Do you, or anyone else, know how financial aid when I’m 24+ differ from my aid right now? Right now, I’m pretty sure the only “free money” I receive is a $4,000 state grant each year; then about $8000 in subsidized and unsubsidized loans. The remaining $8,000 I had to take out private loans for.
Is the only difference once I turn 24 that I will receive more in federal loans? If so, they’re still loans.
Gen eds should transfer.
As for financial aid, I cannot tell if you are getting the maximum amount of financial aid possible right now. At age 24, you would get more aid at many schools, but yes, some have some aid in the form of loans, not institutional aid.
I don’t honestly think college is worth this kind of debt, but that’s me. I would stop accumulating debt, period. Can you withdraw and reduce your debt any now?
You could get an associate’s degree.
You could volunteer in the science fields that interest you.
Please stop the debt pile especially in light of doing less well than you would like. Wait a few years.
Is there anyone who can help you with the loan payments? You can look into public service (AmeriCorps) which can sometimes mean loan forgiveness.
When I went to the Penn State student aid office the other day, she told me I was getting my maximum amount of aid possible (which I didn’t initially think I was). I have a hard time believing that. It’s pretty ridiculous that someone like me, with so little money and only reporting my mother’s financial info, total assets which value less than $5,000, is hardly getting any aid. It’s so frustrating. But they told me I’m getting all I qualify for.
Right now I’m not getting any “institutional” aid. Like I said, only state grants; the rest are all loans.
I calculated all my debt today between federal and private loans and it’s approximately $45,000, so I overestimated a little, but it’s still significant.
I see that you don’t think college is worth the debt, but I won’t ever be able to do what I want to do without a degree, I don’t think. If I had a plan to invent something and change the world, that’d be great, but I don’t. Unfortunately, even if I would teach myself everything on my own, none of the industries I’m interested in working in will hire someone who “claims to be a master of science” but has no degree to prove it. It’s just a fantasy.
I definitely am going to stop the debt for now by taking a break to reset and come up with a new plan for my future. I will keep all options open for the short term, but I’m sure that my long-term goal will still be to return to school and get a degree(s) so I can end up where I want to. I’ll have to look at all schools to determine which would be the least expensive for me.
@MrElculver2424 hugs to you. It is difficult to be so young and going through these struggles on your own. I read your posts and feel your tremendous conflicts. It sounds like your plan to retreat and regroup is your best choice and it also sounds like you know this. You know that what is left of your financial resources is not going to last long, and adding more debt may be detrimental to your future. It’s painful to face this type of predicament. Reality does bite sometimes.
Please know that even though you are at a crossroads right now and you feel that either choice brings tremendous cost, noone can take away the education that you have earned to date. Many people cannot afford the live at university and finish within four years experience. Many people start stop work deplete their money work some more go back to school etc etc. They eventually end up with degrees, get jobs, earn, and do all the other life stuff. It just isn’t the straightforward four year path because they couldn’t afford that, but still end up with a degree. You want a degree but in a way that’s balanced and won’t sink you.
Keep seeking advice. Do what is best for you right now.
@NorthernMom61 Thanks for the kind words! It really does help to hear those things from other people, helps me remain positive and confident despite all the stressful things happening.
The other, future worry I have is…how am I ever going to afford to pay for off-campus rent all on my own?
I’m not positive, but if I transfer to another college, I’m not sure I would be eligible for on-campus housing, or if I’d even want it. I would have to work full time for years just to save enough money to pay for off-campus rent for 2 academic school years.
I’d almost have to work a lot while I’m also going to school, which I don’t think I can do with a major as rigorous as what I want to do. There’s no way I could work; I would lose focus of my studies and would end up just getting off track again.
That’s why most college students have a number of roommates and share rooms even, to keep the housing costs as low as possible. Most college students don’t have their own apartment.
@NorthernMom61 I do share my apartment; I have two roomates. $680 a month is relatively cheap compared to most apartments here. This was the best deal available; I looked everywhere. Some apartments were around $400 per person, but then they don’t include any utilities and you have to spend hundreds extra on that stuff.
But still too expensive for me to pay all on my own. What 21 year old has $16,000 to pay for rent for 2 years? Not many. Most probably have lots of family help.
You will probably need to break your lease agreement or find someone to take it over. It is hard for a 21 year old to pay that kind of rent without some help from parents. So sorry that you are in this situation.
Sounds like college burnout. You can’t work 60 hrs a week and go to college full time. Sooner or later you’re going to break. I can’t tell you what you should do for a career, but this path you’re on is a one way trip to a hospital. What you need to do is refocus your priorities. If your priority is school, then cut your work drastically so you can finish, but finish with something reasonably employable, or maybe do graduate school. If you’re very perfection oriented and intellectual, maybe consider an academic career. If you have a passion in where you work, go to school part time and focus a career around the industry you’re already working in.
@coolguy40
Thanks for your post. I should clarify that I never was working 60 hrs/week while also going to 5 classes at the exact same time. I should’ve talked more about that. I would normally work about 20 hrs/week while taking 4-5 classes. I would only work 60 hrs/week during school breaks. Since transferring out here to main campus, I haven’t been working at all because my job was back at home. But then again, last semester I wasn’t taking too hard of classes so it didn’t really matter.
To update the situation:
I withdrew from this semester. I’m still here, staying in my off-campus apartment. I took a few weeks to figure everything out, and I think I have decided to commit to majoring in Astrophysics with a focus in Computer Science. One of my fellow club members is majoring in that and she helped me up my confidence in my ability to do it.
I’m going to take a few summer classes back at my local branch campus of college, which is good because they are smaller class sizes and it’s a little cheaper. I will try to sublet my apartment (since my lease runs through July), but I don’t know if I’ll luck out because there will be a ton of vacant apartments and not that many students here in the summer.
If I take these few classes in the summer, I’ll set myself up nicely to return here in the Fall and I’ll be on a fairly organized path (the academic plan for the major). I do like it here. Yes, it’s a huge, hectic, sports-crazy school, but I’ve isolated myself from that and found a handful of people that are just like me.
I looked at some other colleges, but really, none of them are going to be much more affordable than here if at all, and most don’t even have the astro major. So even though this is tough on me financially, it’s pretty much my only option to stay here.
I got all my tuition back for spring since I withdrew, so that money into my bank account helps. Yeah, it’s loaned money…but I can’t be too worried about that right now. I was always gonna have a decent amount of student debt, I know that. I will deal with that in 10 or 20 years. But right now, I need to focus on just being serious about my academics and career. If I run out of money to pay for my rent, I’ll just have to request that money in more student loans, or I can break into a special CD that my great grandmother has saved up for me. My intention was not to touch that unless I absolutely needed to, but it looks like I might have to.
The reason I had to withdraw this semester was I simply wasn’t prepared to succeed in the classes I had scheduled. Plus, they were way too huge for me, and I just knew I wasn’t in the right mind set to do well in them. Now, I have a few months to take a little break, go over Chemistry 1 info again, and prepare for Chemistry 2 and Physics and Calculus in the summer. I will do better in the smaller classes back at my home campus.
Sounds like a good plan. The degree looks pretty good. If you have an emphasis in computer science, be sure you have a reasonably sound proficiency of a good mainstream programming language like Java, C#, SQL, etc. That should get your foot in the door for a decent job out of college. Good luck!
Make sure you talk to the Dean of Students about your plan to make sure they would let you back in.
See if you should be taking an Leave of Absence instead of just not showing up.
See if they woudl accept the credit from the other college.