Pre-Med with no money

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi everyone, I am a pre-medical student at a community college and I currently have no conceivable way to pay for my 4-year degree. I am also essentially a first-generation college student.</p>

<pre><code> The story goes something like this. My family is middle-class and at one point I supposedly had a college fund. That is until my older-brother gained access to my parents bank accounts sometime when he was in highschool and drained those accounts to spend on drugs. He then went on a merry spree of ruining my parents credit score and wrecking their financial security. Now this on-again-off-again heroin addict has a daughter whom he needs almost continuous financial assistance supporting (usually a couple hundred dollars a month).

      Now, I attended a University for one semester before I was given the news that my mother had quit her job and taken a new one that cut her earning power into 1/3 of what it was. This prevented them from being able to pay for my tuition, the realization that apparently my mothers "stress-levels" are more important than my education left me more than mildly depressed, especially after I realized that the military wouldn't take me (and thusly pay for my tuition) due to my weight. In essence, I assasinated my grades because I could no longer bring myself to care, yes I realise how stupid this was now, but I was 18 at the time and fresh out of highschool.

   I now attend a local community college and have a gpa of 3.22 (it is low because my brother and niece lived with us for a while and I had to essentially half-raise her while he was doing drugs, as well as hold a part-time job as a nurses aid) ,with 4 dropped classes that I have good reasons for, but it is currently on the rebound upwards. I have roughly one year until I transfer. I currently hold an officers position in an academic honors society as well (no they wont pay for my 4-year degree). 

 The reason for me telling all of this is so that you would have the necessary information to answer my question. Is there any chance a college financial aid office would care about my situation and offer me need/merit based scholarships accordingly, or am I being delusional?

Before you suggest local scholarships, I will state that almost none apply towards my degree. I am also not a minority, which revokes my eligibility for 25-50% of the local scholarships, and very few colleges in Illinois seem to offer significant aid to transfer students. My parents also have a very poor credit score (filed bankruptcy within 1-2 years of when I would be applying for loans) so there is little chance that they would be accepted for loans, or at least that is what they tell me when I ask. Is there any way I can pay for college, or should I just buckle down, try to lose weight and go into the military and see if they will pay my way into medical school, or give up on my dream of becoming a doctor.
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<p>You can work full-time and study part-time while you finish your undergraduate degree. It will take more than two years, but you will finish. Then if you want to, you can still go to med school. Most students pay for med school with loans. You won’t need your parents to sign for those loans. This is possible if you have the will to make it happen.</p>

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<p>Lose the weight and join the navy. You are going to have to lose the weight either way as 1) just like no one trusts a skinny chef, few take a fat doctor seriously (I had an majorly overweight dietitian once who was badgering me about being over BMI, really?)
2) Medical school is hard, way way harder than helping raise a kid while taking cc courses and way more stressful than finding out your mom cares more about her well being than your schooling (seriously, you expected her to work herself to death so you could go to college…), anyways to get back on track, I think it would be exceedingly difficult to do medical school while overweight because of the reduced energy levels that are common amongst the heavier.</p>

<p>Plus you can knock out the rest of the classes you can take at the cc while waiting to get in, get a great deal of training while in (plus get paid) then either get out and use the GI Bill or finish while on AD and apply to USUHS (where prior service is worth nearly as much as a 4.0).</p>

4

<p>I doubt your school is going to give you money for your story. FA is based on income and merit is based on grades. And, merit is hard to get for current students.</p>

<p>Are you taking out student loans now?</p>

<p>Continue at your CC. Spend as much time as you can at your school’s library studying to get away from the home drama. Retake any classes that you didn’t do well in.</p>

<p>When it’s time to transfer to a local state school, then you can have your parents apply for a Plus loan. They will be denied. then you’ll be able to borrow more money. At that point, you’ll be able to borrow 7500 + about 4k…that should pay for a local university.</p>

<p>If your bro isn’t properly caring for your niece, he needs to be reported. You shouldn’t have to ruin your education chances to raise your niece because of a druggie brother. Your druggie brother shouldn’t have custody of that child. Let the state provide supervised visits or whatever.</p>