<p>First, let’s be clear - it is your parents who must decide whether or not to take out a PLUS loan, not you. If you attend UCSC, they would have to borrow $28,000 (or more, depending on tuition increases) EACH of the four years you attend. It would be their debt, not yours, and it would be up to them to pay it back.</p>
<p>You could help to reduce their expense slightly by getting summer jobs each year and working part-time during the school year. You could also eventually move off campus to reduce your housing expense.</p>
<p>If this is more than they can afford, and you still want to attend UCSC, then you’d need to attend a LOCAL community college for two years. It has to be local so that you can live at home and keep your expenses down. After that, you transfer to UCSC. Your parents would still need to pay for you - but it would be for two years only, instead of four. As noted above, if you start working year-round immediately (full-time during the summers and part-time during the school year), and save the money, you’d be able to help them out quite a bit with the expense.</p>
<p>Your other option is to take a year off - and that means no school at all for a year! - and apply to colleges where you’d be eligible for significant merit aid. I know it might sound impossible, but if your GPA and SAT/ACT scores are high enough, there are schools that will cover most or all of your cost to attend. But this will only work if you apply as a freshman. If you go to another school for a year (even part-time) and then try to apply to one of these schools as a transfer student, you won’t get the money you need.</p>
<p>The schools listed [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html][b]here[/b][/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html]here[/url</a>] and [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html][b]here[/b][/url”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums]here[/url</a>] offer guaranteed merit aid if your grades and scores are high enough. All you have to do is apply early, before the school runs out of money. Look at some of the school links and see if you’d qualify. Yes, most of the schools would be quite far away, but school would be paid for!</p>
<p>Sit down with your parents and explain to them how much they’d have to pay (each year!) for you to attend UCSC. Maybe they can afford it - perhaps by borrowing the money against the rental house. If they can’t, then you need to come up with a different plan.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>