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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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