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<p>Well… If you don’t want to burden future generations, perhaps you should not accept Pell Grant and Cal Grant. It is certainly no news to you, that the government is spending money they don’t have. </p>
<p>And don’t you think that your decision to put yourself into debt for the thrill of instant gratification of being “independent”, puts future economy in the jeopardy? Instead of contributing to the economy, you will be trying to pay down the debt.</p>
<p>I have been planning these things. There not merely arbitrary decisions as I go along. I am not simply shrugging, I am contemplating the best for me. </p>
<p>Believe me I am taking this as seriously as possible.</p>
<p>My mother is a registered nurse, again the only reason she got denied is because her credit is lackluster due to the fact that she moved her only a couple of years ago from another country and started her American credit about a year and a half ago. </p>
<p>My mom is by no means a low income employee. It just so happens that her credit doesn’t match what her abilities of paying are.</p>
<p>I deleted my post which had been at #39.
OP, I understand you are bouncing these ideas around, but sometimes we take seriously the sort of reasoning skills shown throughout a thread. </p>
<p>You are only slowly letting out some relevant details. I do believe some situations can tolerate a calculated risk. But, you started by pointing at NJIT, your stats may not be shiny, you are so set on being in another city, and it really seemed you weren’t thinking. </p>
<p>Debt is debt. It happens. If Mom’s picture will improve and you’re not partly rushing out of SDO to get away from her, lay it all out and make the best decision. Just don’t be fooled, over-confident, or too simplistic.</p>
<p>Yes. I have no control of what the state of economy will bring. Though I would rather be in a low debt place than those of my peers who are going to be in $100,000 debt. It’s true they’re biting more than they can chew. I certainly do not think I am.</p>
<p>I’m hopeful. Also, it’s not the gratification of teenage rebellion I’m going for. It’s trying to start early as an adult and get a ton of jobs as I can as soon as possible. Sure, I can do that here, but I can also do it over there at the same price.</p>
<p>It may seem like I’m not due to the I accuracy of the location. I do not think it is any different than going to a college in my city and the next towns. It’s something that I talk about with my mon in a daily basis and so to my friends.</p>
<p>Everyone is out in summer not giving a care to what may hit them. I’m here to get informed so that I don’t end up in the dust of the bottleneck of education.</p>
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<p>Not at the same price. At the price of room and board and being in debt after you graduate.</p>
<p>I really don’t understand the desire to live independently. Why not try to get accepted to a 4 year college. If I had to choose between going to U and living at home and going to CC and renting an apartment, I would absolutely have chosen going to the U. It would have given me more authentic “college” experience. </p>
<p>In fact, I lived at home while I went to college. While I have very strict parents, because I worked and had to stay at school late to finish lab work, I had much more freedom in college than in HS. Plus, I experienced a benefit of free (to me) food in refrigerator when I came home and clean folded laundry. Because of the course load and work load, my parents did not make me do any chores when I was in college. It is completely different experience than HS. Perhaps you should talk to your mom about household rule changes once you are in college?</p>
<p>Well. My mom is always out. And she doesn’t really buy groceries. And I have to do everything pretty much by myself. So no lerkin, no offense to you, but there are some people who is told by your parents to move out for college no matter what.</p>
<p>OK, I think it might change things a bit. Are you saying your mom told you to move out after HS? You omitted this information in your previous posts. This puts everything in a different light.</p>
<p>I suppose I should have mentioned that.</p>
<p>Then your current plan is probably OK. Just make sure you get a job and live very frugally to minimize the debt. If possible, try not to take out the full amount available to you and for sure avoid private loans.</p>
<p>It is sad that your mom makes you move out. Next time you ask for advise, it will benefit you to layout all cards on the table.</p>
<p>Lerkin, no, I don’t know if it is “just” $5k. The OP states “but if I only need to take out a $5000 loan by all means I will go for it.” And if all she has to do is take out $5K in loans to get through her first year of college where ever she chooses to go and do it, then as far as I am concerned, fine. It’s her loan that she is taking out in her name.</p>
<p>Now if you are asking me if I think she can live in San Francisco or any other major city for just $5k a year even without the little matter of tuition, books, transportation, etc, that’s a whole other story. OP can get a Stafford all by herself for $5500 for freshman year, more since her mother was turned down by PELL. With that and whatever other funds she can come up with, she can do what she pleases in terms of school.</p>
