<p>@cptofthehouse I didn’t mean to act upset at you, I am just very very very stressed and trying to do the best I can with what I have and still make my chicago dream for next year be possible.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids my grandparents said they would fish around for money to help me… but probably not much…</p>
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<p>OP (in case you do come back, now or in the future) - what are you doing now that is different from what you have done in the past? </p>
<p>In the past, you ignored your parents’ advice. Here you’ve posted a plea for help, that you have no options - and then resist any of the constructive responses, and pursue dreams rather than reality (just as you did with the application process etc). </p>
<p>There’s no growth here. Nothing has been learned from past mistakes. </p>
<p>One of those cases where I sincerely hope we have to ‘eat our words.’</p>
<p>Hopeful, persistance and drive are excellent qualities, and you obviously possess those. Not taking “no” for an answer can open doors. But, not knowing when to stop pushing can land you in a whole world of hurt. Keep pushing for those private scholarhips. If you can land 16 of them at 1,000 each, more power to you. But, if you don’t, please have a plan B that doesn’t include borrowing so much money that you need cosigners and private loans. </p>
<p>Our experience with private scholarships was, as other have pointed out, not terribly fruitful. D1 did land one, and we treated it as an unexpected windfall. She got for her community service. As luck would have it, on the scholarship committee sat a man from our church who had happened to witness her service. And that’s what it was, luck, because I’m sure others wrote better essays. You do need to keep pushing, but you need to catch some lucky breaks, too. </p>
<p>I know you don’t want to do this right now because you are fully focused on DePaul, but (I’m repeating this), YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE AN AFFORDABLE PLAN B. Would you be willing to consider some of the other suggestions as a plan B in case you don’t get the private scholarships?</p>
<p>^^^How did your grandparents know you were short the money? Your dad wasn’t going to ask them (since they’re your mom’s relatives); you weren’t going to ask them yourself; and your mom was against the idea. This is just the sort of thing other posters have been alluding to … the idea that you’re pressuring other people (namely your hardworking mom and ill father) to help you fulfill your unrealistic dream that failed, on your own admission, because of your own short-sightedness.</p>
<p>There are so many reasons to take another path here … but you’ve dug in your heels. </p>
<p>Things that are shaky about your plan:</p>
<p>*Too much pressure on your parents, who clearly want the best for you and DO know what they’re doing.
*Too much debt.
*Dreams of a career that won’t support your projected debt load (at least early-on, if ever).
*Individual scholarships are hard to come by, come in small amounts, are more readily available ONLY to incoming freshman, and are not renewable for subsequent years. (ie, they’re another unrealistic element of your plan)
*Scholarships for transfer students are often less available and smaller in size than those for incoming freshmen, which makes the more-elite-college-option less realistic than you’re letting on.
*I could go on … in short, it really is an unrealistic plan, and time is a-wastin’.</p>
<p>You’re clearly set on this dream-of-a-thousand-scholarships plan. But maybe you should develop a back-up plan while you’re waiting for those scholarships to roll in. </p>
<p>Choose option 1 or 2 (community college or gap year), and take steps towards that plan while you wait for the DePaul-plan scholarships. If it’s community college, then find one you like and apply in the meantime. If it’s a gap year, then decide what it is you’ll do during the gap year and apply for that in the meantime. </p>
<p>That way, you won’t be caught without any options come August. Right now, you DO still have options. You just don’t like any of them.</p>
<p>@simplelife my grandparents knew I was short of money because my mother lives with them because she cannot afford to live on her own (my parents are divorced). So because of this, my grandparents know everything about this as I had to tell them since they live with my mom.</p>
<p>Seriously I am just focusing on this incoming freshman year. I will take it year by year. Please stop telling me I will not get scholarships. Just relax. I am applying for literally like 12-15 essay scholarships that are not highly known about. I am a very strong writer so I am not worried about how my essays will be judged. I will make it work. Stop telling me to find plan B and give up on plan A. you sound like my father.</p>
<p>Oh, my goodness. Well, good luck. Let us know how you make out.</p>
<p>Btw, 2015hopeful, my kids have applied for lots of those private scholarships over the years.</p>
<p>They earned several from our local community and school district, but all of those applications had to be in between December 1 and March 1 for the subsequent fall, and all were awarded between March and May for the subsequent fall. Your community’s scholarships probably have similar restrictions.</p>
<p>My kids have never earned even a single scholarship from sources outside of our community, like those found on Fastweb or the big-name ones like BestBuy, Walmart, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc. Their stats have all been 4.0 unweighted, SATs between 2230 and 2390, ACTs between 32 and 36, National Merit, class rank in the top 5%, lots of community service, all-state status in at least one extracurricular and sometimes two, lots of leadership, great essays, etc.</p>
