<p>If your parents can’t/won’t contribute or won’t contribute much, then you’ll need to look at other options, such as…</p>
<p>1) living at home and going to a local UC, Cal State, or CC (for the first 2 years). How much can you earn working a part-time job to pay for tuition and books? Some part-time jobs do pay well…wait staff, etc.</p>
<p>2) getting a merit scholarship, if you qualify…what are your stats? There are some mid tier schools that give merit $$ to good students.</p>
<p>3) student loans (which I don’t recommend, unless you won’t have to borrow much)</p>
<p>4) ROTC…education could be completely paid for, but then you must serve to “repay”. There are some good colleges ROTC programs (University of Portland, for instance) that pay for virtually everything - tuition, room, board, uniforms, books and even give you a monthly stipend.</p>