did you support yourself and go to college at the same time?

[Wesley Clark]

this is kindof tied into my other thread 'what careers offer part time work or 3rd shift work'.

If you did manage to support yourself and go to college at the same time how did you do it? did you just take out 25k a year in loans and never work while in college? did you have a job that worked with your schedule? how did you do it?

[Scarlett67]

Both. In six years of college (I was a wee bit undecided on my major) I held 17 different part-time jobs. Some were on-campus, some off. I never had a car; I walked, biked, or took the bus to work. I also worked full-time every summer. During the school year I worked about 20 hours a week while carrying a full course load. And yeah, I was pretty broke. Mom slipped me some cash once in a while when she could, but mostly I was on my own.

I was fortunate enough to have won a four-year Merit Scholarship sponsored by my mother's employer. $1,000 a year for four years; it covered tuition for those years. I had loans for the rest; came out to about $13K. (I went to a cheap state college.)

Paid off the student loans AND my first car in December 2000. Yay! Another couple hundred bucks in my pocket every month. WRONG -- two months later my husband lost his job. You just can't win.

[SnoopyFan]

My husband and I get Pell Grants that cover most of our college expenses and we live on student loans. I also clean house for someone occasionally and get paid pretty well for it, and every now and then DH's family helps us out (not real often, though). We'll be about 15-20k in debt (each) when we get out, but we'll have degrees, without which in West Virginia you are doomed to making $7 an hour for life.

I respect the hell out of people who work full time and put themselves through school. I cannot handle a job and school at the same time; I've tried. I really admire people who find a way to do it.

There's a woman in one of my law classes who deserves a medal. I swear if I won the lottery I'd set her up. She's a single mom, divorced because her ex is a complete jerk. Drops her kid off at the babysitter's at 8am, doesn't get him back till 8pm every day. She HATES leaving her kid for so long every day. She busts her ass at school, this semester she's taking 21 hours (3 of them is an internship so I guess technically it's 18 hours of classes, but still) -- she had to get special permission to do it. She says she'd rather have a semester from hell than to be in school even longer and be poor that much longer and keep having to take her kid to the babysitter. AND she has a job on top of that (part time, though, I think). AND she commutes an hour a day to school. She is *the* hardest worker I've ever met in my life. I have no idea how she does it, I'm assuming lots of caffeine, nicotine and prayer. I pray for her a lot myself.

[ShadiRoxan]

I've worked on and off throughout college. My mother helps me out a bit, but not completely. She pays for the things that give her peace of mind. Which are my cell phone, car payment and car insurance. If I get really low on money, birth control. (She apparently thinks I have a lot more sex than I really do.)

Tuition I pay for with loans. I get $5500 a year to cover that and books. I'll be about $20k in debt by the time I'm finished with school.

Right now I work Friday through Monday and go to school Tuesday through Thursday. I'm putting in 7-12 hour shifts a day waiting tables. I went from Labor day until October 12th without a day off from either school or work.

As for spending, I just don't do it. I don't go out to eat. If I want some one else to prepare my meal, I order food from work where I get a 50% discount. That'll cost me between $2-5. I still don't do it every day I'm there. On the very rare occasion that I order food, I normally split something with my neighbor.

Somehow I live off of about $600 a month with a $400 rent.

[ftg]

The difference between paying for college now and when I was a student is night and day. To say tuition has outpaced inflation is an understatement.

But I did pay my own way thru grad school as a TA/RA and people still do that. The wages for such jobs have mainly kept up.

Taking out a loan in my era was just plain stupid. But I guess it's needed nowadays. Sigh.

[NinetyWt]

Did it. Dont' know how, but I did it. :)

Worked full time, manged to have two kids along the way. My last semester of graduate school, I had a 3 month old, a 2 1/2 yr old, and an abusive alcoholic husband. Whee !

My salvation was student loans. I'm still paying them off. In retrospect, it was well worth it.

Bottom line: you'll do what you have to do. Natch. ;)

[Doomtrain]

I worked most of the time I was in school, but I just couldn't manage all the pain in the ass of working retail AND the PITA of being a commuter and college student.

