<p>You see, I haven't applied for universities. Except for one. And it didn't give me a scholarship. Because I applied late. And I really do hope that was the reason. </p>
<p>Anyway. Should I attend a community college for 2 years and continue with my engineering in another very good and very big university? Would that even be a possible situation considering how my grades will hopefully be at least 3.5 GPA? To get into a good university that is. </p>
<p>Now getting back to my original question, would you recommend I do attend one? Would that affect me negatively in ANY way? My SAT score is 1790 for the 3 sections and 1200 CR + M alone. And yes I am applying for the Fall semester of 2011. </p>
<p>BUT if any other university offers me a scholarship for the Spring semester I wouldn't really mind. Yes I am implying that you help me out and give me advice on what universities might throw a scholarship at a student like me. I'm a US citizen but a resident of no state unfortunately. I finished my IGCSE's with 4A*'s 2A's 1 B. My AS level 2B's 1C. My A-level still not out, wish me luck. </p>
<p>Would be really grateful for any kind of help!</p>
<p>As I recall, you are a US citizen living abroad. One option that you would have, would be to plan a Gap Year in which you would move to the US, get a job, make enough money to pay for more than half of your own support, and establish in-state residency. This isn’t possible in all states, but it is in many. You would not be independent of your parents for financial aid purposes, but you would have residency somewhere. This can save you a lot of money. For this to work, you need to research state residency requirements in the states where you would like to go to college. </p>
<p>After you have your residence, you could study at a community college for a very low cost for two years, and then transfer to a 4-year college or university for the last two. If you are focused on your studies, and get a 3.5, you will have a lot of good transfer options. If your community college has a formal articulation agreement for your major field with a 4-year college/university then you probably won’t need more than a 3.0 in order to transfer into the junior year after you finish your Associates Degree. Check the websites of the colleges/universities that you are interested in to find out if they have articulation agreements with any community colleges in your major field. Most public universities do. Engineering is one of the fields that often has articulation agreements.</p>
<p>Yes you are right I am an American citizen living abroad and that first option you laid out sounds very appropriate for me but my father wouldn’t really enjoy the idea. He wants me to finish my studies as quickly as possible for me to start working and getting a paycheck all for the benefit of my own. And if I go there say, August and find a job somehow directly, I would only be limited to applying to a Community College as a resident (since deadlines for 4 year universities would be way over) for the Fall 2012 Semester. That’s not bad but that would be the case only if I find a job the instant I land Texas. </p>
<p>Or is it not mandatory for me to have a job in order to obtain residency?
And yes engineering is something I am really considering. And I do have a slight idea of the articulation agreements you mentioned but the university I am really interested in eventually transferring to (UT-Austin) only has an articulation agreement with ONE community college (Austin Community College) and has a GENERAL “articulation agreement” with the rest colleges ([TCCN/UT</a> Transfer Guides](<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/tccn/]TCCN/UT”>http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/tccn/)). </p>
<p>Yes I checked that link and I really liked the idea of getting a fast-food job for 12 months and then getting the residency but my father isn’t liking the idea. He doesn’t want me to “waste a year without being enrolled in an educational institution” (although he knows that being enrolled in an educational institution will not get me the residency). I told him I can study Advanced Placements while working and that I can cut down at least the freshman year that way but he still didn’t like the idea. </p>
<p>He wants me to search for scholarships. I told him that my chances for finding one for the 2011 Fall term is almost impossible.</p>
<p>Do you think I have a chance for scholarships for the Spring semester?</p>
<p>^ Well that’s the same as getting a job for a year, isn’t it? My father would even dislike that idea more looking at how I wouldn’t be enrolled in an educational institute AND I wouldn’t be doing anything useful.</p>
<p>It is late to get scholarships for the fall. Your best possibilities for scholarships in January would be to apply for January enrollment as a freshman student - which of course means that you can’t start anywhere this fall. Check the website of the CC that you are interested in, and find out if anything is available. I expect that all you’d qualify for for this fall is a Stafford Loan.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether or not it makes much sense to study for AP exams at this point. Check the website of your CC for the CLEP exams that they award credit for. You can take them throughout the year which means that you could prep for a month or so, take an exam, and then move on to a different subject area. This would work best if you were in the US. There aren’t many testing centers outside the country [CLEP</a> Test Center Search](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_clep/searchCLEPTestCenter.jsp]CLEP”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_clep/searchCLEPTestCenter.jsp)</p>
<p>I can understand that your dad doesn’t want you to get off the education track. He’s afraid that if you take one year off it will turn into two, or three, or even more. One possibility would be to enroll for the fall, and see how things go. If you can pay for your expenses without taking out a student loan, you wouldn’t even need to enroll in a full load of courses which might make things a bit less expensive. Since you will need a job anyway to help with your expenses, you can start looking around for a job as soon as you arrive. If the job works well for you (and at a fast-food place if you are competent, you would have a decent chance of promotion within 6 months or so), you could take time off to establish your residence after a semester or a year of college.</p>
<p>^^ No if you got married you could go to community college for that year,. It would be a little more expensive but then you’d be a resident the next year.</p>