Is attending college part-time financially reasonable to pay for a new car (not necessarily new, but reliable transportation) and rent an apartment? While attend two classes at six credit hours, I want to work full time at a retail shop and part time at my school to help myself financially. I do plan to take half of the grant and subsidized loans (considering my school offers the full amount). I know I will not graduate in four years, but I don’t have a financially stable family like some of my classmates.
It’s hard to say if it’s reasonable, but many people do things like that and succeed. Will your income from your jobs and your financial aid cover your costs of attending college as well as your day-to-day living expenses? Do you already have the apartment? Are you trying to save up to buy a car or are you planning to get a car loan and need to budget for the monthly loan payment? If you have a good idea of how much you’ll need in total you can compare it to your income and aid to see if you have enough.
Keep in mind that working full time may affect the amount of grants that you receive (depending on how much you make, you may no longer be eligible to receive grants). If you are eligible for half loans, will it be enough to cover you attending school?
What school are you attending? You would be better served attending a school where you can hopefully commute to using mass transit. Having a car is not simply about the purchase price of the car, you must factor insurance (which is really expensive if you are under 25), gas, maintenance, etc.
Considering where you live, it could be very expensive to rent an apartment (especially if you are in brooklyn, where it can cost over $1000 a month just to rent a room in someone’s house).