[Honeydew]

I finished my Degree last year - worked full-time (overtime a lot of time too) and managed to get a 1st (which I am still stunned by). Not sure I'd ever do it again and not sure I'd advise anyone that its the way to go but I did it and got the reward I wanted so I'm happy.

Ain't no way I'm doing an MA though !!!!!

[scott evil]

For the first three years, I paid for everything myself. I was lucky in that I had the skills and previous experience to land myself rather high-paying summer jobs, so I'd work my ass off all summer, and would deposit my pay to an account held in trust by my mother. (I was notoriously bad with money, and knew better than to let myself be trusted to save it and later dole it out to myself.) In a summer, I'd make enough to pay for tuition and books (tuition being around $2000/year here), and most of my living expenses for the coming school year. The first summer job I got in Montreal - after my first year of school here at McGill - I was able to parlay into a part-time job during the school year, and that took care of the rest of my living expenses. In fact, with this income, I lived rather well, all things considered.

Things started going bad for the company I was working for, so for my last year and a half of school, I applied for and got huge student loans, which covered everything. Those have been paid off.

I used to resent friends of mine whose parents paid for everything, or who had huge trust funds that paid for four years of university, because they didn't have to worry about finding jobs that paid well, or they didn't have to work at all, and could smoke pot and travel all summer. But in the end, the further experience and skills I acquired through the job I kept for most of my university career helped land me my first post-university job, which in turn gave me more skills and experience etc. etc., which were pivotal in my getting the job I have now.

Meanwhile these friends of mine are either bohemian drifters at 30, or stuck in really shitty, lower-paying jobs. Not to sound nasty, or anything. Just that my hard work back then - when I would have liked to have been travelling Europe while Mommy & Daddy paid for everything - was worth it in the long run, and I'm more secure now than any of them, in terms of employment and finances.

[paulberserker]

supported myself, first 2 years i kept on my bar job, doing 4-5 shifts a week, although living at my parents.(i did pay rent, college was a 40 min bus ride). moved to where college was, in with a fellow student, worked at blockbusters.
i was the only person i knew there without any kind of student loan. even the rich kids took them out, but then again they could pay them back. out of all the people from there (i did a BA in illustration/painting), very few are employed in a job that has something to do with their degree. most of them are temping or working at banks. im in graphic design. because thats where the cash is.

[China Guy]

I had a combo of loans, grants and worked. It was tough but I got out with 10k in loans while my peers at the time were generally 2-3 times that level. Then again, I went to the University of California, which at the time was about a grand a year in fees. It was a huge deal.

[Simple Dreamer]

I did. I went to a "working" college. We worked for our tuition, and if you worked on campus in the summers it paid for room and board, then you only had to worry about books and extras. Was a great deal for me. I graduated without any student loans.

[Incubus]

Kind of.

Well, probably not- I still live at home, and my family helps out with half my college expenses. I really do want to be completely supporting myself, but at the same time I want to be as debt-free as possible. At least this way, when I graduate, I'll have no student loans, own my own car, and have a financial safety net in case anything goes awry.

[Winston Smith]

I'm doing it now. I work full time (days) in high-tech, and go to school two nights a week. Due to some scheduling conflicts, I was only able to take 3 classes this semester, but I'm planning on taking 4 (or maybe 5) next semester. I'm fortunate in that I can work from home, and SmithWife stays home with our (15-month-old) daughter, so it's nice to be able to spend time with them.

[Snowcarpet]

I survived the undergrad years without any loans, and without any major source of cash, somehow. I had a full-tuition scholarship that required a 3.75 gpa for continuation, so I spent a good deal of time studying. I paid for living expenses by working full time in the summer (the same retail job for about 5 years.) I spent summers at home with the 'rents. If I recall correctly, the total for food and dorm room was about $2,500 a year (really 9 mos.), all in all not too bad.

For the first year or two mom and dad covered pocket money ($10 a week, lots of high living there) as well as major stuff (keeping my old car running, insurance.) Then I started working on weekends/evenings as well and worked 15-25 hours a week all the time, more during winter break and summer. On a related tangent, this was a good "work-while-in-school" job. It's a really cool store that does a lot of different stuff and they could handle flexible hours. I'd work something like 4-8 Friday night, 9-5 Saturday, 12-6 Sunday, maybe one other evening 4-8. Left me just enough time for studying and minor social life. I also learned how to drive fast.

