<p>20 hours/week is really not that bad. With some jobs, like retail or fast food, you could work 20 hours just during the weekend. Is it an inconvenience? Maybe. Will it require some time management skills? Yes. Is it impossible? Absolutely not.</p>
<p>However, I really don’t see how anyone could make $25K/year working part time- especially if the limit is 20 hours. Not to mention if you have the typical entry-level, customer service jobs that most college students are stuck with then there’s usually no guarantee that there will be that same amount of hours every week. I’ve been hired for jobs promising 25 or 30 hours, and it turned out the job could really only offer 15 hours a week. Or some weeks I would be scheduled 30 hours and the next 18 hours. If you work in any kind of office you’ll probably have a set work schedule during the day that might interfere with the classes you need to take.</p>
<p>With establishing residency, this is most definitely not as easy as it seems. Talk to the school before you assume anything. I’ve always heard that you have to live in that state at least 12 months for a non-college reason (like work), before attending school. Even then, it can still be difficult. If you do decide to move to Texas before school to establish residency you have to consider things like the cost of living while you’re there and paying for housing, food, etc. </p>
<p>You could always do as much general education as possible at a community college and then take all the classes for your major in Texas. Just make sure the classes will transfer. If you’re able to go a community college with really cheap tuition- or get a scholarship and go for free- you might still be able to ask your parents to pay for the first year you transfer to a university. </p>
<p>Always consider other things when doing a big move out-of-state, especially when you have a job- like being able to go home for breaks, family affairs, the cost of moving and transportation at the beginning and end of each semester.</p>
<p>I assume you are planning on getting some loans if your parentals are willing to cosign. Loans and scholarships are a really nice but they really cannot be depended on with the amount of competition that goes for them. And making 25k a year isn’t going to happen. Realistically, maybe 5k, and a lot of that goes to day to day expenses. </p>
That’s very much appreciated. And you do have a good point that unexpected difficulties might come up. What’s bugging me is your “You will most certainly fail and here’s another reason why it’s not going to work out.” tone.</p>
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Not tragic if he could find another job within a few weeks. The requirement is that he work an average of 20 hours, not that he be employed continuously with the same employer.</p>
<p>If the OP is lucky, he won’t even need to worry about out-of-state tuition. I believe that Texas universities can waive out-of-state tuition charges for scholarship recipients (if the award is at least $1,000?).</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the typical stipend of a petroleum engineering summer intern? I am asking because my friends who did programming/consulting/finance internships have earned $10,000 - $20,000 per summer. I know that petroleum engineers have high starting salaries and so I’ve been wondering if their interns get generous stipends as well. (Not that that’s something to rely on, but it would certainly be nice to replace $10K of loans with summer income.)</p>