My dad’s not going to help me pay for college even though he has a higher income than my mom who was recently unemployed (so she can’t help me either). My college education’s going to be one financed on my own, though I have none. I’m 17 and I’m thinking about either starting off at a community college and transferring to a public university or not going to college at all because of this. What should I do? What could I do pay my college expenses since I’m going to be doing so on my own if I go (I want to). And would majoring in a business/technology over a liberal arts (English, Psychology, History, Languages, etc.) be the better path to take financially if I want to not be up to my chin in debt?
Sorry you’re in a frustrating situation! I think it’s good that you’re thinking about this srot of thing.
One first step that you can take is to look up some full tuition and full ride scholarships such as the ones available from [this list of colleges](http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/). (There are other links on this forum but I don’t remember what they are right now…) A lot of your options will be predicated on your GPA and standardized test scores so it’s worth maintaining those so that you can put your best foot forward.
As far as major goes – your major doesn’t directly affect how much debt that you will have. As a dependent student you can borrow $5,500 in your freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, and $7,500 in your junior and senior years; you can get that if you are a business major or an English major. If you need more money, you will need a cosigner (usually one of your parents) and then your debt load will be based on how much you borrow, how much you need, and the interest rate. That’s not something you should do unless you need to though.
You can likely pay the tuition costs to attend a community college with your Direct Loan amount, and money earned from a summer and part time job during school.
Get your two year degree.
It might be that you will have to work full time while you are completing your bachelors degree part time. You wouldn’t be the first student to need to do this for financial reasons.
Keep your eye on your goal of getting a college degree, and realize that there are many different paths to getting there.
^
Looks like she got into an expensive OOS public. There’s no money to pay for her costs, and she doesn’t seem to realize how hard it would be for her to get residency there.
She needs to start at a local CC and commute from home.
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What are my chances of getting into UT Austin as a transfer student? I currently live in Illinois, but after I graduate from high school, I'm planning on moving Texas. I was thinking about starting off at a community college for a year and then trying to transfer there. I want to major in English, I have a 3.6 weighed gpa and a ACT score of 21.
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She’s not unemployed right now. She works as a substitute teacher, but she was unemployed for a long time… I think she only made $12,000 or $13,000 whereas my dad makes in the $50,000 range. They had me to file that they were separated and just enter my dads info. Is that bad? Their reasoning was that I wouldn’t get much if any money if I added my mom’s information on my FAFSA.
My counselor pushed me to apply to alot of private schools, but now I’m thinking that wasn’t such a good idea. I got into some women colleges like Agnes Scott College and Spelman College. I’m on the waiting list for Smith. I don’t think I’m going to go to any of them, though…
I’m moving there, though. Once I’m living in the state for a year, I’ll be a resident. The community colleges in Texas don’t give out of state students aid?