Towards the end of undergrad and the beginning of grad school, after getting an apartment w/roommate, I took on fairly well-paying jobs as a personal care attendant (by registering at the U's disability office) in addition to the other job. I took out a loan ($17,000) for grad school and used all my work earnings to keep myself fed and sheltered. I have no idea how I could have paid for tuition - I'd certainly needed more than the whopping $10,000 I earned in a year! However, I still feel happy that my loan payment is completely manageable and that my grades were decent.

My parents had no money whatsoever to send me to school, it was all they could do to pay a hundred bucks or so for my insurance and pocket money. They bought both of my cars (which were, to put it nicely, very economical.) I now make more an hour than my father (though I work fewer hours.)

In other words, it is possible to survive college with little or no money. Just remember these important words - State schools are good. Even if I had taken out loans for all the tuition I never paid, I'd still be able to make the loan payment.

[Athena]

I had a small inheritance that was piddled out to me over 4 years that covered tuition and books, but little else. My parents were recovering from a bankruptcy, so they helped not at all. I had to work for my food and my rent.

I lived cheaply and was lucky enough to get good jobs (I had good job skills from my job in a computer store during high school). I tended to work about 20 hours a week while I was going to school, and full time in the summers. Still, I remember lots of late nights studying because I had no time during the day. I also remember being on a VERY tight budget - things like buying a bagel for lunch instead of bringing it from home was a luxury.

[handy]

I went to UCSD with full scholarships & grants. But for food $$, I worked at the Salk Institute with the lab rats (about 50 at a time) for $4.25 per hour. I would check the rats & if any were suspect, we would grind them up, put that mixture in testing tubes, run them through the machine & I got to clean all the tubes.

[mipiace]

I did it and I warn you, it wasn't much fun. Took me about 6 years to get a four year degree. I took loans, grants and an amazing amount of part time jobs. I have worked about every job imaginable. I worked in the student book store, as a phone solicitor, a bartender, cocktail waitress, fast food, at a time share, at a gator farm, at a drive thru beverage market, a surf shop, I cleaned a bank after hours, I cleaned houses after the construction crews were done....those are just the few that come to mind....basically ever semester I had to change jobs to fit my new schedule and if I found that I couldn't carry the job load and study (I got exhausted a lot) I would have to make other arrangements. I didn;'t have a lot of problems with tuition and books, I qualified for Pell and and got loans but my biggest oroblem seemed to be groceries. I did not eat well in college. By the time I paid rent for my off base apt and I did have my share of party money....(skewed priorities in those years) then I didn';t have much food money left over. I ate a lot of Ramen noodles.

[lieu]

Both. When I was an undergrad I'd roughneck on oil wells during the summers and took one year off to work on a wireline logging truck. When in school I had an after hour job as well in a restaurant.

In grad school though, 9 years after undergrad, I'd saved enough to make most ends meet, plus had a teaching stipend and took out a couple of loans. The work load there was too intense for afterhours employment.

[In Conceivable]

I did.

I once had three part time jobs while carrying load of classes.

I did take out a couple of small loans and it was worth every penny of the interest.

[Janx]

Wesley Clark wrote...
f you did manage to support yourself and go to college at the same time how did you do it? did you just take out 25k a year in loans and never work while in college? did you have a job that worked with your schedule? how did you do it?

By working my ass off. I have a degree in Healthcare administration. I went to the city college for classes from 7 am till 8:30 am, then went to work at the hospital from 9 till 6pm,
From 7pm till 10pm were classes at the university, I did my home work either at work, when my boss was not around, or on Friday nights. On the weekends I also worked at a Starbucks style coffee house from 2pm till close (10-11pm) this went on for 4 years. You can do it if you set your mind to it. What happens is you get into a busy all the time mode. Its difficult to get out of that once you graduate, I had such a momentum going that I actually considered going straight for my masters without taking a break. I also remember thinking “Are you NUTZ!”

