<p>Hi turtlerock,</p>
<p>Thank you for the thorough input and insight. I have been interested in the field of physics, and a very specific subfield of it in materials science (metallurgy) since I was in high school, which was almost 10 years ago (so you can guess my age) and have no lost interest since. The reason why I am starting school so late is because I recently got out of a religious cult (or as they would claim, they excommunicated me) so now I am free to liberally pursue the science I was never allowed to dabble in. I have no reason to lose interest in it any time soon, and as you state, I have never been interested in having a family (or girlfriends/boyfriends or anything of that sort, for that matter), but as you also say, things might change. But considering the pattern so far, I don’t feel as if my priorities will, but who knows?</p>
<p>If I enter a minimal amount of debt, then what is the problem with any amount of income I can get by on, as long as I love my job? Again, the only other problem would be if I had a family, but that just brings us back to the toss up.</p>
<p>Back in high school, a few of my classmates who were accepted into schools like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc. had to turn down their matriculation at those schools simply because they weren’t offered any money to attend. If wealthy schools like those don’t give out any money to smart guys like these, how can a less-funded state school afford to give anything to a less talented guy like me?</p>
<p>As far as residence goes, I am lucky enough that there is a community college for me to attend nearby where I live (I live in a church, free of charge). Because I know the demographics of this area very well, I know all the spots where I can crash safely and obtain free food. I am nervous that if I travel away from here, I will lose the advantage of regional knowledge, or maybe in the area where the school is, there are less resources to utilize. My only issue with working whilst studying is that my 4.0 GPA will drop if I sacrifice any more hours of my studies into work to pay off rent/bills/taxes, etc. Thus my chances into grad school will fall, and if I don’t get into any, well…then I’ve really messed up.</p>
<p>The military option is something I have considered, and I didn’t understand the payment that well. Is being enlisted in the military mean you are on call 24/7 for a certain amount of years? Every hour of every day, you have to do what you are told by your superiors? Even in minimum wage, shouldn’t that be at least $60,000/year worth of work hours, excluding overtime pay? Especially if you are confined to a base with the same people for several years at a time?</p>
<p>My other concern is that I’d like to work in the field of engineering/chemistry/physics (either or) but I doubt that in the military they’d let someone without a degree to work in any of those fields. I’m not sure how much you know about this kind of stuff, but if you don’t, can you direct me to a source of information I can look up in regards to my inquiries?</p>