Re: Summer. Get a summer job. Don’t take classes. You need to earn money, not take classes, this summer.
I’m a little confused about the homelessness and the Salvation Army. You stayed in your car for a few nights and then found a place to rent. But your college counselor told you to contact the Salvation Army because if they write you a letter saying you stayed in their shelter,then you could get in-state tuition. But did you actually stay at the Salvation Army shelter? Maybe that is why they are not getting back to you despite your 10 or more attempts to contact them.
Florida is not screwing you. You are wishing you could screw the Florida public school system and gain residency sooner than the general rule allows.
Well your parents are making sacrifices. The commute your dad has every day to provide for the family.
They want the best for you and you getting a college education.
Maybe you can convince them to let you take another part time semester and you can attend STEM events for your scholarship. Work on the weekends and in the summer, then next year after you have instate status you can go full time.
OP- big hug. This is very frustrating and scary I’m sure.
You need to separate out the things over which you have zero control (how Florida determines residency for example) from the things you can control (like whether to take classes or try to work full time this summer). I know it feels like the world is out to get you, but that’s what bureaucracies are about- a general rule which covers most situations, but not necessarily yours at this particular time. There’s no point in getting upset- that won’t change the rules on residency and is only going to aggravate you.
You can still take a “Gap year” even though it’s coming a year late. You need to sit your parents down and explain that even though they think you need to be in college, your finances are going to prevent you from getting a degree in a reasonable period of time… and so you are taking a break in order to make sure that you qualify for in-state tuition, AND to give yourself a financial cushion once you go back to college.
Madison85: Excuse me now that I gave you a lot of my information that you are free to use against me to prove your point. As an admittedly inexperienced college student and still learning the ways of the real world, I’m merely acting on the small advice I have had school faculty and officials advise me on.
CheddarcheeseMN: Yes.
blossom: Thank you for showing some sympathy. I know it is apparent that I am making myself into even more of a powerless and weak fool. My words definitely make me seem more attention-seeking than I intend to. I will use this reasoning to see if any compromise can be made—without further compromising myself as it is.
@kurtchellalearns I am not using your information against you. Florida is not screwing you. If I had a dollar for every student who posts in this forum that the system is out to screw him/her…I’d have over $1000 since a search of *screw *in this forum yields more than 1000 results.
The rules are the rules.
Kurt- another hug to you.
Here’s one way to look at it- your parents are doing what they can to provide a safe and secure home for you. Picking up and moving as an adult is scary- for your dad to take a new job in a new place with a terrible commute- this shows you how committed he is to making this work for your family. The state is doing what it can to provide an education for its citizens- which includes having rules about who qualifies for what kind of assistance, which is the only way to protect the tax payers of Florida.
And now you are going to do what you need to do to make sure you get a college education. This includes sitting your parents down and showing them why you can’t afford to be in school until you qualify for in-state residency, meeting with the financial aid counselor to make sure you are on track for every dime you qualify for next year, AND finding a job which will help you bank some cash for next year AND potentially help out your family right now.
Teamwork. don’t get frustrated, just focus on how every link in the chain is going to operate to make this work. You are smart and motivated and although you’ve had some setbacks, I know you can do it!
If possible, try to think of the long term, not this little bump in the road (don’t look down into the pothole). A semester, a few credits, $5K in loans all matter very little over the next 4 or 5 years of getting your bachelors degree and even less over the the next decade or over your working life. Yes, this has been a rough patch and it must be hard to leave the fine CA school system and have to negotiate the Fla school system and a new job and home issues and more.
If you take this approach, it seems you should be talking to the school you are transferring to. Possibly you could take on-line classes towards your 4 year degree, maybe at a lower cost (or you consider self-studying some future classes so you can get easy As and maybe even work during your 4 year degree). Taking 2 classes and part-time job in spring and maybe even in summer may make sense, or it may not. Unless you make a full semester or year progress towards your degree, or catch up in math, or whatever, the credits you earn now, regardless of how difficult they are to afford or make time for, may not really make much of a difference to you.
Also, it is good to keep your own health and mental state in mind when choosing how to navigate the next year, if school is a pleasure, then treat yourself, if it is a chore, then work and make money to lower your stress, etc. How about a job that is similar to your future work field, maybe it can be sort of a co-op-lite experience or set up a co-op or part time opportunity in the future that would make paying for school much easier.
Maybe learn programming so you can get some flexible part-time work in the future.
The residency laws are not really fair, but life is also not always totally fair, at least on a day to day level (life has some ups and downs, the downs aren’t fair, but sometime the ups are luck or unfair too).
