<p>Next year, whatever college I may end up going I'll be on as "independent student"
And I'm 18 (yeah, parents not paying for college, on my own)</p>
<p>I want to know what it's like to anyone?</p>
<p>Particularly in a UC-system (where Tuition+Room+Board+Food=20-24K)
-Is it particularly hard to pay on your own?
-Can u work-study?
-Scholarship opportunities?</p>
<p>-Other Aid that's not grants/loans?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm worrying about it (I have 4,000 in scholarship money thus far)
if I get into UCLA, the UCLA alumni association of Lake Arrowhead (place I lived) will give me a 16,000-22,000 dollar yearly scholarship</p>
<p>Is it hard? It can be, depending on whether you get good scholarships or not. There are semesters where I take out around 3k in loans, there are semesters where I don’t have to take any out at all.
Work-study? Certainly. That’s why the program exists.
Scholarships? There will be more scholarships once you’ve actually been there for a semester/year, but now you can apply to all the ones that are local to you.</p>
<p>If you get that big scholarship it’ll make your life much, much easier.</p>
<p>Yes, the way I put it’s like this for my possible college tuitions next year</p>
<p>(I already have 4K in local scholarships)</p>
<p>-UCLA: (16,000-22,000 scholarship from Local alumni association if I do get in) Covers over 90% of tuition and room and board. I’ll be able to get part-time job, pay for the rest. I could also receive one of their freshman scholarships, therefore covering 100%</p>
<p>-UCB: The cost total is about 24,000. Even if I do get one of the scholarships I applied for, they are only for 1K, I’d still have to pay 18-19,000 a year. (ouch, big ouch) I’ll have to work more, probably get a loan, and apply for more scholarships.</p>
<p>-UCI: Around 24,000 too, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford it without any aid, and IDK how much Scholarship stuff I can get from UCI. I haven’t found scholarships from them yet.</p>
<p>-UCR: The big problem with UCR is that is still pretty darn expensive. And I don’t like Riverside that much (I lived one hour from Riverside) so, um, no.</p>
<p>Cal States: They are fairly cheaper but I won’t be able to get cal grants nor any kind of thing like that.</p>
<p>Just take out $80k in private loans which you pay back whenever you like. That’s what everyone I know who went to college did. Be sure to work-study.</p>
<p>If your parents can’t help you out because they don’t have much money, there will be loads of need-based scholarships from the school if you’re a good student.</p>
<p>Argh. I start school next year, and they’re taking into question my in-state residency, even though I’ve been living in Kansas for about a year now. =/ So I might end up having to pay out-of-state. It sucks. I have no idea how I’m going to do it. I have some money saved for college, but it’s barely anything, and I haven’t received any scholarships yet. </p>
<p>Any advice? In-state for the year will be a total of about 15-20k (tuition, room/board, etc), but if it’s OOS, it’ll be around 30k. I just don’t know if I can afford that. My parents can’t help me. They’re going to pay my cell phone, car insurance, and help me out when they can, but they have bills to pay and other children to care for, so I can’t possibly ask for too much. I’m on my own. -sigh-</p>
<p>^
Today My dad told me this:
“We’re doing really bad financially, we may have another property foreclosure and I don’t think we can afford our bills any longer, u know I can’t pay for ur school”</p>
<p>And I was like “I know”</p>
<p>He will help me out by</p>
<p>-Making sure I’m settled at the school
-Clear up residency issues
-Pay for the meal plan, cell phone, and give me a VW bug as a car.
-Setting up a small bank account which he’ll deposit (with my mother too) 30 dollars a week.
-Plane tickets to go visit them</p>
<p>Yup, it sucks!</p>
<p>As for u magicboxers, I’m feeling u, I have 4K, I need to pay like 20K in state, it sucks.</p>
<p>I put myself fully through college, in fact i consider it a bad thing for parents to help.</p>
<p>The best thing you can do is get emancipated from your parents or find another way to be independent. Just because you parents say they cant or wont help doesn’t mean the govt and the school will give you more aid. In fact they will always assume the parents will help. </p>
<p>You are not independant untill you can beat the fafsa and say you are independent.</p>
<p>Also if you do need to take loans, take them but assume to go back and live at home for 1-2 years and pay them back asap.</p>
<p>if you dont apply then you wont get Stafford loans or pell grants, nor perkins loans. So you must go the private route, which will be credit based.</p>
<p>Id highly recommend you fill out this form and see what the school gives. When you do you need to show that you are independent. The easiest one to do is say that you provide a large portion of your income to some other household. I believe there are 7 questions and you need to answer 1 yes to get independent status. never include your parents finances if they refuse to pay anything. If you have to claim to be homeless and claim you still get your mail delivered to the home address and you check it daily.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I want to get emancipated. If I do, I’ll lose all the health care I get through my parents. My dad works for the city, and my mom is a teacher, so I get really good health coverage, and trust me, I need it. I have way too many health problems not to have it.</p>
<p>Yeah. My mom has TERRIBLE credit, because she opened a restaurant that flopped. And I guess that means my dad has bad credit, too, 'cause I’ve heard him saying her credit ruined both of their credits.</p>