<p>I’m sad to hear that OP, but guess what? There are ways to pay off your education. You can apply for scholarships or try to apply for a RA position. At my school, RA’s get room and board paid for and they are given a few hundred dollars a month. </p>
<p>I will definitely say that I am one of the LUCKIEST kids on the planet. My parents have saved money for my (and my two younger brothers’) education for years. We have enough saved to pay for a few years of college. The rest, I’ll take out a loan and save up with the part time job that I have. I feel so fortunate that my parents are paying for everything (including room and board and text books).</p>
<p>I lucked out. My parents WANTED to pay for my college education. I told them I would be willing to go to a school that would make it easier on them financially. I also told them I’d be willing to take out loans, but they told me that this was the best thing they could ever do for me, provide for me an education at one of my top choice schools. However they do want me to pay for 2/3 of graduate level education, which I think is more than generous.</p>
<p>Furthermore, some of you people were very harsh. Granted there was a sense of entitlement, but I hardly think it’s fair to have over 30 people beat it into her head that her debt isn’t that bad and she is super entitled. One or two was enough.</p>
<p>Also the job market sucks. Last summer (at the only job I could find), I was working a job 5 days a week 8:30am-4pm and made only $250 a week ($50 a day/$6.67 an hour) . Thank god for networking and the fact that my friend pulled strings and got me a much higher paying job for this summer.</p>
<p>In Maryland the minimum wage is $7.25. If you are not paying taxes, deductions render you to exactly $6.67 an hour. I calculate my pay check at $6.67 an hour. I work 25 hours per week if I can get it. You do the math.</p>
<p>Yeah that was my point. I was working a job that paid minimum wage, but I was more than willing to keep it since I needed a job. Also in CT minimum wage is $8.00, but my job was ridiculous. They paid me every other week, so it would be $500 for 2 weeks, but with taxes I only would get 409.76 or something. </p>
<p>My grandmother is paying a fair amount of my education; she was prudent enough to open a college fund for me when I was born, so I’ve now got about $75k from her that I can use for college. It would have been more, but alas, the stock market crashed.</p>
<p>My parents should be able to cover most of the rest of my college expenses (tuition, room & board, etc), so I think I’ll be able to come out of this with limited debt.</p>
<p>that’s one reason I love living in NYC. I applied for a job my second day of college, and got called for like ten interviews within the week, and had a job two weeks later for $22/hr…and it’s really easy. Then again, cost of living here is high, so my paycheck doesn’t last so long I think they recently raised minimum wage in NY, so it’s like $7.50 now?</p>
<p>also, if any of you need summer jobs, start applying February - March! don’t wait til May, they’ll be taken up.</p>
<p>my other advice for hs students is not to overpay for college. There are so many private colleges that cost $150k-200k a year that aren’t known for quality of education or prestigious, and yet people spend a lot of money on them - I just don’t get it. The best deals are probably state flagship schools, or private colleges that give out generous merit scholarships.</p>
<p>oh, well my state doesn’t have amazing public schools and I know most states don’t either - I just meant that i don’t think it’s smart when people pay so much for private schools they can’t afford when those schools aren’t even that good to begin with. like I would never have paid $200k to go to boston university, when I could get the same education at suny-binghamton for way less…and yet I know several people paying that much for boston u. to me, that just doesn’t make sense, unless your parents are rich. or unless that person is hoping people will confuse boston u for boston college :P</p>
<p>the people who really luck out are ones from virginia, north carolina, california, etc…they have amazing public options like william & mary and unc-chapel hill (provided you’re smart enough to get into those schools :))</p>
<p>unrelated, but I’m kind of surprised that many single children with parents who have more than enough money to pay the average college tuition without lifestyle changes and debt don’t receive any money or receive very minimal money for their college tuitions. I don’t understand why, as even if the parents were saving up for retirement or an even bigger luxuries, a better education is very generally correlated with a higher tuition (private) and a better education is correlated with better job opportunities and higher pay. With a better education, wouldn’t there be a better chance to pay off college debt and more?</p>