And don’t compare yourself to others. Sure some of them have had an easier road than you, but not all of them, and there are many years in your future to have good luck and good fortune come your way. The idea is to stay hopeful and grateful and to grab what life offers you and make the most of all of it. If you lead a happy stable financially reasonable life in your 30s, 40s, and beyond, it is a good life … and you have some good tales and a victory story to tell your grandchildren (and an excuse to not coddle your own kids since you did pull yourself up by the bootstraps to get where you are).
It doesn’t sound to me like you have financial need. Your dad’s salary in CA gave you an EFC of $17k. If you’re an only child, that means he was making ~$90k in CA. Since “his current job pays slightly less than the one he had in CA,” it’s unlikely that you’ll qualify for any Pell money. Pell grants are given to US citizens based on income; they’re not based on grades, your work ethic, merit, or state residency. Your family either qualifies or it doesn’t. If you’re an only child, your dad’s [url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2014/11/28/2015-guide-to-fafsa-css-profile-college-financial-aid-and-expected-family-contribution-efc/]AGI[/url] would have to be under ~$55k for you to qualify for even a small Pell grant. If your dad’s income dropped low enough so you qualify for federal grants, then you should take a gap year so that your FAFSA reflects your dad’s current, lower income and not the higher income he was making in CA.
Do you plan to commute to [url=http://finaid.ucf.edu/applying/app_costs.html]UCF[/url] or live on campus? As a state resident, you’d be paying ~$7k for tuition and books if you commute; dorming would cost over $17k. Transfers generally don’t get much aid, so your best option might be to commute. If your parents can’t help you at all, you could cover that with the federal student loan (~$5500/year) and summer work earnings. But you need to wait until you’re considered a state resident to apply if you want in state rates.
The way it sounds, you have three options here. Keep going to school and eat the debt, stop going to school until you establish residency, or return to California. I’d think about the third. Under California state law (AB540, specifically), going to high school in California for 3 or more years and graduating in California qualifies you to pay in state tuition, regardless of whether or not you are a resident. If you have other family to stay with in California, going to a California community college and transferring to a UC or CSU may be an economical option.
While he may be able to get in-state tuition, he will not be eligible for any California state aid because his parents are no longer california residents. How do you propose he pay for this?
First, don’t go back to California. I am a California native who purposely chose to leave the San Francisco Bay Area over a decade ago to escape the ridiculous housing prices and the ever increasingly crazy politics. My family and I ended up here on the east coast of Florida, and I come to appreciate it more every day. Upon our arrival, we enjoyed an immediate 15% (at least) increase in income thanks to no state income tax and much lower taxes in general. The cost of living is much lower here, your father’s $80K salary goes a lot further here, and housing is a lot less expensive, too. Restaurant food here is more expensive, I guess due to the tourists and all of the senior citizens who eat out all of the time, but that is not a significant factor unless you eat out all of the time.
I graduated from a California university, but my kids, who had even better stats than I did, would have had a difficult time finding a slot in today’s California public university system. It is ridiculous and I am glad we did not have to deal with it. I think if we had stayed in the Silicon Valley, it is very likely my kids would have headed out of state. We have access now to the Florida public university system, which is a great system, and inexpensive, but my kids have still headed out of state to go to college (at colleges that offer a lot of academic scholarships.)
I wish the community college system here in Florida was as inexpensive as the community college system in California (I worked for a community college in the Bay Area for several years), because I would love to take some classes from time to time for fun, but, other than that, the community colleges here do a good job preparing students to transfer to the university system - and many are transitioning into four-year public colleges.
In any case, I hope you can start to feel more encouraged about your situation now that you are in Florida. I realize the move was very upsetting, especially at your age, and I do miss my home state from time to time (especially when it gets so hot and humid around here.) But this move is really going to be good for your family, and it will be good for you. Come down I-95 a bit from where you are, into the Space Coast, and you will find a oasis of high tech jobs, lots of growth, lots of opportunity - almost Silicon Valley-like as far as tech jobs and tech entrepreneurship - but without the stupid housing prices, and the awful traffic. I feel guilty sometimes whenever I complain about the traffic here.
I wish you had taken a full gap year, and then applied to school for Fall 2016, either here in Florida, or at any of the other schools frequently mentioned around here that offer so much academic money. However, all is not lost. I would highly recommend taking a break after this semester ends, because the tuition is just too much for those community college classes. Wait to go back to school next Fall once your in-state residency paperwork is processed and you can take those classes for a lot less money.
While you are off in the spring, get to know your new state. It should be fairly easy for you to find a job given the tourist industry, and you can work this spring, save some money, explore the beaches and the rivers, take your time figuring out where you would like to transfer once you get back in at Daytona State (UCF is one choice, but there are others, including some private schools that may offer the program you want along with some scholarship money.)
Don’t get discouraged and don’t beat yourself up. Florida is going to be really good for you - it really will. You can always go visit California some day. Take care.