Paying for college. how?

H

HERCULES.

Member
so im now 20 years old, and in a way suffering for me not doing so well in high school, not having intelligent parents that know how to save money, not being the smartest person out there, and not having the best job opportunities out there, and boy am i fucked.

The basic jist of this thread (in case you don't wanna read all of my ramble) is the question How did you pay for college? And how the fuck is it possible to balance a decent social life, skiing and other hobbies, doing decently in school, and work?

I've come to that awkward point that im finishing up my second year in community college and now its hitting me. I have a 3.5 gpa and a good base of all the classes that i will need for the environmental science degree that im trying to peruse, and now i need to move on to a 4 year college for another 2 years to finish up get my degree. The problem is: the government is lending us 8 grand out of the 18 grand we need, i have a 3.5 gpa which is good but not scholarship worthy, and even though both my parents work full time they are retarded with there money and haven't saved anything, and can hardly contribute anything for some strange reason.

So now im flapping in the wind wondering how everyone except me has this on lock. I consider it mostly my fault because looking back if i did amazing in high school i might have gotten some grants and scholarships ect, but it still wouldn't have been enough. I calculated my summer income, and after gas, a small trip to surf and normal items to survive i will have 2800$ to contribute to my college fund and to survive till my winter job starts.

so ns, even though some smart guys about to make fun of me, how did you people pay for college? and enjoy having a somewhat fun time with hobbies and a social life on the side? I know most of you are lazy potheads, how did you do it? Why am i so fucked? Should i just start hunting alligators like the people on discovery channel instead? Should i start robbing walmarts?
 
>find a rich relative and talk to them about college loans and see if they can help you out.>try and get a loan through your parents

>if all else fails, as this will be the most expensive option, get a loan yourself
 
if you are really serious about it you'll give up hobbies and a social life, work two jobs, save everything you can. Just gotta get your priorities straight
 
i am a pothead, not a lazy ones though; but, also a veteran with GI Bill. I am not recommending the military by any means just answering the question. They also pay me 2000grand a month for living. can't beat it for being 23 and only doing 3 yrs of a 5 yr contract...
 
excellent idea taking a lot of community college classes for pre-reqs..that should've saved some money.

Find a university that will have your program and doesn't have crazy high tuition...I assume you have already picked one. I would talk to their financial aid department and see what they say. The financial aid department may have other loans available that you can apply for that aren't specifically the Federal Direct loans.

My parents are blue collar and didn't help with major college expenses. I maxed out all federal loans and needed my parents to cosign on some other private bank student loans from Citi. Maxed federal loans wouldn't cover my grad school tuition so I had to take large amounts of graduate plus loans so make up the rest..hopefully your school will have something like that too.

To balance school and fun, just work hard and play hard. You'll figure it out.

 
Community college will save you a lot of money. You can always take out student loans
 
1. stop blaming other people, especially your parents.2. get a job

3. put the bong down

4. go to a real college like right now because chances they wont take at least half the "credits" you got at community and you'll have to make it all up anyway.

5. rethink environmental whatthefuckever science

this is the recipe for success.
 
Quit your hobbies, go to school and work your ass off. Go in state to get lower tuition and hound financial aid for help.
 
If the Fed is going to spend money on something, it had better be veteran benefits. There are plenty of other ways to cut spending.
 
Not every area gets the same pay, it is based on zipcode and cost ofcliving for area. I am in ny and so happens suny orange is in same county as West Point, so they jacked the cost of living way up for the paper work... some fuckery afoot, but hey, cant beat em? join em
 
get a job as a labourer on an oil rig or anywhere in alaska. i live in canada so it's probably a bit different but an unskilled labourer can make upwards of 6k a month. it's not fun slacker work and you might have to move for the summer but if you find a good paying job where you come out of a summer with 15-20k, you'll be doing a hell of a lot better than all your college friends with 100k student loan debt coming out of school with no jobs.

hell even here in interior b.c. it's pretty easy to get a job pulling 60-80k (depending on overtime) a year as an unskilled labourer.
 
I somehow managed, but I'm kinda a crazy person.

I initially saved up about $4000 so I would have spending money and wouldn't have to work my first year of school.

I picked a highly respected state school (which I was out of state for my first year, but the tuition savings the following years proved to make it entirely worth it). My out of state tuition + room + board came to $17,000 for my first year. I had a family contribution of $3000 for that which my parents never actually contributed, so I worked my ass off for 2 months right before school and paid for that. The rest of it was paid for with government student loans and about $2000 in grants. (so 12k of my alloted 21k for loans). The other 3 years tuition was around $3000 a year in which $1000 was grant, then $2000 loans. I used up the full 21k.

