<p>Just be very wary of 2 year for-profit colleges. They often deceive students about their job prospects and income after college, and have been known to deceive students about their loan terms.</p>
<p>Very good advice.</p>
<p>*about community colleges in PA - for some, there are residency requirements to get the very lowest tuition. Some community colleges are funded by participating school districts. If you are a legal resident of one of those school districts, you get the very lowest tuition rates. If you are a resident of PA but not a resident of one of those school districts, you pay a moderate rate.</p>
<p>Other community colleges do not have this distinction.*</p>
<p>How do you know which are which? Is there a list somewhere? a website?</p>
<p>CollegeMatchmaker finds 16 community colleges in PA, and reports that 5 have some kind of housing available. It wouldn’t take much time to check the residency requirements and tuition rates for the ones that interest you. [College</a> MatchMaker: Results](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>There are a bunch of community colleges in PA, and the state schools here would be a very good fit for you looking at your grades and situation. I am sorry that your home life has been very rough, I understand that it can really make a person want to follow their dream in college. However, maybe you should try and go to a cheaper school, save up for moving to the city later, and try and get some internships in the city.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and I hope it works out, but be sure to listen to the people in this forum, a lot of these people have given you some REALLY good advice.</p>
<p>Your goal is to get a job in NYC after you graduate…you do realize the effects of the recession are still rampant in NYC and surrounding areas? Neither of my parents can find full time works at the moment. My mother is a teacher. There are ZERO jobs if you’re short of a master’s and even then there’s very little. My father has 25+ years of experience in advertising and was senior vice president as his old company. He cannot find any work even at a considerable pay cut.</p>
<p>So no, you probably won’t be able to find a job as a paralegal in NY in two or four years. But that won’t change whether or not you go to college there. In two years hopefully they will be hiring the people with tons of experience who were laid off in the recession. In four years the economy will probably still be recovering.</p>
<p>More than a quarter of my friends have one unemployed parent. More than that have lost jobs and had to start doing something for a much lower salary. I’m not from a poor area. I’m from an area where more than eighty percent of people commute to the city for work.</p>
<p>I am an attorney who (besides being an attorney) teaches in a NYC paralegal program affiliated with a major college (not LaGuardia). We require at least 2 years of college in order get accepted into the program BUT we tell all applicants that, based on our experience, they really need a 4 year degree to get a paralegal job in NYC and in the area. The only people I know who are paralegals without a BA are paralegals with 20+ years experience. My opinion is that you will need the BA for NYC. </p>
<p>In NYC, even receptionists are now required to have a BA.</p>
<p>And yes, there are still paralegal jobs in NYC–the job market for paralegals keeps improving in NYC after a horrible couple of years. However, regardless of how bad the market was, my students were still getting jobs.</p>
<p>So if you want to be a paralegal, get a BA in a school where you can also get a certificate in paralegal studies. If after a few years of being a paralegal you find that you don’t like it (it could happen), at least you have a degree to fall back on.</p>
<p>And yes, find a state school in PA–pay as little as possible. I have lived in Philly and in NYC (where I currently live). I love the Columbian and other SA CA restaurants in Jackson Heights, but they certainly are worth moving here for college if you are going to be so much in debt.</p>