[dorkusmalorkusmafia]

I worked all throughout college and got loans, grants, and scholarships. I worked part time and my lover, who had graduated, worked full time. I paid rent, bills, etc. My parents did not help at all. It was a pain even trying to get them to give me the W2's that were needed so I could even apply for financial aid since not being married or over 23 (I think) made me a dependant student.

The many different part time jobs helped with rent, bills, and transportation but were definately no enough to cover the tuition also. I don't think I ever had more than a 100 dollars in my savings account at all through college and I often worried about overdrawing my checking account (luckily, I never did).

I got out of school with about 20k in student loans even though I had some hefty scholarships and grants. Most of my friends were taking about 40-50k because they opted to live in the dorms and take out that living expense in loans as well. The student loans, scholarships and grants paid for tuition and books with a few hundred dollars left over which I would use to buy other school supply types of necessities. If I had any extra it would go to the previous bills.

It was tough and I was poor. My lover worked it out like more of a roomate type of situation and during my last semester dumped me, though we finished out our lease before going our separate ways (luckily it outlasted the school year and was a 2 bedroom place).

[Ringo]

I was working as a reactor operator in a chemical plant when I decided to go to college the following year. That was a relatively high paying job, and I was able to save enough to go most of first year without working.

That was great, as it allowed me to focus on being a student and establish a good GPA. Towards the end of that first year, I began working in a restaurant. As with most providers of menial jobs anywhere near the campus, the place was overstaffed and couldn't schedule anybody for enough hours to live on.

A non-student friend of mine was a cabdriver and suggested I give that a try. Come summertime I did, and after a few weeks I knew it was my ideal college job. I got a car loan and bought a retired police car, transformed it into a taxicab (only car I've ever painted - all those years of building model cars paid off, as it came out just fine - if you like lime green cars with red roofs) and was ready for the fall semester.

While I alwys considered it a perfect student job (made enough to pay for school and living, schedule changes were under my control and other guys drove it and made me money when I wasn't driving), I never did meet another student cabdriver.

Anyway, I graduated with honors and got out with no student loans. I recently needed a transcript and discovered that I'd owed the student health center $20 for the last 23 years.

[NajaNivea]

I just graduated from UCD in June with my bachelors degree. I spent the last four years taking 20-23 units worth of classes per quarter, and working full time to boot. I almost never had a day off in four years. My parents paid my tuition, as their income on paper is slightly over the limit allowed for financial aid. Note "on paper"--my father ran a small business for a while, and his actual net income was... not much. So they couldn't afford to help me out in any other way, but they did pay my tuition which I'm eternally grateful for. Everything else, books, food, rent, electricity, all came out of pocket. My parents could only afford to pay for four years, so I *had* to finish in four--my first year I was working at minimum wage nearly 60-70 hours a week sometimes, so I was taking a minimum number of units. By my senior year, I had to make up for it and up the course load to 20-23 units of mostly upper division work per quarter to make it out in four.
I seriously do not recommend doing what I did. I feel like I lost a lot from my education, I wasn't ever able to devote myself fully to many of my classes, didn't do a lot of the reading, and was often so exhausted after each ten or twelve hour day that I'd just come home and pass out. I got a degree and finished my education, but I don't think I got as much out of it as I should have.
I graduated with a very small amount of student loan debt, again thanks to my parents and because I worked so many hours through college--but I'd have gotten a better education had I worked less, and incurred a bit more debt. Would have been f*ked at this point though, since my degree seems to be actually keeping me from finding a job. Sigh.

~mixie

[slortar]

I did my undergrad with loans and scholarships, with a part time job for spending money. I did the graduate degree with a teaching assistantship for the first 2/3 of my credit hours. After that I got a job and worked full time while going. It took forever. Working full time even with a small class load is extraordinarily draining, I found.

[Wesley Clark]

bump. i may flunk out of my current program and have to go into another (id rather not talk about it). so im thinking of switching to chemistry or engineering. chem might be a 3 year degree for me if i go year round. however it'd be $20k for the college then another $12k a year for living expenses to i'd be 60k in debt when i graduated. Thats assuming i never work. if i work part time i might be 45k in debt instead.

[DaddyTimesTwo]

After her first three years or so (long before we even dated), my wife moved out on her own and got a full-time job that offered tuition benefits. She worked full-time and went to class to varying degrees of part-time. It took her a long time to graduate, but did so with no debts.

