<p>To low income students out of state, how do you get the money for transportation into the state and in the area where the college's located?</p>
<p>The low income students i know who had to travel far to get to college (Keep in mind that one may have to travel 800 or more miles to go to college in one’s own state. One may have to travel only a few miles to go to college in another state) saved money from summer and other jobs, and got to college by Greyhound.</p>
<p>What is Greyhound?
What if I have to travel to Boston, Calif, or New York when Im from Texas?
Are jobs really easy to find? Because I know in this economy, without connection it’s hard. I have been trying to look for over 25 places since freshman year, but to no avail</p>
<p>Unlike what students on CC appear to do, most students in this country go to college within 250 miles of their home, and that college more than likely is within their home state. Probably, most low income students go to a college that they can commute to.</p>
<p>Even the schools that are the most generous with financial aid (and those are the most difficult colleges to gain entrance to, places like Harvard) don’t, for instance, buy you a plane ticket so that you can go to and from college. When calculating the financial aid that they believe you need, they include the cost of a trip to school at the beginning of the school year, and to and from school during winter break, and to home at the end of the school year. However, they don’t cut you a separate check for this. You are expected to budget it out of the scholarship/loan and/or work-study money you get with your scholarship package.</p>
<p>Many college students work during the school year. Typically work study jobs (which often are on campus and may be things like checking out books in the library, working in a lab, helping students with computer problems) pay around minimum wage or a little higher. Students may work about 10-13 hours a week, a time commitment that isn’t that hard to do while also keeping up with one’s coursework. I’ve known students who were very low income and didn’t go to schools with excellent financial aid who were working as many as 30 hours a week while taking a full load of classes. That is very difficult to do. Basically school and work becomes your life.</p>
<p>For probably most college-bound students except for those who are relatively well off, going very far away to college can be difficult. Not only is it expensive for the student to get to and from the college, but it may be impossible or extremely difficult for their parents/family to visit for family weekends and even for graduation. </p>
<p>Greyhound is a bus service. If bus transportation is available, that’s usually the cheapest (and slowest) way to get to and from a college that is a distance a way unless you are able to share a ride with someone who’s driving, and then give them gas money. </p>
<p>Often on college’s web sites you’ll find information about how to get to the college – particularly what airport serves the college. That information often is listed in the same area as is the information for prospective students who wish to visit the college.</p>
<p>Jobs are not easy to find, but most colleges expect that students getting need-based aid will contribute toward their education by working summers and perhaps working during the school year. </p>
<p>For most students except for those who have the stats and luck to get into a place with very generous financial aid like Harvard, usually the cheapest college options are public colleges within their home states. The very cheapest option often is to start at a two-year public college that you can commute to from home, and then transfer to an in-state public university.</p>
<p>Also, if you go far away from home such as moving from south Texas to Mass., you may have to purchase many new wardrobe items like heavy winter coats, sweaters, boots, etc. This adds to your costs.</p>
<p>I’m moving from NY over to LA for college, and it’s $400 round trip… so
I’m only coming home during winter and summer breaks. Maybe spring break the first year.
Pack light, and avoid bringing anything unnecessary.
Paying $25 for an extra checked suitcase on flights is a lot cheaper than shipping your stuff.
When you pack things, do it without their boxes to save space.
Look into tutoring gigs as a job.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t provide you with cash for transportation, but if anything I personally intend to take out loans.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation. I had a 0 EFC and our only source of income from our household is my dad, who make’s usually around 20K or below a year with 2 other sons and a daughter living in the house. I’m from TX too and my uni is in CT.</p>
<p>The way I did it was to beg my much older sisters (who have good paying jobs with only a certificate they got from a CC) to help pay for tickets so I can go to visit a few colleges and then later to go to Orientation. Both of those trips probably racked up around 1600$ just for me to go (my older sisters also came to make sure I don’t get myself lost which tripled the money spent btw). I honestly wish I heard of the Greyhound idea before, that definitely would have been a lot cheaper. I keep forgetting of the existence of those kind of buses. </p>
<p>Anyways, a job is definitely essential over the summer! It’s better that way anyways, otherwise you’re sleeping in bed all day like some of my jobless friends. And for me, it also helped that I won a bunch of outside scholarships to convince my family that transportation would be the ONLY thing they would be paying for, so definitely apply to several. And honestly, I don’t think I’ll visit my parents until the summer. It’ll be cheaper that way, and I can take courses during Winter and do alternate Spring Break (using my scholarships) so I can learn and not feel like such a burden to my parents.</p>
<p>Most low income people don’t have friends/relatives who can pay for their trips to distant colleges.</p>