<p>My mom is the one paying everything, helping me out through loans and stuff. My dad doesn’t help pay for anything at all because he thinks that since I am in college, I should be able to fork over my own money to pay for my own education. The only problem is that my parents’ EFC is ridiculously high; my dad just doesn’t wanna pay for my education but my mom thinks that they should be able to help me out a bit. Right now, she’s debating whether she should continue to help me pay because she’s been struggling to keep up with my rent and rising tuition and stuff. It’s been really hard to find a job because not only do I not have any work experience, but I don’t get financial aid at all or any work study. I’m really grateful for my mom for trying to pay for my education but I just hate that my dad doesn’t wanna help her out at all. So my situation is kinda different because my parents are split.</p>
<p>"I mean its not like we are poor. She does own a restaurant. She’s always saying that she doesnt have money and how raising four children is hard. She is a single mother, "</p>
<p>With this economy, restaurants are doing terribly and are failing all over the country.</p>
<p>She’s a single parent supporting 4 kids (I’m including you since you probably live with them over summers, vacations). That’s having a lot on her plate.</p>
<p>While she may have promised you before that she would help pay for your education, she didn’t expect this bleak economy.</p>
<p>$14 in loans for all of your college education is less than the $17 k most college grads have to pay back. People pay back their student loans by working. </p>
<p>If you don’t want student loans, then move back home, go to the local 4-year public or community college and then transfer to an in state public school. This probably would reduce your loans. Working during the school year (My son works 10-14 hours a week) and during summers and vacations also would help reduce your loans.</p>
<p>I know college students with large loans who are sending some of their earnings home to help their struggling families. Given the struggles that your mother must be going through with her business, you probably could be doing this.</p>
<p>theyre expecting scholarships/grants/etc. to cover it. my sister got scholarships and is on fafsa, but has some money that still needs to be paid. so she has a job and pays everything by herself. i want to do that too.</p>
<p>To the OP, I don’t think you ought to expect your mother to pay for your education… As many others have said, you may have an incomplete view of her financial situation, and underestimate her burden being the single mother of four children. Quite frankly, you’re lucky that it’s not costing you an insane amount of money to go to school. The smart thing to do would be to get a part time job to help reduce your loans and perhaps apologize to your mother for being so demanding… </p>
<p>Neither of my parents went to college or high school, and my dad never made it through grade school… I have never had the expectation of getting money from them for college. My mom owns a small business, we live decently, yet we’re still lower middle class and realistically, I understand that when I leave home, I’m going to take all the responsibility of financial burden with me. I’ve come to terms with it. </p>
<p>I suggest you do the same with your situation.</p>
<p>My parents make a total of about $150k/year, and they’re not paying a cent towards my tuition or housing. My father makes the 100K portion of that, and he’ll put about $250 per semester toward my books… more like half of one textbook. I worked my ass off, got a good academic scholarship and grants for various academic-related things, and I’m taking out the rest in loans. I’ll have way more in debt than you when I graduate, and even more if I lose my $15K/year scholarship if my GPA dips below a 3.5. Suck it up.</p>
<p>idea. your mom’s buying you a car, right? why don’t you ask her to spend the money she would’ve spent on purchasing the car INSTEAD on your college fees?</p>
<p>Paying for my college isn’t really an option for my parents. With 3 younger siblings and an income of about $60k/year they can afford approximately 0% of my tuition (They also have 2 cars to pay for along with the mortgage). That means a large portion of my money comes from the state and the other part is loans and a small scholarship (I go to a state school that doesn’t give out too awful much in scholarships though my college GPA is far better than my High School one so I’m hoping to get some more money soon). I’ve also got 1 or 2 jobs next semester.</p>
I think they recently raised minimum wage in NY, so it’s like $7.50 now?</p>