Locally, UPS has a hub and offers free tuition to a number of local colleges and post secondary voactional/professional training schools, as well as a part-time job and some other benefits (rent and book stipends). Move to Louisville, KY and you're in. ;) Last I heard they were really needing part-timers.

[plnnr]

Undergraduate worked two jobs (one full time and one part time) and took many, many night classes. My last semester I worked nearly 50 hours a week AND took 21 credit hours just so I wouldn't have to go to summer school. I had my waking hours planned to 15 minute increments some days.

I also worked full time during graduate school, but so did my ex-wife (God bless her).

[nashiitashii]

Right now I'm in my sophomore year of college. Freshman year, my mother lost her job, so whatever expenses that were leftover after scholarships were covered by what she could afford to spare (housing) and I covered the rest with my savings. I couldn't find a job that year (it's really difficult to find a job freshman year unless you're willing to work shite hours for almost nothing), and therefore went crazy over money matters. This past summer I worked at the only job I could get, busting my ass while getting cut on hours every couple of weeks. Right after I got back up here, I got hired as a Night Staff employee (night time dorm security), in which I stay up all night however many nights a week I feel I can handle for $5.40 an hour. This is 25 cents more per hour than any other entry-level job in housing at my university. I'm probably going to have to take out a loan for next semester to make sure bills get paid on time. (Mom got a job again in June, but I lost my biggest scholarship due to a GPA that was just barely under, so I'm just trying to make ends meet.) At least my winter break job is going to pay well, and I might have the opportunity to work the same job over the summer months.
My mother wants to provide for my education, but can't afford to pay for most of it anymore. I try to pay for as much of it as I can because I don't want to be a burden on her, but it gets difficult when you're at a level where you get shitty scheduling times and don't have a car in which to use to get to work/school, etc. At least I'm doing better in classes now that I am not completely freaking out over money.

[Lsura]

Originally posted by ShadiRoxan
Somehow I live off of about $600 a month with a $400 rent.

You can do that here in Knoxville though. Other places I've lived, it couldn't have been done.

During undergrad, I worked, but that was mostly for book and spending money - the rest was covered by loans and parents. I did end up working about 20 hours a week, because anything I wanted to do, I had to pay for.

Now, as a grad student, I work (well, it's an assistantship) for my tuition and a monthly stipend. I also work one day a week in the library, which gives me a little extra. I take out some in loans each semester - the excess funds I'll get in January will be set aside for the anticipated move in May or June. I live on about $650 a month, of which $450 goes toward rent.

[Silver Serpentine]

Wow, I'm impressed by all of you.

I'm 20, been out of HS for 3 years, and still not in college. (Truthfully, my career choice doesn't really require school).

I have NO money for it. Rent is currently late this month, heh. Owe late bills. Already had to move across the country to make more money once. Ug.

My mom won't be giving me any money for college. She currently owns 3 houses - two well over $100,00, and just under. Could pay them all off right now with how much money she has saved.

But help me with college? Lord no. And everytime she sees me, she tells me how I need to be going to college. Sigh.

My dad will pay for one semester (my 18th Bday present), but after that, I'm on my own (I'm thankful for that much, since he doesn't have as much money as my mom).

I don't want any student loans. I don't want to go through college just to be $30,000 in debt.

Probably during the spring or summer, I'll take a few (2 or 3) classes. But . . . I never was good at school, hehe.

But I salute all of you who've done what I haven't been able to yet.

[ForgottenLore]

I did. Eventually.

My dad gave me this deal:

First year, he'd pay for all tuition and course materials.
Second year, he'd pay tuition, I'd pay course materials.
Third year, I'd pay tuition, he'd pay course materials.
After that, I'm on my own.

Since it took me six years to get my degree, I ended up paying for four years' worth myself: that is, I paid everything in years 4, 5, and 6, and another year's worth divided between years 2 and 3.

By that last two years I was working full time and taking classes over lunch and in the evenings. But it paid off. I managed to graduate with only one $8000 student loan, which was taken out jointly by me and my wife.

And oh yeah, we managed to squeeze in (and pay for!) a wedding, too. A small wedding, obviously.

