She earned three degrees in 9 years, and is debt-free

Jodi DiGregorio has two bachelor's degrees and a master's from private universities -- and no college debt. She avoided the loan drain in college with help from wise relatives. She paid for graduate school with hard work and pluck.

After high school, she chose Fairfield University because her parents felt a Jesuit education was important. The private Connecticut school's price tag was $19,000 a year when she started as a freshman in 1994. Four years later, tuition and board cost $25,000.

DiGregorio, 27, did not win any scholarships, nor did she know how to pursue them. She paid for tuition using money her parents -- both Long Island teachers -- and her grandmother had saved. DiGregorio pitched in by baby-sitting and waitressing; she figures she contributed $10,000 to her last two years of school. She graduated in 1999 with degrees in marketing and English.

Two years later, she decided she wanted to work in higher education. She needed a master's degree.

DiGregorio researched which Boston universities offered master's degrees in higher education. Then she checked which schools offered employee tuition benefits. In May 2001, DiGregorio started working as a Boston University secretary, making $13 an hour and taking two classes a semester. The most she paid for a course was $260, while the cost, at full price, can be almost three times that.

But the slide from a $40,000-a-year job as a public relations account executive to student/secretary was rough. At BU, she earned about $23,000. To save money, she walked 2 miles daily instead of riding the T.

"Here I am with two bachelor's degrees and going for my master's, and I'm filing and faxing," she said. "When my friends were out doing happy hour, I was cracking the books."

It took her two years to earn her master's in education. Then she became a financial aid counselor.

"The fact I didn't have any [debt] . . . enabled me to take a job that paid less but was more satisfying," she said.

With no student loans, Jodi and her firefighter boyfriend could afford to buy an 1887 farmhouse in Hyde Park. Now, she is thinking about getting a doctorate or a master's in counseling at a state school.

Suzanne Sataline can be reached at sataline@globe.com.