I have no hope, There’s no money saved up for me to go to college, and my parents only make 1500-1600 a week, so they can’t help me out. I need other alternatives, I don’t want to want to end up like my parents living paycheck to paycheck
If your parents can’t or won’t pay anything for college, you can get scholarships(if you’re lucky), live at home and commute(probably to a CC), take out loans(assuming your parents will cosign), or do a tour in the military.
A friend works at Starbucks and has been very happy taking a few courses online at ASU. Community college is an option. Some states have state funding.
$1500 per week x 52 is $78k per year. That’s a lot.
Can you give us more information? Home state? GPA/test scores?
I live In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a very low income area. My GPA is a mid 3. I’m just starting my junior year so no SAT score yet
Most college students don’t have a college savings. MOST. You are not alone.
As noted, start looking for affordable options. Many students live at home and commute to either a four year or community college. Some go to school part time, and work full time. Some get merit awards that help with costs.
Are you a senior now? What is your ACT or SAT score…and GPA.
By mid 3 do you mean around a 3.5? I would spend junior year studying hard for your classes and prepping for the SAT and/or ACT. Did you ask your parents if they can contribute anything for college?
yeah, a 3.5, and my parents won’t help pay because they’re already struggling financially
As already noted, $78,000/year is not a low income, especially in an area that may be economically depressed or have a relatively low cost of living. Have you talked to your parents about possibly modifying their budget to help with your college costs? Do they have any other-than-ordinary expenses that must be paid? Uninsured medical issues? Lots of other kids?
Even if your parents can’t afford to help you pay for college, you are way ahead of some folks if you can at least get them to co-operate on helping fill out the parent FAFSA which is needed at a lot of schools to be able to get merit aid and for you to be able to access federal loans. Some kids are trying to work around parents putting up roadblocks, so as long as you have parents encouraging you and open supportive communication lines with them you’ll be able to afford some school somewhere.
2 other kids, and still paying medical bils
As a worst case scenario, could you live at home and work for a year or two and save money for college.
Are there any schools that you could commute to while living at home? Maybe you can get some merit, go part time, etc. Once you have scores and an end-of-year GPA you can investigate merit.
the closest one is 2 hours away, so commuting every day would be strenuous,
Is there a community college nearby that you could attend while working, and then possibly transfer to a 4 year college? You can investigate possible merit once you have scores.
Gogebic Community College is an hour and a half, seems doable but we have massive blizzards and icy conditions between November and April
There is a free college matching service for families making under 80,000 per year, but you have to have a minimum SAT or ACT to qualify:
Do you have any dual enrollment options through your high school so you can start earning college credits now?
You can start studying for SAT on khan https://www.khanacademy.org/sat
Yeah, we do have dual enrollment but as soon as I found out, applications were over, I need to start looking into it for next year