I’m a nontraditional student of a different sort, I’m 19 and a senior, at the cost of leaving high school a year early because of freaking morons at my high school and the fee for a GED. But I digress. My parents could have and would paid my way through college, as they had for prep school and the like, but I have a full scholarship, with room, board, tuition and occationally books, depending on how benevolent the state is. I got it by having SATS over 1400 (1550, oh, what a waste of time that was, trying to get those last 50 points), a 4.0 from high school, but that wasn’t needed, I think the spec was 3.75, and I was in the top ten percent of my class, before I dropped out. They sort of glanced over that one.
One of my lab mates, on the other hand is the normal nontraditional student, he’s in his early thirties and will graduate with me this spring. He did it with FAFSA, Pell grants, and a very small amount of loans, under 6000, I think.
Another thing, look into scholarships that are very directed, ie, Society of Women Engineers, Chemistry Departmental ones, minority ones, whatever is your major and background. Oh, there is a program in MA, where I’m from, I can’t remember the name of it, but I’ll look if it is relavent, run by this guy that went to Lowell, where I go, that helps nontraditional students. He’s helped literally hundreds of people get their degrees.
I not only paid my own way through school, but I graduated with no debt - I even had my car paid off.
I got a 34 on the ACT (out of 36 possible), which got me a full tuition scholarship. And I worked off campus pretty much full time (30-40 hours a week, usually. Actually, around 60 hours a week my last year, when I had two jobs) the whole time. I lucked out after a couple of years of grunt work and got promoted to a position that paid me $16 an hour to sit on my butt and study, basically.
I pay for tuition and books by working full time. I was lucky enough to get a job at the school that pays a little better than your average student worker job. I have student loans for my flying expenses. I wanted to pay those as I went, but it was just too expensive. It’s hard to come up with $6000 a semester on top of the normal $2200 for tuition without borrowing.
I really only had one choice.
I dropped out of high school and never took the ACT/SAT.
That’s me. I dropped out of HS in the 10th grade, and didn’t go to college until I was 26.
I took two years off after high school to “find” myself. What I found was how difficult it was to exist without a college degree, so I came to my senses and moved back to my home state to attend school.
My strategy involved:
[ol]
[li]Choosing a state university to keep tuition costs down[/li][li]Working full time every summer and every break on construction jobs. This always made me return to school and study harder :)[/li][li]Pell grants every year[/li][li]Oodles of Noodles and 99 cent KFC coupons[/li][li]One $2000.00 student loan in a particularly tight year[/li][/ol]
I got my BSCS in 4 years this way and got my first software job at age 24.
And since you asked, by SAT was 1250 (taken in 1982). That didn’t really affect my plan though. My apparent skill at test taking didn’t really impress the landlord or the guy who collected tuition.
Haven’t done it myself, but two close friends have done it by working full-time for a university, which generally gets you a couple of free classes per term. One friend had zero parental support because her parents didn’t believe in supporting kids after age 18; she had amazing test scores, but mediocre grades because she was unmotivated and cut a lot of classes. The other friend had a ton of scholarhship money for his first couple of years of college (both need- and merit-based); he also had great test scores, but lousy grades his first couple of years in high school, because there was some rather serious family stuff going on at the time. He picked up his GPA quite a bit in his last 2 years of HS, but then managed to blow off enough college classes that his aid eventually ran out, which is why it took him I think 10 years total to finish his degree.
I was a non-traditional student. I dropped out my first year of college and then took community college classes on and off until I decided to go back to school for real. This was in 1994 so I was 27-ish.
First, I decided where I wanted to go, looking at the large state schools. School quality was important but I also looked at the city I’d be living in since I knew it was gonna take me a while. Then I determined the residency requirements, moved, and wound up working for a full year so I could get in-state tuition. This was in Texas, but I think most states have similar requirements.
After I got in-state residency, I continued working full-time while I took community college classes to boost my grades and to (cheaply) get some basic classes out of the way. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Community college classes are usually really flexible to accomodate working students and have much lower teacher to student ratios making them easier to pass and much cheaper. Just make sure all the stuff you take is transferable to your major.
Then I applied to the university. I had researched how hard it was to get into and was pretty confident they would let me in. I had excellent grades from my most recent community college stint and my SAT scores from 1984 were 1290. Not super high but not bad.
To pay for school (I had paid for the community college classes with cash), I got a combination Pell grants, a few small merit scholarships, and some student loans. I quit my full-time job and got a work study job in my college (which was great because I got to know all the professors outside of class plus it was on campus so it was really easy to get to). After a couple of semesters, I also got a grading job and some research type jobs.
