<p>This is really worrying me. I know my mother's struggle to pay for college. She worked 2 part time jobs and went to school full time. She finishes her masters this year with $6000 debt which isn't bad.</p>
<p>My mom makes less than $15,000 a year and I qualify for free lunch but for certain reasons do NOT qualify for financial aid. VT & GT is asking for me to show them a bank statement of 37 grand before I can enroll. hahahha, seriously? What should I do? My community college is probably 10 thousand bucks cheaper. I have good grades, take AP classes and I never thought this would be an issue. I'm applying for scholarships but wow, that's not enough to cover $37,000 for a year, times 4.
I'll have to work full time but at the same I'll have school(engineering).
Any similar struggles?? What do you suggest?</p>
<p>Are you an international student? Do you live in this country?</p>
<p>I applied for schools where I ranked within the top 10% of applicants, but were still good schools, and got massive scholarships that covered at least my tuition. I ended up going to a school where the scholarship covered my tuition, fees, room, and board, and I only had to pay for books and miscellaneous expenses with loans and with money I made from working.</p>
<p>Showing a certain amount in the bank sounds a lot like international student requirements, since domestic students aren’t required to do that before they enroll (or at least I’ve never heard of that). Your local community college should be a lot more than $10K cheaper, though. Credits at the community college usually are in the ballpark of $100-200 per hour so for a full load of 15 hours you should really only be paying around $1500-3000 a semester, or around $3-6K per year. Any community college that has a total cost of attendance of $27K is really expensive! I live in NYC, one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., and a semester at the Borough of Manhattan Community College is only $1575.</p>
<p>yes. i’m an international student but have lived in the US for about 9 years.
I qualify for free lunch but no aid for school. </p>
<p>i’m seeing that private colleges should have been the places I should have applied to the most.</p>
<p>Start off at that community college and save some money by doing so. DO WELL and then apply as a transfer. Make sure that financial aid IS offered to international transfer students. As you know…this could be the most challenging thing for you to find. Many schools do not offer aid to international students and many don’t offer significant aid to transfers. BUT some do for both…you’ll need to check this out.</p>
<p>Just an FYI…all international students need to show verification that they can PAY for their costs. This is a requirement to get a student visa.</p>
<p>What is your immigration status?</p>