<p>Ok so I am a high school graduate, who really wants to attend a university instead of a local college, due to the sheltered and overprotective life I've been force to live for the past 17 years.</p>
<p>My household consist of my single mother, myself, and younger brother. My mother has always struggle to find a job as a CNA and had just recently became a substitute teacher this past school year. As of now she is not working and are income last year was 15,000. We live in a house and each month most of my moms savings go to utility bills, mortgage, car payments, insurance, and etc. Somehow she's been able to pay for all my expenses, dorm down payment (800), orientation, and items for my dorm.</p>
<p>But it has come with a lot of sacrifices. For example I won't be able to afford a meal plan.</p>
<p>I have a 0 EFC and will receive 5550 this school year.
I also have 75% bright futures.
I also have another scholarship called Take in Stock that has not shared the price of my scholarship but did tell me that my scholarship will only last for a year and a half at a university versus a full two years if I was to attend a state community college like BC.</p>
<p>I will be attending FGCU florida gulf coast university, First generational college student
Tution is about 5,648
Dorm is 3118 per semester
Books: ???
I plan on majoring in Biology and minoring in education. Biology because I want to pursue going to medical school and becoming an allergist. Education because if I don't have enough money to attend medical school maybe I can become a teacher as a back up.</p>
<p>I don't want to complete a four year college and go into debt. I want to be able to leave the nest (home) and live freely and responsibly. Leaving will also potentially re patch my
mother and I rocky relationship. "Absence makes the heart grow founder" type of thing.</p>
<p>Someone please provide me with some advice that convince me into not constantly worrying anymore. </p>
<p>Thank you for your time.</p>
<p>Ok, lookie here. You are going to be going to a fairly large school in a beautiful place. You have the road open in front of you. Right now, you have to focus on the path you are about to embark on and not on anything else. The best thing you can do is buckle down and do the very best you can to get through school with good grades and learn as much as possible. Around you, things will fall into place.</p>
<p>“For example I won’t be able to afford a meal plan.”</p>
<p>Then just exactly how do you plan to eat? Does your residence hall have cooking facilities that make it possible for you to prepare all of your own meals?</p>
<p>Is there a Stafford Loan in your aid package? Or a work-study component? Some students are successful at locating off-campus work so that they don’t need to take on any student loans, but with a Bio major, that will be a big challenge. You might be best off to take out a Stafford for your first year so that you have money to eat with and pay for your books and lab supplies.</p>
<p>If you plan on attending this fall, isn’t it a little late to be wondering whether or not you should go? Have you received a financial aid award notice from the school that includes university scholarships/grants? Or is it just loans that they provided? With your EFC being 0, I can’t see why they will have left you with 8k to pay off on your own (assuming the school is ~14k/yr with what you described).
"I don’t want to complete a four year college and go into debt. "
Nobody wants this, but it’s necessary for people who have an EFC of 0 to take out loans to pay off school. If you really want to save money, you could always apply to a local community college but then again you would be utilizing your loans anyway, right?
And btw, most universities REQUIRE students who live in the dorms to purchase a meal plan. If you haven’t already, I urge you to check with your school and find out if they require a meal plan because chances are they do, and that adds on to the cost greatly.
Sorry if I added to your worrying, there just seems to be quite a few things you haven’t yet considered and/or overlooked.</p>
<p>Tution is about 5,648
Dorm is 3118 per semester
Books: ??? (say 1800)
= say 13,000</p>
<p>minus 5500 (FAFSA)
is 7500
minus 1500 (average Bright Futures award)
is 6000
minus Bright stock</p>
<p>is 6000/year. </p>
<p>If you add in work study on campus, you could knock off a thousand or two.
The rest will have to be a loan; try getting a Stafford from the govt.
If you can, also go for the federal Pell Grant if not already.</p>
<p>What I can say, is that if you qualified for the Bright Futures and other awards, you must have had a good SAT and GPA. And thus, you probably will do well in college. I would advise you to reconsider a bachelors degree, and repay off student loans once in the workplace, but if you plan on moving out and getting a mortgage, it will be costly. However, that award might land you a higher paying job.</p>
<p>I decided to attend the university and have already. My total cost of stay is 5,048 including tuition and dorm. Fafsa, bright futures, and Florida prepaid (take stock in children) has covered it all.</p>
<p>It isn’t as bad as I thought, I even had left over financial to pay for books that weren’t used. I Plan on selling the books to the bookstore at the end of the semester for a little bit of money.</p>
<p>A meal plan isn’t required here, its recommended. I have a fridge and money instead of a meal plan.</p>
<p>All is well, I worried for nothing.</p>
<p>Thank you to all who responded I greatly appreciate your response’s and concerns.</p>
<p>Oh wow, thats pretty lucky of you!
Congrats and good luck with college!</p>