When I graduated in 2000 (six years after I moved here!), I had about $8,000 in student loans and around $6000 in credit card debt which I’m still malingering about. But, truthfully, I didn’t live nearly as cheaply as I could have. I didn’t have a room mate but lived in an efficiency. I couldn’t give up my book store addiction and I’m not much of a cook so I spent way too much money on food. I also didn’t go through as speedily as I could have, choosing instead to take classes I wanted to take and do campus activities (such as rowing) that I had missed out on.
Can’t offer personal experiences, but one thing you should try to do is get as much credit as possible for what you have learned outside the classroom. The College Board’s College Level Examination Program offers general exams, which cover roughly the general education requirements during a typical freshman year, and subject exams, which cover the material taught in specific courses. Some colleges will give you a year or more of credit for good scores on these exams. Also, if you can place out of required courses like freshman English you can choose classes that you might enjoy more.
Also, a lot of universities have distance education divisions where you can earn credit through study at home, which might be a cheap, efficient way to earn some credit, especially in the beginner-level courses. This guy, John Bear, has made a career of studying distance education options and identifying which ones are legit and which ones are scam degree mills:
30 years ago, when credits were cheap at the CalState schools. Paid for it myself. It’s called working. Job hours different from school hours. You work your tail off at both. Never applied for any scholarships…I didn’t have the high school grades. I was a National Merit Honorable Mention, and I got 1500 on my SATs. I challenged a number of my Freshman classes, like Freshman Comp. Dropped out my Junior year to work full time. 7 years later, with a stash of cash from selling my businesses, I went back to school. Finished my remaining credits and Ed School on the Dean’s List every semester. It’s amazing what a little maturity can do!
More questions: I’ve heard from a few sources that a high enough score on the ACT pretty much guarantees you scholarships. How true is that?
My high school record is pretty spotty (failed a semester of Biology, never passed any Algebra, never took a foreign language). I haven’t taken the ACT yet, but some books I’ve read say that the ACT’s mathematics section focuses on pre-algebra and plane geometry. Any suggestions for study materials that focus on that? I’m not too worried about the English or the science.
First, I racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Then, I discovered I qualified for something called the Ohio War Orphan Scholarship Fund.
This program literally changed my life, by allowing me to escape a bad academic situation and pursue what I really WANTED to do at another school. What those who qualify get is 15 quarters (5 academic years) of schooling tuition-free at any public university in Ohio. You must still meet academic standards for admission, and make your own arrangements for room and board.
Qualifying for it is rather arcane. It requires the recipient to a) be born and raised in Ohio, and a current resident when they enter school. (I was the only person born and raised in the state in my family). b) have one parent deceased, by any means–sickness, war, “misadventure,” you name it–when the recipient enters school. c) The deceased parent must be a veteran of the armed forces, including the National Guard and Coast Guard. “War Orphan” is a bit of a misnomer; the deceased may have served at any time and in any capacity, as long as they enlisted and were on active duty.
I actually met all these qualifications, and didn’t pay a dime extra for my degree after I learned it. Now if I had only not racked up that $27,000 debt at a private school . . . . .
I went to community college straight out of high school with money I’d saved, a small art scholarship and two part time jobs (one of them was only about 4 hours a week). That only lasted a year. The second year I realized I was out of savings and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life…so I joined the Navy.
4 years later I was back to school, this time a University. My GI bill, a full time job, student loans, and a couple (small) pell grants got me through. Of course, it took me 3 and a half years to get my Associate’s degree. (not counting the year I wasted in community college.)
The last semester was the hardest because my GI bill had run out. At one point I was working the full time warehouse job, (5AM - 1:30PM M-F) had classes from 1:40PM-5:30PM M-F, then a part time job at a Chinese restaurant most evenings (varying hours…usually 6:00PM to 10 or 11) and a weekend tech support job (Sat. 9-5:30, Sun 6-6). Thankfully that stressful period only lasted about 4 months. After I graduated, the weekend job turned into a full time position with an excellent company and good pay…and best of all, it’s in the field I went to school for.
I’ve considered going back for my Bachelor’s, but I think about the time of 3 jobs and 16 credits and I decide not to. When did I study? When did I sleep? I have no idea how I got through that time.
Beside’s, it’s my husband’s turn to go back. He just started classes yesterday and he’s very excited. He has student loans for this year, but next year I don’t think we’ll need to take them as long as he continues working.
I can’t help you with the SAT and ACT part because I can’t even remember my scores! However, I think I am in your general area (Boise) and if you are considering BSU as an option, I may have some good contacts for you. My e-mail is in my profile if you’re interested.