How did we do it? Absolutely no idea.

[ivylass]

I got scholarships and Pell Grants and paid work study. In addition, I took AP courses in high school, and ended up with college credit for all my math and science and half my English.

I figured it out once...between my two jobs and my school I was working full time and going to school full time.

I have no idea how I did it. If someone told me now I had to do it I'd shriek, but when you're in the situation, you do what you have to do.

[Age Quod Agis]

I went to school full time, played sports full time, took out gargantuan loans (along with Pell grants and a few small scholarships), and worked part to full time during the school year and summers. I did everything from janitorial and maintenance work to lifeguarding to delivering pizzas -- which by the way was a fantastic job for a student, as long as you don't mind working Friday and Saturday nights. I averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night for 4 years.

I can remember one summer when I interned during the day (for no money) and was a bouncer at a bar at night (for $5 an hour). At one point, I sat down and figured out that the only way I could afford all my bills (rent, water, electricity, etc.) was to forgo all social activities that cost money, and limit my spending on food to about 50 cents per meal. Using what can best be described as "hideously poor logic," I decided that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were the cheapest meal that I could eat that would give me all the nutrients I needed to survive. So I ate PBJs every meal -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks -- for 6 weeks.

I don't think I've eaten a PBJ since.

[medstar]

Wow, you guys really sucked it up and sacrificed. I went to an in-state school, lived at home, and worked as a waitress at a Bob's Big Boy at night and on the weekends. I didn't have any student loans, which I'm grateful for. I'm so glad my parents insisted I go to college right out of high school because I'd hate to go to school at night and work a full time job during the day.

[Samson]

I put myself through school -- full time classes and full time job.

I was able to load all of my classes into 2 days a week (15+ class hours per quarter) and worked the other 5 days as a waiter/bartender in a local restaurant.

Once I got used to the schedule it wasn't too bad. I would spread out my classes on school days so I would be on campus from 8 or 9 am until 10 or 11 that night. That gave me significant gaps between classes so I could do most of my studying while I was there.

Finally graduated after 13 straight quarters. It was nice walking out of school with no student loans to pay off.

[Clothahump]

I worked my way. No loans. I worked as a private investigator and occasionally sang in bars. Of course, this was back in the days when I had a voice instead of the frog-croaking I do now.

[Nvme77]

Mr Nvme did it- I admire him for it. And like many of you he was undecided and it took him about 8 years. He worked as a driver for Pizza Hut and Dominoes and earned a BS in MIS. And he liced on his own, with roommates and sometimes on his own.

Our kids will have to come up with some pretty amazing reasons as to why they can't work and study at the same time.

[Nvme77]

oh he lived- he lived on his own!! darn my bad typing!

[sunstone]

I worked and paid my way. It took 4 1/2 years, plus 2 summer sessions. Jobs included sales in men's clothing, life guarding, running smug pot lines, tune-up mechanic, and nursery man. I was married the last year and a half, and my wife worked also....so that was a big help

And I finished with no debt, which really gave us a better start than we would have had otherwise.

My sons both worked their entire 4 years at Stanford. They had huge scholarships, but Stanford had a policy that all students had to work if they got any money from the university, or from their parents, which they did. They would both say that having to work was a good thing.

[sunstone]

Errrr....in previous post..."smug pot lines" should read "smudge pot lines"

I worked on cold nights keeping oil burners lit in citrus groves...no in some drug related industry.

[Scarlet]

I work full time and go to college part time. Luckily my employer is very flexible about letting me leave for an hour or two during the day for class. I'm also on salary, so I don't lose any money out of my check for going to class. I will finally graduate with my bachelors this summer. As for the cost of the classes, I get a couple scholarships and the rest is student loans.

[Epimetheus]

Unfortunately I support myself and go to school. I am only halfway through my freshman year, work a piss poor 7 dollar an hour job, and take 16-18 Credits per semester. So far I have not been able to get loans. My first semester was an in school grant that covered tuition, but not books, This semester I had an 800 dollar grant and a 1550 pell grant. It helped, but I am running low on cash, and next semester I only have the pell grant. Which covers tuition and half my book cost.

