<p>Nova are you living at home? You mention that if you worked more etc. etc. you could move “out.” I really want my kids to be able to live on their own as they should as adults. I am watching their backs by not allowing them to assume more debt than they should be able to manage even at a very low salary.</p>
<p>I am at home to pay down my debt faster. My mom actually does not want me to leave (terrified I’ll move away and not come back)…of course, I plan to move out as soon as I’m comfortable where my debt lies, which will be in about a year. And quite frankly, not everyone’s parents “watch their kids’ backs,” as mine did not. I was on my own to make 100% of my decisions since I was 17. I obviously know a great deal more now, but what’s done is done and there’s no sense in tearing people down for something that simply cannot be changed. Especially when my parents…weren’t really parents in that sense.</p>
<p>I could have gone to a cheaper school. It would have been a much larger school, and I know myself well enough to say that neither my grades or the opportunities I took would have matched what I have from my small LAC. Between the severe anxiety I used to suffer from and my chronic health issues, I needed a small environment - where I could also commute to from home - and all of the small schools in my area are $30k+ a year (not including CC). I would have had to drive an hour at least to attend a cheaper state school, and I would not have done well in large, impersonal classes my first few years of school. It was better in my case, since I plan to pursue graduate school, to do better at a smaller and more competitive college than to do poorly at a much less selective state school.</p>