<p>We have come to believe what cptofthehouse told you earlier… Yield per hour spent on those applications is too low and unpredictable to put much stock in them. We have also concluded that there’s probably a large need-based slant to them that my family couldn’t overcome. We’re solidly middle-to-upper-middle class without “real” demonstrated need. A lot of those scholarships might also favor URM’s or other “hooks.”</p>
<p>Like others who have responded to your thread, I have good reasons to be skeptical of your plan to garner $16K (or even $6K) worth of scholarships between now and August.</p>
<p>Hopefully, you’ll listen … for your own sake, of course (it’s no skin off any of our backs if you fail) …</p>
<p>^^^Oh. Sorry, 2015hopeful. I cross-posted with your posts. Wouldn’t want to sound like your father (who sounds like he wants the best for you).</p>
<p>Your thread was entitled, I need help! Please! I have no other options!</p>
<p>But anyway, had I read your other two posts #86 and #87, I wouldn’t have posted mine (#89).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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<p>Sweetie, life is all about having a plan B and a plan C. No matter how much we want it, plan A doesn’t always work out. If it doesn’t, we’re glad to have a safety net. If plan A works out, then no harm, no foul.</p>
<p>This isn’t just about college. And that’s why your father, and everyone posting here, is worried for you. You’re 18 years old, too old to stick your head in the sand when you don’t like the way things are going. </p>
<p>Write your essays, put in your scholarship applications…and put just as much time into working out your alternate plans if the scholarships don’t come through.</p>
<p>If your parents, grandparents all know of your issue and desires, and from your posts here, they are what are clearly on your mind, if they could and/or would get the money for you through loans or their coffers or contacting relatives, they would have done so. They did not. They let the May1 deadline go by without committing to any more than what they have told you. That’s a pretty strong message they are sending you. By the way, it’s not just your mom or dad that are the ones to sign the outside loans. Any credit worthy adult will do (though not for PLUS-that is for parents only). But the creditors will go after the co signers with a vengeance and it will go on their credit record as their loan, should they sign. My friend’s son had to have grandparents sign since mom and dad were not credit worthy. The interest rates for that loan were in the 9% range and they accumulate through college years</p>
<p>hopeful…I truly do hope that things work out the way you envision them, and if you can come up with enough outside funds to make 2 years at DePaul work I’ll happily line up for as many “I told you so’s” as you’d care to hand out.</p>
<p>I hope you’ll come to realize at some point, regardless of what the eventual outcome is, that a lot of people that don’t know you have tried their level best to help you…not attack you. For 7 pages you’ve been stuck in Stage 1 of Grief Management…and for your sake I hope you can jump straight to Stage 5. Stages 2-4 are a bear and no one here wants to see that happen…regardless of what you think. Take care and God Bless.</p>
<p>Plan B only goes into place if Plan A doesn’t work out. Nobody is telling you to give up on the scholarships without trying. We are simply telling you, yes like your father is probably telling you, that adults make contingency plans. You need one you can implement, just like any adult would.</p>
<p>Wolverine, that hadn’t occurred to me, but I think you’re right. What we’re seeing here may be grief, pure and simple. Thank younger pointing that out.</p>
<p>I have read this thread with great sorrow. It’s like watching someone drive a car over a cliff. OP, if you’re still out there, consider this: You are in this bad situation because of the very poor judgment you use in the past–poor judgment in slacking off in school, poor judgment in applying to a raft of colleges you were completely unqualified for, poor judgment in ignoring the sound advice of your parents. Is it not conceivable to you that you simply have poor judgment, and should allow others to help you this time to avoid further disaster? Every single parent posting in this thread has warned you that your Plan A is foolhardy and you need a viable Plan B. This time, accept your serious limitations in maturity, planning, and financial savvy and and substitute our good life skills for your inadequate ones. But first, go to the dictionary and compare the difference between the definition of “dream” and the definition of “pipedream”.</p>
<p>Having read most of OP’s other posts while she was applying and waiting to hear from all the schools she hoped to get into and now this string of postings, I am sorry to say that I think this pattern of “wishful thinking” and not listening to solid advice is her way of life and will continue on. </p>
<p>She’s asked us for a magic bullet to get her to DePaul and beyond and won’t listen or take the solid advice we are offering.</p>
<p>Hopeful, I’ve found it very helpful to reconsider my position when everyone I ask is telling me I’m wrong. 99.99% of the time it is me that is wrong. Think about it. </p>
<p>The scholarships most likely will not happen. There is no money fairy. You need to go to a school you can afford. DePaul is not it.</p>
<p>Like Upstatemom, I read the posting history. It is profoundly sad.</p>
<p>If you want to continue to pursue this option, and you have no better things to do, go right on ahead. It would be wise to start looking at other alternatives so that you aren’t sitting without anyplace to go come August.</p>