<p>OP, bear in mind that the Stafford is paid to your college where you enroll and that the college will take out the tuition, fees and other college billed expenses first If there is anything left, you get access to it usually a few weeks into the semester, often after the drop dates for courses have passed. You will get 1/2 the loan amount transmitted to the college at the start of each term, so the Stafford is for the whole year and it is doled out accordingly. So, it’s not like you will be getting this check to use to move somewhere an do something. You will have to get that seed money from someone, somewhere, somehow yourself.</p>
<p>Here’s another example of Calif wasting money.</p>
<p>The kid will get a full Pell Grant which would pay for going to a local CC in San Diego. But, crazy Calif is going to give him a Cal Grant, so he can go to a CC in San Francisco, which leaves his Pell Grant and Stafford loan to pay for R&B.</p>
<p>Stupid…no one should go out of their area for a CC on gov’t money unless they’re majoring in some odd thing, which this student isn’t.</p>
<p>And…again…your chances of getting accepted to a med school are slim. Your test scores suggest that you won’t score high enough on the MCAT…so don’t be incurring debt because you think a highly paid doctor can pay them off.</p>
<p>Mom2ck,</p>
<p>while I absolutely agree with you about waste of taxpayer money, I think that in case of OP it would not matter that OP is moving to another city, since their mom is kicking them out and OP would need to find where to live somewhere anyway.</p>
<p>With all the new info coming in each new post, dribs and drabs, I wouldn’t assume the mom is necessarily flat-out pushing little bird out of the nest. I wish this OP could just lay it out, not shift like winds. I’m still not sure this is genuine. </p>
<p>Whether loans make sense to one person or another, it just doesn’t look like this kid is aiming high at all. Even if mom wants him out, why go to an expensive CA city- AND for a communter school. And for premed? and, and… All kind of beg, “yeah, right.” Catch the part about the billionaire.</p>
<p>just saw this thread, I am quite confused.</p>
<p>One thing that confused me in the beginning was that OP said his mother had poor credit, not bad credit. Not sure I understand what the difference is.</p>
<p>Since OP’s mom has lived in this country for only 1.5 years, she does not have ESTABLISHED credit, which is probably what OP meant.</p>
<p>My parents had exactly the same problem when they immigrated here 18 years ago. I believe they had to ask our relative to be authorized user on their credit card to establish some credit.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>So, the mom who tried to co-sign loans, but couldn’t qualify will kick her son out of the house, so he has to go away to school? That just sounds like BS. </p>
<p>And, even if she doesn’t buy groceries if he commuted from home, it would still be cheaper to live at home and commute than to have to live in SF, pay for room, board, utilities, etc.</p>
<p>Hmm… If you put it this way, it does sound suspicious. I admit though, I fell for it.</p>
<p>In the end, OP’s mind is set and it does not appear he will change his mind. I personally don’t get this desire for “independence”, especially if mom is never home anyway. But I am not the one who will have to pay those loans back.</p>
<p>I agree with Mom2college kids in the way some of the state funding works. I do believe that local venues should be the first way to go. There is an acute shortage of funds that are truly hurting those who want an education and often need some sort of education, and some of these programs are paying for “sleep away” experiences when there are perfectly adequate, sometimes stellar options within commuting distance. NY uses the CA university model (not as successfully) and unfortunately, adopted the same idiocy. </p>
<p>You get a kid who just misses the PELL cut offs and has to borrow to go to school locally, and another who not only gets the full PELL but all the other goodies and decide to go to Buffalo 7 hours away for the “college experience”. When there are literally dozens of options, some even better within a subway, train or bus ride away locally for less than a full Pell grant in price. Yes, sometimes, it’s the best thing that could happen, but on a wide scale, large scale, it is not covering as many people in their educational quests. It’s a pet peeve of mine.</p>
<p>We don’t know what the family mechanics are. I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every kid who has told me that they absolutely could not live at home and HAVE to find other alternatives. I even have a kid who tells that tale. He can’t live here ON HIS TERMS, which to him are not going to change, so…</p>
<p>"We don’t know what the family mechanics are. I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every kid who has told me that they absolutely could not live at home and HAVE to find other alternatives. "</p>
<p>Absolutely. Another kid recently said that his parents would disown him if he joined the military to pay for college (the parents wouldn’t help with school). It was just silly drama. They aren’t going to disown him. </p>
<p>I don’t know if some parents just throw crap out there and kids believe it, or if the kids just don’t want to live at home. I know that some kids do get kicked out…this seems to happen more in “blended families”, but that doesn’t seem like the case with the OP.</p>