I don’t mind working full time during school (fri-sun 12hr shift or even overnight) and the summer at all. I’m just worried that if I lose my job, or they ever give me less hours, I may not be able to make the payments on time for each semester. I’m planning on attending UGA (6K per year with hope scholarship, roughly). Or I could start at CC for 1K per year and transfer in.
So should I just get loans, and then save up everything I can and pay them off really fast? Loans can be paid off before you graduate right? Has anyone been able to pay off at least 5K per year? I’d rather start at UGA, but I’ll do what I have to.
I also can’t use FAFSA, so could I get private loans worth 6K each year? And yes, I realize I’ll need to have a good credit score, but that’s already taken care of.
Working full time while going to college full time is not realistic. You will still have to work on assignments and projects and study on the weekends.
You can work in summers full time if you want to and get a part time job at college.
Do you have any money saved? Are you commuting to your school? What all does the Hope scholarship cover? Would it still be available for last 2 years if you started first at a CC?
@mommdc and @Madison85 Working full time is the only option that I have, since I’ll need to pay for my rent/utilities, and also have at least some savings every month.
UGA has a first year live on requirement, and their rent is expensive. So I’d like to try living off campus and commuting, and so I’d probably start at CC in that case. I don’t have any money saved now, but I’ll start working FT soon. Probably the 3rd shift (I waited until my graduation year to file the college apps, since my family needed to deal with some financial issues first) for now.
Yes, Hope is available for about 120 credit hours, whether they’re at CC or not. It covers about half the cost of CC, and 3.4K of the UGA tuition per semester.
Do you have any idea how high the private loans can go? I’m not using FAFSA, but that’s my parents’ personal info, so I don’t want to say why. They don’t want to use it, and I don’t either. And if my stats don’t match what they want, then I’ll just become a transfer student.
The govt already has your parents tax and paycheck info if they are worried about filing the FAFSA for some sort of hillbilly reason. If they are tax refusers then you have other headaches and will not get any loans. If they are in arrears with the IRS, then I’m not sure how it affects fafsa, but you should try to sort it out. The FAFSA qualifying federal student loan is the only loan you will likely get in your own name. No you will not get a loan without a cosigner.
It isn’t recommended to work more than 15 hours with a full time class load. 20 is manageable for some, using your student loan for the rest is entirely reasonable and practical. So I recommend that you start part time at a CC your can commute to. Because going full time and working full time means you will likely flunk out and have a disaster of a transcript and get in a trouble situation.
I think you could benefit from a sit down with a financial aid person at either a CC near you or a state U that’s within commuting distance. You’ve got a shaky understanding of how college financing works. Sure you can pay off your loans early- but you’d need to have enough assets and income to do so- and if you had those assets and income, you’d just pay your tuition and not bother with the loans.
I don’t see how you will qualify for any loan without your parents’ participation.
That said, I would choose reasonable loans over full time work while in college. A high gpa will land more and better job offers, and will set you up better financially in the long term. It would be hard to maximize your gpa and other educational opportunities while working full time.
Edit: “reasonable” loans to me would be no more than $5-6k per year, ASSUMING you are majoring in something that will likely have you employed at graduation.
Try Sallie Mae for small amounts. I don’t think you will get anyone to give you much and you may not like the rates. But remember, you have to qualify each year.
What was your gpa? You likely qualify for an automatic full ride at Louisiana Tech (they have more majors than just tech majors). At Temple in PA you may get full tutition +8k but you would still need 6k. At some HBCU you will qualify for a full ride: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
@BrownParent Thank you!!! That site looks very useful, and I read some automatic tuition threads on here, but this site lists universities that weren’t on those threads.
It is compiled by own own member BobWallace and contribution by the CC members here. Likely you can get a job on campus or nearby where you go for incidental expenses.
@112935Liddell, I predict you will have a hard time qualifying for private loans without parental assistance because lenders like to see an income and credit history before handing over thousands of dollars to an 18 year old. I guess I am presuming that you are 18-ish with no credit or job history of your own, but of course I could be wrong. Best of luck to you, though. Is there another adult family member who could guarantee the loans?