What happens if you're laid-off and can't come up with the money to fund your kid's college tuition? Money has this horrible, horrible advice:

If your child has an aid package and you've been laid off since it was awarded, petition the school for more help this semester; otherwise, get a PLUS loan, which costs 7.9% or 8.5% and can cover the gap above Junior's earnings.

The first part's great: If you can convince the school to give you more money, you absolutely should. But with most private college endowments taking a beating while public colleges face the specter of budget cuts, this might fall on deaf ears. It's still worth a try though!

With the average baseball ticket costing $25.40, NBA ticket at $48.83, an NFL ticket at $72.20, and NHL seats at $48.72, it's no wonder sports fans have a difficult time making it through the turnstiles at stadiums and arenas across the country: Their wallets and purses are being picked.

Some teams such as the New York Yankees are giving fans a break at a few exhibition games, and the Golden State Warriors last month offered seats for $10 for one game. But those deals are just the beginning of good things to come in 2009, predicts The New Republic, not your typical sports publication. It calls 2009 the Year of the Sports Fan.

My office is around the corner from a branch of the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Every day, I see "creatively" dressed youngsters dragging massive black portfolios to and from class. Sometimes they do photo shoots on my street, doing closeups of eggs splattered on the pavement or scantily-clad models slithering around on tinfoil. "How are they ever going to make a living when they get out of school?" I always wondered, shaking my head and clucking like a grandma.

Then one night while walking to the train station, I passed by the school, which featured student artwork in the windows. Dramatic black-and-white photographs of the countryside, colorful still-life of tropical fruit, muslin ballgowns draped on mannequins. This was college students' work? To me, it was wonderful stuff that looked like it could be displayed not only in art galleries but also in my place of honor, above the fireplace mantle. That's when I decided I wanted to help those students down the street earn a living.

I'll never have the budget to buy a Picasso or a Pollock, but I could be buying work from the next art-world sensation. That's why I think buying works from art schools is way better than buying them at art galleries and auctions. Not only are you giving students and alumni a mental and financial boost, you're also buying up-and-coming works that could appreciate later on if the artist gains fame.

This coming New Year's was supposed to start with a bang for me -- literally. It was going to be the year my husband and I were finally going to make that baby. When we first discussed the time line a couple of years ago, my clock wasn't ticking that fast and 2009 seemed like an ideal year to start. But then 2008 didn't turn out to be the ideal year for our finances. My income as a freelance writer came in at a slower pace, and even though my husband had graduated from school, job interviews are few and far between. So for New Year's, we'll open up a bottle of (cheap) champagne, but that will probably be the only cork that pops.

Our situation is far from unique. I found this Los Angeles Times story profiling couples who say the recession is forcing them to put off baby-making for the time being. It's nothing new to put off having having kids during hard financial times, but it was hard to determine how to come up with the money to raise a kid properly even before Wall Street and the housing market tanked. College tuition is the ultimate balloon payment, of course, but more and more parents I knew are only focused on private school for K-16.

Buy a condo for my college kid? Even my husband thought I was crazy. But, every summer for the last nine years we have moved one or more of our kids from one dump to another on their college campuses. Complete with slanting floors in the kitchens and bathrooms you could not fit a rug in, each apartment seemed worse than the last one and rented for $1500 to $2500. So when my daughter announced she was applying to the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would be spending another four to five years in MadCity, I thought there must be a better way.

I saw that a new condo complex was breaking ground just down the street. Even before she was accepted at the school, I put down a deposit on a one bedroom condo with a den. Located just a block from State Street and the Capital square, it is prime real estate with the city in walking distance. With the pre-construction price break we were able to add a number of upgrades including granite in the kitchen and bathroom, a whirlpool tub, a two sided fireplace and hardwood floors.

It's not news that the annual tuition increase at American colleges and universities always outpaces the rate of inflation. And more bad news comes via Zac Bissonette's blog about a recent report that those hefty hikes threaten to make college unaffordable for most Americans. Unfortunately, that's not a shocker to you, right? I blogged last month that more students should consider community college and trade school. Here's another alternative: college abroad. And not just a semester -- think the entire four years.

Don't laugh. For an article I wrote last year, I interviewed a 22-year-old college grad who just passed the New York Bar Exam and is now a practicing attorney. That's because he chose to get his law degree at Oxford, where his undergrad program included law school and took just three years to finish. He also saved a substantial amount of money. Because Oxford costs $20,000 a year, he paid $60,000 total for college and his law degree. If he had gotten it here, he would have paid $100,000 for four years of undergrad -- and then a ton more for three years of law school.

And that's the norm. Tuition for international students at top universities in the U.K. and Canada are 25 percent to 50 percent less than at U.S. private universities. Students also save time too, shaving at least a year off of undergrad. Travel and living expenses add to the amount, of course, but the total cost is about the same as an out-of-state resident attending state school. The Institute of International Education says a student at Scotland's Unversity of St. Andrews (Prince William's alma mater) pays the same per year -- $13,000 -- as a non-state resident at the University of Virginia. With the dollar climbing against other currencies, it's not as much of a hit to the wallet as compared to a year ago. College is even more affordable in Australia ($11,000) and New Zealand ($9,500). Nearly all U.S. federal loans can be used to pay for school overseas. A good resource for all the information is CollegeAbroad.com.

Should your kid work while in college? That's the question CNN posed recently in an article examining how students can bridge the tuition gap in light of shrinking college savings accounts.

CNN was quick to point out the hazards of working too much in college. The most prominent being that students who work more than 15 hours a week are less likely to graduate in four years, adding significantly to the overall cost of higher education. That said, having a job as a student isn't something college students should rule out.

