That’s a shame, given that a small testing fee can save a lot of tuition expense later on. Some students probably don’t want the extra study necessary to ensure a passing grade on the exam, but that extra study is a good measure of whether the student has what it takes to succeed in college. A bright, hard-working high school student can earn one or two semesters of college credit, a huge savings in the total cost of an undergraduate degree. Before selecting a college, make sure you understand their AP credit policy. That could be a decision-factor.

Another way to reduce time and costs is through a community college. Plenty of people take a full two years there and then transfer to a high-prestige college. That beats paying for four years at an expensive school, especially given the risk that the student doesn’t complete the program.

A light approach to community college would be to spend a couple of summers there, like before freshman and sophomore years at a four-year school. Check out the college’s transfer credit rules, of course. Two summers of study could save an entire year of college tuition and housing costs, a huge savings. I spent one semester at a community college and found the teaching very good. For comparison, I was also a teaching assistant at Duke, and while the students were more talented than at a community college, the teaching of lower-division classes wasn’t much better. Most basic courses at universities are taught with lectures from research-focused faculty and discussion sections led by graduate students with less education and experience than community college teachers.

The fifth year of undergraduate college is expensive and often unnecessary. Some colleges have very poor track records at enabling students to get the courses they need in four years. Look up those track records and avoid those schools.

One common cause of a fifth undergraduate year is changing majors, For this reason, stop and think before any action which would lengthen your time in college. The major is not crucial to ultimate success and happiness. Sure, it’s significant, but it’s not everything. A late choice to switch from art to computer science, at the cost of another year in school, would be financially worthwhile. But not vice versa. Consider instead a minor, or just taking additional course work that you can talk to prospective employers about.

Borrowing can be cheaper than not borrowing. OK, I was hanging out with lenders, but a college admissions officer made this observation: Wage rates for college grads are usually much greater than for college students. Delaying completion of the degree means more time working at lower wages and a longer period until earning higher wages. Even for low-paying majors, borrowing may work out.

Let’s say a theater major (one of the lowest-paying college majors) has run out of money one semester short of graduation. Taking the term off and working at $10 an hour would generate about $6,000, ignoring taxes for this example. ($10 times 40 hours a week times 15 weeks.) After 15 weeks of work and another 15 weeks of study, the new graduate is ready to begin a career and took on no additional debt. The alternative would be for the student to borrow $6,000, finish college, then begin a career. The average salary for new college graduates in theater is about $17.50 an hour. In the first 15 weeks on the job, the student will earn $10,529, enough to pay off that loan with interest and have money left over.

The math is even easier for an engineer likely to earn $70,000 a year ($35 an hour) upon graduation. (More salary information is available from Payscale.)

Avoid optimistic assumptions about scholarships. One last thing I learned is how overly optimistic many parents and children are about scholarship prospects. Very few high school athletes get sports scholarships. Although the top stars do get full rides, most players get nothing with the remainder getting just partial support. It does not make sense to plan on an athletic scholarship.

Merit scholarships are also hard to get, aside from small “bragging rights” grants. The top colleges mostly do not give merit scholarships, or give very few. The most common grant is relatively small, designed to make a private college more competitive with a public university, and to give the parents bragging rights.

I am an optimist by nature, and back in my youth that optimism cost me. I did pay off my college loans, and it all worked out, but I sure wish that I knew back then what I know now.