My 2nd and 3rd years of school I worked near 40 hours a week, was in a sorority and a few other clubs on campus. Think Rushmore.

My work included an on campus IT job that was entirely scheduled around my class schedule and was 20 hours a week. Then I either worked for a hotel 16 hours a week on the weekends or worked for a ski resort that stayed open from 8 am to 10pm as a ski instructor. So I would get done with work and then go skiing. Sorority events were usually mid week and at night, so it was easy to work in with my work schedule. I also was able to get most of my school work done at my IT job since it was pretty mellow.

My last year of school, I didn't want to work so that I could focus on everything I was doing. I had developed decent enough credit by this point and took out a $12000 loan to cover my last 9 months of living expenses. During this time I skied a shit ton, got near straight A's, founded a ski team at my uni, and started doing a bunch of internship type work and what not.

It can entirely be done, you just need to try to figure out the best way. My on campus job where I could do my school work probably saved me a ton. That and working at the ski resort cause I was able to keep that life going as well. I also went to a nerd school, so there was probably a lot less pressure for me to party really hard than there are for students at huge universities.

Given after consolidation and interest, I peaked at $52,000 of debt. I probably could have survived without that final loan, but I don't regret taking it. I got so much more experience out of college than a lot of my peers and am now reaping the benefits pretty damn well, so my $600 a month loan payment isn't too difficult.
 
I'm in a really unique situation with college. I'm graduating this year from a pretty solid private school with one of the best environmental science degrees in the country. Basically, my school had a program going the year I was accepted where they wanted to minimize student debts. My parents made a combined income less than the cut-off for essentially going for little to no money. Fortunately, I had good grades and my parents did an incredible job raising me unlike most of the other white trash rednecks from my home town.

I also worked a boat load from the age of 12, as well as throughout college, to pay for all my living expenses (dorm living my first two years, apartment, food, and random living costs). So, I will be graduating with absolutely no debt, something very rare for most college kids nowadays, and I certainly had no assistance from wealthy relatives, etc.

I'm guessing most people may not be have this same situation, but I think I can offer some advise: DO NOT TAKE ON DEBT! If I were to go to the same school for the same degree, but had to pay full tuition, I would say it would 100% not be worth the massive amount of debt. Even if I had to take on 5k-10k in loans/year I'm not sure if it would be worth it. In today's economy, yes you need a college degree, but a degree does not even guarantee a job. And if for recent grads, an entry level position you can expect part-time, seasonal, internships, volunteer postions or if you're lucky a full time job for 30k a year - not exactly desirable if you have 20k+ in debt.

Granted, this also depends on what you're studying. If you are in a more profitable sector (ie I banking) where you start out making 80k, then yeah, it's okay to take on some loans, but otherwise I strongly urge you to consider what you're studying and what you're paying.
 
Also, just do this. I've considered going to North Dakota. Would be a hell of an experience and I could easily make 5 times more than what a more typical entry position would be.
 
If you seriously want to go somewhere with an environmental science degree, find a professor in the department at your 4-year university who is looking for an undergrad research assistant. Some schools will only offer you credit for being a research assistant, but some will pay you. That is the best part time job to have as an undergrad student in science. They have summer REU programs that pay pretty well as well, but those are much more competitive. If not, then just find any random job to help pay your way through school. A lot of people do that.
 
I think you need to change up your summer job plan. A few have mentioned various rigging/oilsands jobs which make total sense. Another close to home option is to get on with a paving crew. Up here in canuckistan most will start you around 17/hr working 6 12hr shifts a week. It's repetitive labour work without a whole lot of time for fun, but no reason you can't clear 18-20k a summer doing that.
 
What i did:

-Procur Aderall scrip and make $300-$500 per month

-Apply for every scholarship you can. deosnt matter if its in your major or you dont qualify, atleast half of the scholarships i got i didnt qualify for.

-Get a Job as a bar tender and work atleast 1 of the party nights

-get another job running the video cameras for the online classes

-Join student govt for even more stipen/scholarships. minimal time and effort, big payoff.

-TAKE OUT LOANS, BROSEPH!!! gotta pick a good major though so you can pay them off. EnvSci aint gonna cut it bud, go into Civil or Environmental Engineering...you can actually get a well paying job in an industry related to enviroscience.

 
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