Most schools offer campus jobs which often times provide students with 8-12 hour per week schedules and supervisors who are sympathetic to the academic process. While a bulk of these jobs may be in campus food services or janitorial, they still provide good work experience. With a little effort students can even find a campus job relating to their major, which will prove helpful when they begin the job hunt after graduation.

In a report that is a study in obviousness for most families currently putting kids through college, a new report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education suggests that soaring college costs threaten to make college unaffordable for the majority of Americans.

College tuition and fees rose 439% from 1982 to 2007 while the median family income rose just 147%, without adjusting for inflation.

What is to be done? In recent years, students and families have been financing college with debt, and the federal government has been making this possible with increased in various federal loan programs. The government is trying to help students but the reality is that they're making it worse. By offering ever-increasing amounts of debt to families all too willing to take it, our elected officials are eliminating the natural ceiling on price, allowing colleges to continue to manage their costs irresponsibly. There is no good reason that college costs should be rising so fast except that they can.

With the recession socking it to state aid for public colleges and hefty losses for endowments at private colleges, the college cost picture is about to get a lot worse.

Everyone knows their child is the best looking in the world. Admit it. You know yours is. I know mine is.

Now's the time to prove it, as long as your child is a baby who is born this month.

The second annual nationwide search by TurboTax for America's Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction is on, so hopefully you did your homework nine months ago. One baby born in December 2008 will win a $5,000 United States Savings bond worth up to $10,000 upon maturity, according to a company press release for Intuit Inc., the maker of TurboTax. That's the value at the bond's maturity, not the child's.

Looking through recent articles about college students, I keep seeing the same basic suggestions: minimize loans, don't get a credit card, pay your bills, and keep track of your spending. While these are certainly useful little tidbits of advice, they don't really address the largest problem that is currently facing students: the economy.

In some ways, college students are sort of like the canaries that miners used to carry with them. Given that they have shallower pockets and have not yet fully entered the job market, they are much more susceptible to downturns in the economy. From having to survive on ever-decreasing resources to trying to find work in a sluggish job market, students are having to make difficult decisions before they even get their diplomas. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for the soon-to-be graduated about ways to weather a very difficult economic storm.

High school students are always looking for college scholarships to apply for, but a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Charles Schwab Foundation looks like it should be required math for anyone wondering how the economy works.

It's kind of like the TV show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-grader?" but with more of a scholarly aspect to it. Students have to be a lot smarter for the fall National Financial Literacy Challenge; they have to get a perfect score in order to win a $1,000 scholarship. Up to 100 students can win.

Here's a sample question: If you deposit $1,000 in a savings account with a fixed annual interest rate of 5%, how much will you have in your account after two years if you make no additional deposits or withdrawals?

A. Exactly $100; B. Exactly $1,100; C. Les than $1,100; D. More than $1,100.

The other sample questions have to deal with net worth, diversified investments, fixed-rate mortgages vs. variable-rate mortgages, and a question about how to get a large mutual fund balance in 20 years, a question I suspect the Schwab co-sponsors had a lot to do with being asked. Still, some unique questions to ask I high school kid. I guarantee you I didn't know about variable-rate mortgages when I was 17; I barely understand them now that I own a house.

The deadline for taking the 35-question online test is Dec. 12. Teachers can sign up their students at the U.S. Treasury's Web site.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job search at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com

The California State University system made headlines yesterday when it threatened to cut enrollment by 10,000 students next year if the state didn't front it more money. Chancellor Charles Reed said CSU had to make more cuts to a budget already $215,000 below what it needs, and that it currently serve 10,000 students for whom the state gives no money. But when it comes to top staffers, well, that's a different story. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Reed and his Board of Trustees recently approved salary increases of up to nine percent for nine vice-presidents, and hired 11 more at salaries as high as $225,000.

I'm thinking it's time for a career change to college administration, because these guys have it good. For example, the VP of student affairs at CSU Monterey came on board in February 2007 and less than 18 months later, he gets a $22,500 pay raise, from $117,500 to $140,000. The new vice-chancellor for university relations gets a salary of $240,000, plus another $40,500 to cover brokerage commissions, escrow fees and other costs for selling his home in Sacramento. Wait, is this a state school system or Wall Street these people are working for?

Anyone applying for college this coming year and not paying attention to scholarships may as well skip the SAT and ACT in favor of counting change at the local Michael's. Seriously, going to college without taking advantage of free money is one of the dumbest decisions you can make. There are plenty of excuses to avoid applying for scholarships: I'm not special enough, my grades aren't great and I don't have any time, but honestly none of these should keep you from applying for at least one scholarship.

Don't be discouraged by lackluster academic performance. Many scholarships focus on a well written essay and your future plans. Some others focus on more outlandish criteria including these 9 weird and unusual scholarships, which are awarded based on your last name, height or your affinity for Duct tape! While most scholarships require a little more effort, they are worth it.

High-school seniors are now filling out college applications, while their parents freak out about how they're going to pay the five-figure yearly tuition. My many friends who are parents to kids of all ages are wondering how they're going to balance their 401(k)s with 529 plans.

Ken and Daria Dolan have good advice in their recent blog posting about affording college, but I need to add my two cents:

• Skip the Ivy League for now, and focus on more affordable state schools and community colleges, at least for the first two years.
• Don't break your back paying your kids' way through school; have them help pay their way .
  

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Crisp fall weather means college campuses everywhere are being invaded by visiting high school seniors eyeing prospective dorms ... as their parents hyperventilate over the price tag.

Today's credit crunch is making the already daunting burden of paying for college seem even more impossible. Luckily, there is still plenty of funding available – if you know where to look. We have the scoop for you in our video below.

Looking to secure a loan for college to help cover those hefty tuition bills? Find out where you can get funding in Ken and Daria's special alert, only on Dolans.com.