<p>This why most low income people (and most students in general) go to college within 250 miles of home. Depending on the size of your hometown, it’s challenging – put possible – to get rides to and from college by paying gas money to a friend with a car. This particularly is possible during times when most students head home such as spring break, Thanksgiving, and winter break.</p>
<p>As for flying off to see the colleges that you apply to so you can decide among them, it’s truly a luxury to be able to do that especially when the colleges are far away. Most people don’t have thousands of dollars to pay for those kind of trips. </p>
<p>Students who are very low income may have to make their college selections based on one main factor: the amount of money that college would cost for them. I know many people who did this. My college boyfriend – whose single parent home was so poor that they got food baskets from their church-- showed up at college freshman year, suitcase in hand, without having ever stepped on the campus before. He took Greyhound there by himself since his mom couldn’t afford to go with him.</p>
<p>I wasn’t poor, but when I applied to grad school as a college senior, I knew I would was have to pay for grad school by myself, so I couldn’t afford to visit the grad schools that I applied to. In those preInternet days, I did all of the research by looking at college catalogues. I picked my grad school by selecting the school that offered me the most money, basically a full ride. When I arrived on that college’s campus, it was 2,000 miles farther than I ever had been away from home before. </p>
<p>I have a friend who is now a judge. When she applied to college from her tiny town in Georgia, she was offered a full scholarship from a small Christian college in a little town in Michigan. The college was about 98% white. She was black, poor and first gen college. She went to that college sight unseen, did well there, and eventually went to one of the top law schools in the country. </p>
<p>You are fortunate in that you can find out a great deal about colleges on the Internet. You can communicate with students, see videos of campuses, and get other details. </p>
<p>However, I suggest that you look first for college in your state, Texas, which is blessed with many excellent choices, including some that may be affordable for you and that wouldn’t cause you major transportation problems getting to and from college. It probably would be nice for you to also go to a college where your family could occasionally visit you and could also attend your graduation and other campus events. It also would be nice to be able to go home for things like Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Is Greyhound really much cheaper than air travel?</p>
<p>I remember looking up Amtrak train rates across the country (Chicago - Houston) and they were pretty much the same cost as air travel.</p>
<p>My advice - get a job, save up for trips. Only head home winter break and summers. That’s what I did, but I usually went back Thanksgiving, too.</p>
<p>Amtrak seems very reasonable compared to air travel. I always fly from Chicago to Ithaca (~$275 RT) for convenience but if money was my #1 concern, I’d find a ride and offer to pay gas money or take Amtrak (~$115 RT).</p>
<p>It usually goes that Greyhound is the cheapest, while Amtrak and air travel can vary depending on when you’re purchasing the tickets.</p>
<p>The idea is to consider all your options and look up all of them. Sometimes, especially for very long distances to major airports, air may be the cheapest. For shorter distances, Greyhound wins the battle. Amtrak tends to have prices a bit more expensive than Greyhound.</p>
<p>As always, there’s Craigslist rideshare. It’s actually my preferred way of getting between northern and southern California because I don’t have to put up with any of the TSA bull.</p>
<p>“Is Greyhound really much cheaper than air travel?”</p>
<p>Yes. Checked Houston to Boston, departure Sept 6: one-way: $123-$255 </p>
<p>Boston to Houston Dec. 17: $127-226:</p>
<p>Lowest roundtrip price: $250. To my knowledge, you don’t pay extra for bringing suitcases.</p>
<p>Lowest Houston-Boston roundtrip that I found on Expedia was $327.90. Plus virtually all airlines are charging around $25-$35 for each bag that you check. That adds up. To check one bag round trip adds an extra $50 -$70 to your roundtrip costs.</p>
<p>I live about 275 miles from my school, and other people in similar situations that I know are always talking about flying to and from school and taking buses and how much cheaper it is.</p>
<p>But I took the one time plunge (fortunately, my parents could help me pay) and got a car. It’s 30 dollars to get home and 40 dollars to get there (price of gas in different states).</p>
<p>Yes, a bus ticket (Boltbus if you’re on the East coast is the cheapest actually) is a little cheaper than this, but people ignore the fact that transportation to bus stops also cost money.
If you’re at school in a suburb and live in a suburb be ready to almost double or triple the cost of your bus ticket to actually get home.</p>
<p>I took a bus once because of car trouble. It was a 20 dollar ticket. A 6 dollar metro ride into DC (luckily my school has a bus to the metro stop, if not it would have been another 8 dollars for a cab) then a 7 hour bus ride (the car ride from school is 4) and I’m by Times Square. Luckily my father was working late that night so it was another 6 dollars on the subway to his office and then he drove me home, but if he hadn’t been, it would have been a 20 dollar train ticket, then a 20 dollar bus ride and a half hour walk home from there.</p>
<p>If I had flown, it would have been anywhere from 150-350 dollars, plus a 50 dollar cab ride on each side. (Then, I’m still in NYC and I live in the suburbs)</p>
<p>So buses and trains are a good idea if you’re going from major city to major city. People often forget that the trip out of the major cities using public transportation usually costs much more.</p>
<p>My friend wanted to come vist me, and found a 15 dollar bus ticket from NY to DC. Then, she realized the bus ticket from her school to the bus in NY was 50 dollars for a 50 minute trip.</p>
<p>Basically, if at all possible, cars are the way to go. Carpools are an idea if you can’t afford a car or the gas.
