<p>October I do everything on my own because my parents simply CANNOT afford to help me out. I have 2 siblings, one chronically ill who requires major medical attention. My Dad has a low paying job and it hardly covers the expenses for a family of 4 let alone me included. My Mom is also very ill and requires lots of medical procedures and medications for her condition. My mom is unemployed because of her illness and because she is taking care of my ill sister. My parents are over their heads in medical debt and will probably be claiming bankruptcy in no time. So I probably will have to move out on my own soon anyway.</p>
<p>happymomof1 I appreciate the advice but campus jobs are ridiculously hard to find. They fill up quickly and are almost impossible to get even if you have been at school for awhile. There are 60,000 students at my school and not nearly enough jobs on campus to accommodate that many students with financial need. I have a part time job as a receptionist now but not at my school. I am already behind 2 years, I cannot wait any longer or I will be over 6 years for my undergrad degree.</p>
<p>biologynerd,
Your story breaks my heart! Have you thought about getting a CNA certification? Because it is a certification, you will have to pay out of pocket, (approximately $300 total for a 75 hour course & certification test, that can be completed in less than a month). My oldest picked this up during college the summer of her sophomore year. She was able to pick up on call mostly at night because it paid over $16 an hour. She then picked up Phlebotomy in a weekend because of her CNA experience. </p>
<p>When she graduated, she had a heck of a time finding a full time job. Those certifications allowed her to snag a full time temporary job during her search. Now, she has a full time job in her field and was told those certifications helped to set her apart from other candidates.</p>
<p>Check your local community college for those certifications. Good luck!</p>
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<p>You’re not “behind” anything. You’re working your butt off. Don’t worry about how long it takes. I didn’t earn my degree until I was a month shy of 27. Nobody cares.</p>
<p>Lots of students like you have to juggle life, work and school without the luxury of a full ride or lots of help from mom and dad. You are not alone. Cut back to part-time status if you have to.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong or shameful about taking awhile to graduate. It’s certainly better than borrowing tens of thousands of dollars at usurious interest rates that will weigh you down for decades.</p>
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<p>Overachiever. I was 2 months past 30 - and 12 years past matriculating as a freshman. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>I do realize that taking longer is not a problem but my fiance issues follow me everywhere. The problem is though is that I will not be included in Satisfactory Academic Progress, the school can impose limits on me because I do have a lot of credits from AP/IB in high school and once you reach a certain level of credits (despite the fact half of them are useless for my degree like World History Independent Study) they can start imposing tuition penalties on me. Which means my tuition could increase by ANOTHER 15%. It increases by at least that much every year anyway because of the area, expenses and other costs mandated by the school but at that rate I will probably being paying ridiculous amounts anyway. I only plan on borrowing as much as I need. I’m gonna start with 5,000-10,000 (enough for just part of tuition and save up the rest).</p>