I did my first undergraduate degree (in actuarial studies) in the early 1980s. At that time there were no university tuition fees in Australia. I was able to get a scholarship from an insurance company. This money, together with the income from part-time jobs (maths coaching, stacking shelves in the local supermarket) was more than enough to pay for the miscellaneous costs (texts, student union fees) as well as rent. So I was able to complete my degree without any financial assistance from my parents.
It’s still a strange concept to me that parents would be responsible for a kid’s education. My parents made it clear to me from childhood that I would have to work for things, like a car, school, clothes, etc.
It’s not that we were poor, but that my parents felt that they had 4 smart children, (3 of whom have IQs above 140) and that we would be able to finance things ourselves.
I wasn’t a steller student in high school, but had a 3.8 GPA and scored a composite of 30 on my ACTs. Put together with a music scholarship and some essay scholorships, I was able to go to school (a small state university in Missouri) and only have to finance something like $600 per semester out of pocket.
Unfortunately, I hated college initially, so left after that year. Now I’m 26 and have been working since I was 15, and am making good money, have a great career, but if I want to go back to school it’s all going to be on me again, and I’m guessing my 8 year old ACT score isn’t going to do me any good now. (Also, I found out that I’d have to take remedial math if I decide to go back. Yow! :)smack:
I didn’t really go to school until I was 22 (I’d taken a semester at the University of Houston at the behest of a GF and made an uninspired 2.0 for straight C’s in 12 hours of freshman courses).
When I finally decided to go to school, I was working as a reactor operator in a chemical plant. I set my sights almost a year out and started saving. I saved enough to do my first year at the University of Texas without working, which was great because I established a good GPA. I subsequently took a crappy job with a restaurant chain I’d worked for before, quickly realized it wasn’t going to work, got a bank loan to buy a taxicab and drove that as a full-time graveyard hack for the next few years. I had other guys drive it during the day and on my off nights.
I was a full-time student at UT for 5½ years*, stayed on the Dean’s List most of the time, graduated cum laude (0.03 grade points shy of magna - arghh! - had kind of a shaky last year). I had no grants, scholarships or loans, so I was debt-free when I graduated. IIRC, my SAT scores (c. 1971) were 650 verbal and 710 math.
It really wasn’t all that hard once I got it all setup. And the cab was, I thought, the perfect student job, as it made me plenty to pay for my education**, my schedule was completely under my control and it also taught me some fundamentals of running a business. I could also put on the flashers and park anywhere on campus without paying for a campus permit ;).
Since graduating and beginning my career, I’ve taken several more college courses, most of which were paid for by my first employer.
[sub]One of the bennies of not being subject to any parental discretion over my college career was having the opportunity to pursue an eclectic curriculum.[/sub]
** [sub]I actually usually enjoyed a slightly more flush existence than my friends who were on the parental dole.[/sub]
My parents paid for the first year or so. Then, because I was a braying jackass, I quit school and got married. It took me several years to realize that I wasn’t going to get anywhere, so I went back to college and finished it out. I paid for all that myself, no loans, working two jobs.
I got loans and grants. I also worked a full time third shift job and donated plasma(which is a donation only in name - one gets paid for it).
I started college when I was 22, I waited until I knew what I really wanted out of a college education.
No, I didn’t finish. I took a few years off and then recommenced when I moved to Oregon but completing it was derailed by MS making it hard for me to get around campus without being incredibly fatigued.
I wouldn’t give back that time for anything though. Some of those classes were worth every bit of suffering I did to get through college fiscally and otherwise.
I went back to college when I was 24. Mom and Dad let me live at home rent-free until I graduated. I worked full time and went to school full time and took out loans. I slept between classes.
It was well worth it - I now make more than 10 times what I was making when I decided to go back AND just as importantly, I love my job.
I’m almost 6 years out of high school, and I just moved into my college apartment a week ago and registered for classes yesterday. It’s actually a little intimidating to me because I’m the last person anyone expected to see in college.
Anyway, my parents make decent money. My old man just got audited by the IRS, and just got out of the hospital from testicular cancer, so he’s been out of work for a couple weeks. No way I could ask them to pay for me, so I just applied for a FAFSA and went.
My whole class registration process has been a nightmare so far.
My financial aid is ALL f*cked up. They’re (the loan officer and Bursar) dropping all these things on me that apparently “I should have been told.” A friend of mine offered to be my financial advisor in this situation, as he had been faced with it before. My parents’ income is actually the primary reason why I’m getting virtually nothing from FAFSA. Not to mention that since the feds changed the law, the fact that I’m independent and have zero income at the moment means nothing.
I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I’m not going home. Not when I’ve come this far. I came for an education and and the start to a productive life. I’m not leaving without either, no matter how I have to pay for it.