It is a lot for a car, but it’s a one time price. I would easily have doubled the price I paid for my first car in one year of traveling to school with public transportation.</p>
<p>“Basically, if at all possible, cars are the way to go. Carpools are an idea if you can’t afford a car or the gas.
It is a lot for a car, but it’s a one time price. I would easily have doubled the price I paid for my first car in one year of traveling to school with public transportation.”</p>
<p>Buying a car is not a one-time price. Even if you’re well off enough to be able to pay the full car price in cash (Most people buy cars over time, meaning they have a monthly bill for it for several years), there still are insurance and maintainence costs. Those can add up to more than $1,000 each year.</p>
<p>Someone with a 0 EFC isn’t likely to be able to afford a car.</p>
<p>Even if the OP gets a summer job, the OP probably would need to use the money for things for school such as getting a computer, clothes, extra long sheets (typically the size for college beds) and other supplies for his dorm room.</p>
<p>NorthStarMom is very correct. There are plenty of schools in Texas that are great and you can visit them for free usually through your school or an afterschool program like AVID or College Bound. A group in Central Texas that helped me substantially was College Forward. My school also has a GForce chapter that sponsors several trips to colleges. So definitely look into Texas schools first.</p>
<p>As for the far away colleges, I applied to them only because College Forward said they would offer good money (cost was a HUGE factor in my decision) and they ended up costing around the same in netcosts. Visiting is a luxury. That being said, I didn’t know about College Confidential or other sites until after I was done applying - so I felt like visiting was a necessity. So skipping out on visiting is definitely doable. Orientation is a bit more important, but your schools should understand why you wouldn’t be able to attend if you really can’t find away to afford it. Though I have heard of people asking a few organizations to fly them out to assist them in transportation to visit these schools. From my school, a girl went to Chicago through College Forward. Kinda unlikely, but it never hurts to ask!</p>
<p>I somewhat do regret flying. Especially since taking the bus seems funner (to me anyways) and the money saved could’ve gone to better things. There was always something that went wrong in the airplane trip. Our luggage was lost between flights, the airport bus shuttle to the car rental place stopped running, the car rental place treated us like criminals when we came in to pick up our car (!!!). So no go on the flying, in hindsight.</p>
<p>It’s been decided for our final trip to CT it will be by car since I have a bulky printer to bring with me who’s harm I don’t want to see happen. Me and my sisters will fund it, and yeah. Btw, I’m a very frugal person so I have money I’ve been saving up for these college expenses. I never bought a yearbook, or 20$ sashes, skipped out on almost all school dances, buy my clothes on sales only or at a thrift store, etc, etc. Saving up helps!</p>
<p>I’m at all out of ideas. Good luck with all of this!</p>
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<p>And don’t forget good old Petrol!</p>
<p>I did not consider my family to be low income when I was growing up, but when I went to college on a full scholarship, I realized that my family had far less than most of the others who had kids at my school. I did not set foot on campus of my college until I arrived to move into the dorms. All my research was through printed materials. No computers those days either. No college visits. When I got my college acceptances, I immediately pitched the ones that did not have much in the way of scholarship/aid packages. It wasn’t until some 20 year later that I figured out why there was such a discrepancy in offers–some of my schools met full need, some did not. Some had merit awards–some did not. Had no idea.</p>
<p>I did not go home that first year at all. Spent Christmas with a friend who did not live too far from the college. Found a job and sublet for the summer. </p>
<p>And yet I was more privileged than most of my middle classed peers at my high school. Only 30 kids out of about 700 even went away to college. Those who went to college, a minority anyways, remained at their parents’ home and commuted to college. Most got part time jobs to pay for their expenses, and the college tuition was downright cheap since the schools tended to be state schools. It was only the more well to do and top students who entertained the idea of going away to college at a distance that was not commutable.</p>
<p>Those kids who did go away to school went to the state college and at that time those costs were low. Even then, those kids tended to be the ones from wealthier parents, though few if any of us were in the well to do category. However, none of us were at poverty level either, that I knew of. </p>
<p>So it is these days around here. A woman I know who owns a salon business where I go to get my hair cut has two kids. They live in a two bedroom apartment, own one car, and the kids went to community college. It was a crisis, when the older finished the program and wanted to transfer to a SUNY. With one car, there was no way for both kids to get to school and no public options. They ended up buying another car, which was a big expense to them. And again, this is not a poverty level family. Very much middle class in a high income, high cost area. Fortunately our state tuition is relatively low, but it still is tough for many families to come up with the money. This family did not qualify for fin aid with one kid in college, and is not PELL eligible even with two kids in school, which means they either pay out of savings or income, or take out loans.</p>
<p>I suggest posting your stats and other things about your background in Parents Forum, and asking parents for suggestions about where to apply, including where you can get the substantial financial aid that you need. Let them know you live in Texas, too. There are many knowledgeable parents here who’ve given very useful advice to low income students over the years.</p>
<p>The “personal/miscellaneous” category in my school’s COA calculation allowed me to cover my transportation costs with the student loans I took out.</p>