Money is getting short, and this next semester is going to be difficult for me, as I have night and morning classes, which limits the ability for me to work as many hours. That and I won't get my loan from the bank (if I get accepted for it) until March! Currently my bills come to about 900 dollars, but once I get my car paid off it will drop to 600 dollars. I am planning on using my loan to pay off my car. I might have to break down and ask my parents to borrow the money until I get it from the loan. (if I get accepted)

Anyway, I have 6-7 more years of this to look forward to. Right now tuition is cheap because I attend a junior college (70 dollars a credit hour), but once I get to UMKC, I will be paying a flat rate of 6,900 dollars per semester. 5 years (10 semesters) of that. I figure my loans when it is all said and done will be close to 100k.

The only good thing is that once I get a job after graduation, I will start out at about 70k a year.

[Sassafras]

I had college paid for thru grants, went to school 8-12 , and worked 1-9 M-F. I worked at an answering service, though, so I was able to study and do classwork while at my job.

[TV time]

I managed to do it, but it wasn't easy. For part of one semester I lived in my car. For part of my final semester I slept on a friend's couch because I couldn't afford rent.

Two semesters I bought no books. Friends or professors loaned them to me.

Girlfriends regularly put me up and fed me at their apartments.

Friends who were working at fast food places would bring home left-over food for me. On occasion they would fake late night food orders and claim that no one came by to pick them up.

I volunteered to be the subject for any number of graduate experiments to get money there. They would usually provide food also. The problem, however, was some of these experiements would leave me a bit unfit for classes.

I cannot think of anytime in my undergraduate life when I had less than two jobs. There is one time that I remember that I had four. My profs were great. Most knew I was working my way through school and would look the other way when I fell asleep in their classes because I hadn't slept in a couple of days because of work.

I worked as a school sign printer. This was a really good job because A.) it gave me a regular hourly salery that let me come and go whenever I had free time. The only rule was meet the deadlines. B.) It gave me an office where I could do assignments take phone calls and occasionally sleep.

I worked as a radio DJ. This was a good job because it allowed me to work when I wasn't in class. Late night or early morning shifts were especially good for this. In fact, at one point in my life I was working three different radio stations under three different names. I went from an "underground" FM station, to a country-western station and finally had the evening shift at a middle of the road AM station.

I worked as a fry cook. This had reasonably flexible hours and I could eat.

I also periodically worked as a reporter for a local newspaper. This was usually at sporting events (free food) and political events (free food).

For a while I wiped cars at a local car dealership but that often interfered with my morning or afternoon classes.

Periodically I worked in the food services of my university. I would bus tables, serve food, wash dishes or whatever, but this too could conflict with classes.

TV

[ewakko]

I had a couple of small loans (totalled under $5K). I worked at a Manufaturing plant in the summer that payed good money while taking 2 summer school classes. Worked weekends at a supermarket, and while in season I was a flag football referee six days a week. During spring and christmas break I worked two full time jobs, one at the supermarket from 6am-3pm, and then at Blockparty 6pm-1am. It was weird having five or six W-2s. I was also able to get scholorships to cover tuition for 2 years. And now anything I do is a walk in the park compared to all the sh1t I had to get through to make it through college in 4 years. Keeping my POS car running was probably a bigger financial burden than school.

[Hellboy37]

I did 2 years in the Army and recieved the GI Bill. This helped pay for the major bills. It was a monthly check. I worked all sorts of different jobs(waiter, video clerk, cameraman for local news station), got the Pell grant and took out some small loans while attending college. I was pretty much living on a tight budget but I managed to have a great time nonetheless. There was also almost always some kind of cast/actor party so that saved going to bars.

[Shodan]

T'warnt easy, but I managed somehow.

I worked summers all thru high school, and saved pretty near every penny of it. Then during college, I worked three jobs during the summer (my folks let me live at home for free), and a part-time job during school. Combine all that with a partial scholarship, and I made it. I lived pretty damn poor, but I lived.

I went back later for another degree and worked full-time and went to school part-time. That was harder, but I had a wife to sponge off of (thank you, darling), and I got a student loan for a full percentage point below market. Oh boy.

It's not easy, and I am not sure if it can be done nowadays with tuition inflation being what it is, but FWIW.

Regards,
Shodan