Stuck in a rut. Advice wanted.

Paying for College
1

<p>Greetings fellow earthlings!</p>

<p>So, I'll pour my soul out so you can actually give me a fully qualified answer...or at least I hope that you will.</p>

<p>At a young age, I dropped out of school and got my GED, I was having issues focusing in class, it was either to easy, or didn't interest me and I was told I had ADHD. I grew out of that later, (I think) but the damage had been done. I'm currently 22 years old, with no completed semesters of college though I did attempt to attend twice, and both times had to drop out due to my mothers failing health. It left me with a nice fat student loan the second time, and when my mother passed away I dropped into depression and lost my job. That was when I was 19. </p>

<p>I've got my motivation back now, and even my focus is improving. I want more out of life than making food for other people, don't get me wrong I love cooking, but it's not what I want out of life and I'm certainly not operating at anything close to culinary school levels with what I cook. </p>

<p>What I want is to take philosophy, major in it and then possibly go on to either lawschool, or teaching, depending on if my dream of lawschool is just that, a dream. Realistically I know it will be a giant uphill battle, but I have no idea where to start or if it's even possible. I still have (I think) around 4-5 thousand dollars left to pay off and I can barely make enough for rent, food, and gas for the car. </p>

<p>I tried getting the loans differed to get me back into school, but I could only get six months, and in those six months, I doubted myself a lot and didn't try as hard as I should. I didn't get enough money together to afford tests, such as the SAT, enrollment form money, et cet. I'm in a low tax bracket, we'll say that. But I'm tired of living life paycheck to paycheck. I want a career. I want to feel like a worthwhile human being, someone who's actually accomplished something with their life. Someone that, if I have kids one day, they'd be proud of me. </p>

<p>Everyone in my life right now has their doubts about me. It's driven me close to suicide once, luckily I realized that was rather stupid, because my life was far from over at age 22. Reason and logic cooled my emotions well enough, and now i'm left with some very tempered steel, as it were. So, what's my best way out. Please, for the love of academia show me a way out of this hole I dug for myself.</p>

2

<p>You need to settle your debt so that you can get back into college. Start at your local community college, get good grades, and transfer to a 4-year institution. That really is your only option if you have two semesters of failed grades on record.</p>

3

<p>Wrong forum… this probably should be in College Admissions (maybe?). But in terms of advice, you can get back to college and get a degree. But… don’t go for a philosophy degree. “I want a career” and “I want to major in philosophy” are not really very compatible, honestly. Sorry, but just trying to be practical – I think you are going to have to be fiercely practical and focused to pull this off.</p>

<p>And I think it is likely you will want to start at the community college level, get your AA, then transfer to a four year school. That is going to be your least expensive option, and you may be able to keep working quite a few hours while you do this. You may not be able to take a full load.</p>

<p>For now, honestly, I would put law school on a far back burner. Get a degree in something you can get a better job with. You can still go to law school later if it makes sense. If you want to teach, figure out what a path for that would be. Go talk to the local community college admissions/guidance people about how to achieve this goal. Ask them about how you can finance your CC time, and also what they recommend for moving on to a four year school (there may be some relationships between the CC and specific schools that will help you).</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>