<p>Op,
I am impressed by your hard work, organization, and work ethic. You seem like such a good kid; I’m sorry that your parents won’t pay for food. Almost seems cruel.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters:
Show this thread to your parents
Speak with financial aid office about getting a Stafford loan or other financial aid, either with a grant or with a loan.
Look into a “work-study” job at school where you work at a “front desk” but mainly study during this time. It’s great because it forces you to study and you get paid for it.
Change your fall school schedule so that you could work during the day
Maybe work 2 jobs during the summer to build up more money</p>
<p>Thank you so much everyone for the replies! They were so very helpful, and it’s nice to get some kind of advice on what to do! I spent hours doing it, but I was finally able to swap my classes around a bit so that I can work a bit each day. Keeping this job is important to me, because I’m promised an internship next summer, and I really enjoy it! I will only be working 10 hours a week, bringing in a small wage of $80, but I calculate that I never really spend more then $50, so whatever is left will go into my savings account so I can start building that up again! I don’t want my savings to drop too low. Also, some money will go to paying off my credit card for books. So I find a solution! It will be hard (Classes are stacked tuesday and thursday from 9 in the morning to about 6 at night) but I can do it. Ah, the dreaded ramen. I’m hoping to eat better this year-my diet for freshman year consisted of ramen, easy mac, and canned ravioli for the whole year. Needless to say, I never want to see those things again! </p>
<p>@OldFort-That’s fantastic that one of your children was able to work that much! It doesn’t seem right to you, but I expected it. For one, my parents refuse to pay for anything, which forced me to work 25-30 hour a week jobs all throughout high school. While this food situation is irritating, I am vastly more prepared for ‘the real world’ and ‘reality’ then many students my age. I worked 15 hours last semester, just like your own child, so I know what that’s like. I also was apart of community service. I don’t take pride in a lot, but I’m a girl who takes pride in the fact that I am very independent:) </p>
<p>Once again, thank you for your answers everyone! I will still look into ALL of them!</p>
<p>I agree that a loan would not in order. Also, i worked in food service and one of my kids worked off campus at an eatery on weekends. The free meals can really add a boost to the dried ramen and oatmeal with hot water. Also hint to the grandparents, relatives, whoever, that eat out gift cards, fruit of the month, food baskets are welcome gifts while at college because you are finding it difficult to get the food you need.</p>
<p>There are other kinds of jobs you can do on weekends also- like babysitting, mowing lawns/gardening, etc. Don’t give up and don’t rule out student loans if you have to get them. If you only borrow $1000/year, that’s really not bad at all.</p>
<p>Seeing BarnardMom’s post reminded me of a friend who went to Barnard many years ago. As a first generation Russian immigrant, she was on FA with very limited budget. She told me she used to look for all kinds of social events at school around meal time to get free food. She wasn’t above in taking some left overs with her either. She went to a lot of speaker events, art shows, various cultural/racial events (didn’t matter if it was Chinese, Jewish, Spanish…), as long as there was food, she was there.</p>
<p>My daughter was also keen on all the food events at Barnard… but the same thing happens at other schools as well. </p>
<p>To Writefluidly: you can work with financial aid to get authorization of a loan without actually taking the distribution. That is, you get the paperwork in order so you know what is available and the loan is ready to go if you need it, but you don’t actually take the money unless you need it. There will be a deadline to act on the money – either the end of the semester or end of the school year. </p>
<p>And rice & beans are more nutritious than Ramen and easy mac … though I can’t promise you won’t get tired of those as well. Easy Mac & canned ravioli aren’t a particularly good value - if you are eating those it is because you either don’t know how to cook many things or don’t have time. That’s why I think you will be very happy if you equip your apartment with either a rice cooker or a crock pot.</p>
<p>One year when I was in college I left the dorm and worked as a nanny which provided a free place to live (apartment over the garage) and a small amount of money. IIRC I worked about 10-15 hrs a week mostly a couple hours daily after the kids got out of school/taking them to dentist etc.</p>