• Hold down your job. In 2001, 75 percent of employed adult learners got financial help for classes from their workplace. Why are so many businesses so eager to boost your education? It's a good investment and, according to Al Siebert, co-author of "The Adult Student's Guide to Survival and Success," a good way to attract workers. If you're in the job market, try getting hired by a company like UPS, which Siebert says is known for its generous educational benefits. Or try to convince your current boss to pony up for full or partial tuition and textbook reimbursement. Another way to make school pay: Get your employer to commit to giving you a raise when you earn your degree.

• Test out. More than 2,900 universities nationwide will give you college credit for passing a test through the College-Level Examination Program, or CLEP. The exams are offered in 34 basic college subjects, including composition, French, sociology, business law, marketing and U.S. history. While they cost $55 a pop (often with an additional $15 administration fee), they can save you hundreds of dollars in tuition, books and fees -- and time -- on classes you won't have to take if you pass. Bonus: Military personnel can take CLEP exams for free.
• Find scholarships as a team. "Adult students think of finding scholarships as a solo sport," says Tanabe. "But students who look for scholarships as a group have more success than if they do it by themselves." Set up an info-sharing system with other nontraditional students in your department, and leverage your research time by recruiting family members and friends. Ben Kaplan's CD guide, "Adult and Nontraditional Scholarships That Totally Rock," is a good starting point, but you're just as likely to win big bucks through the scholarship your cousin Debbie read about in her office lunchroom, so spread the word.
• Ditch the loans. Borrowing enough to cover living expenses while you go back to college sounds easy enough, but getting mired in debt will wound your family's finances for years, warns Maria Izquierdo-Whitaker, the assistant director of financial aid at the Johns Hopkins University School of Professional Studies in Business and Education in Columbia, Md. "We want to help [students] get their degree, but we want them to think about, 'Do I really need this money now? I'm going to have to repay it,'" she says. Old-fashioned frugality will go a long way toward minimizing your costs and your debts while you're in school.