I am not bitching about the lack of scholarships, merely pointing out that they are largely unavailable to me. I am bitching about people who bitch that they can’t get a good enough scholarship to go to whatever school they want to go to and not go into debt. Ain’t going to happen, so pick up some job applications and get in line.
ETA: Since I’m not eligible I’m not up on the exact rules. This is anecdotal evidence only, and as I said, fuck you guys. Also, applied to college? I’m about to graduate from college at the end of this semester. Most financial aid offices won’t even let you apply for a loan until you’ve applied for Pell, so yes, I’ve applied, every year without fail since 2004 and been turned down. I’ve got thousands and thousands of dollars in unsubsidized Stafford loans staring me in the face this fall.
Look, you dribbling fucking idiot, you keep bringing race into this, so you’re getting called on it.
Is the color of your skin relevant to your eligibility for a Pell Grant, or is it not? And if it isn’t, why make the comment about being able to get one if you “were about 2000 dollars a year poorer and black”?
Blah, blah, blah, asshole. I actually said before that I wasn’t eligible for Pell because I A) Make too much money and B) have no children. Somebody else brought race into it, and I added my anecdotal experience. Race certainly does factor into some scholarships, though. A local university offers a scholarship to men from X county who graduated from X high school before 2008. They can get damn specific.
Let’s see – it’s taken you seven years to get your degree, you have absolutely no financial cushion, an unexpected illness puts you in starvation territory, and you claim the system works? This is not what I’d call “She can suck it up like the rest of us and do what she’s got to do to get by, and she’ll be fucking fine.”
One thing college doesn’t seem to do is teach compassion.
You would think that since a person has experienced such a struggle to get an education, that they would appreciate the frustration and worry expressed in the OP. And offer genuine advice rather than a mean “GET A JOB!!”
And I second tumbledown’s motion about bringing race into this discussion. I already mentioned an example straight from my own life (or my sister’s) that shows that simply being black does not guarantee you anything. Let alone smart and black. Don’t hate just 'cuz you were only slightly above average on everything except for math, made enough enough money to not qualify for financial aide, and didn’t get any “white people only” scholarships. That’s like showing up to work on time and expecting a raise just for that.
And yes, starwarsfreak, you are complaining and being quite obnoxious about it too. Much more so than the OP, I might add.
It sounds like the exact opposite of what a parent would want for their child. Don’t worry about paying for college! She can just live in abject poverty until the age of thirty or thirty-five, and then everything will be great!
Has she considered starting with a college/tech school certificate in something like, medical transcription, or lab tech, or such? These courses run less than a year, but insure that stable income while returning to school. Choose something that meshes with a university environment and you may find they mesh together nicely. She may find herself employed at the university she wants to attend. Or, at the very least, working in an environment where people are encouraging of her goals. She may find she can earn a decent wage, while attending school, with an employer willing to accommodate class and exam schedules, etc.
Or she could first train as a homecare aid, perhaps find a living arrangement where her costs are substantially reduced by living with an elderly person who needs help with shopping and housework, etc.
Has she looked into any work/study set ups? School 4 months, work 4 months arrangements. I know a lot of people who made this work to their advantage. Graduated on time with very little debt.
It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure. But, it seems to me, if she’s as smart as you say, she ought be able to think creatively and come up with something that will work for her. But you’ll all have to think outside the box, that’s for sure.
I wish you good luck, I know it’s not easy. (I know you came here to let off a little steam, which is cool, but you need to stay positive, and help her to do the same. ‘Oh my God, we’re screwed!’ contributes nothing, even if it’s the truth.)
What elbows said. get a tech degree in a related (or unrelated) field and then get a decent paying job to help pay for school. Sure it will take longer but she’ll be getting valuable work experience while going to school, experience that will get her hired.
I have a few friends with engineer student graduates who are not getting jobs because they have no experience. When our son decided he wanted to get an engineering degree we encouraged him to go the tech school first program. Employers just aren’t willing to pay to train people anymore, they want the new employees to be somewhat ready to go right away and a regular engineering degree with no outside experience just doesn’t do it.
This could be a blessing in disguise for her long term career success. Some of the best jobs right now, the ones that people are still hiring for are from 2 year degrees because these have been frowned upon for so long. She might as well take advantage of the situation.
There are plenty of ways to afford a college degree without financial aid and if it’s important enough to her she’ll find a way.
BTW, you know what pays crazy good around here? Dental Hygienist. Part time Dental Hygienist. Look into it, it’s a super short program and they’re making full time pay for part time work. I don’t know if it’s that way everywhere but it’s something to look into. A lot of the medical 2 year degrees are making good salaries right away.
If I’m reading this correctly – your daughter was accepted at 2 “inexpensive schools,” which I presume Cal State schools and will cost less than $20k/year, and you’ve taken those options off the take table because they are cutting programs? Are they still offering freshman physics, chemistry and calculus? Because that’s all she’s really going to be doing the first year of engineering. ISTM that going to one of these places for 1 year or 2 is perfectly reasonable option.
I doubt that. Let us know about those Ivies and Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore types you got into. A few UC schools might be considered “the best”, but I’d really only argue that for Berkeley and maybe LA, with a huge gap before we get to Davis/SB/etc. Obviously they’re excellent if we restrict ourselves to state schools.
I’m sure you can find a few examples of students transferring from CCs to top schools, especially for the larger ones and especially as we leave the top 5 or top 10, but it’s difficult. For a top liberal arts school it borders impossible.
Yes, CCs are a great option for many people, but let’s not have delusions that they are without limitations. Those limitations may be irrelevant, especially for someone who couldn’t get into the best schools anyway or someone who wants to get into a top program that happens to be at a school that’s easier to get into, but they’re there.
In at least some universities, employees of those universities can take classes at a greatly reduced rate. Now, it will take her longer if she doesn’t take a full load…but don’t overlook the possibilities of university employment. That’s how my sister got her degree.
I can feel the frustration of starwarsfreek42. I was starwarsfreek42 before I graduated. I worked 3 jobs during college, some on campus, some off campus. I stole toilet paper from the psychology dept because I couldn’t buy my own. I used to pretend I was Catholic so they would feed me every Friday at their spaghetti feed. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t use the heat in my apartment. I showered in the school gym. I shoplifted school supplies (not proud of this one).
My daughter fully intends to work. Part of her federal financial aid package includes work study. She will max that and hopefully find another job as well. The school we picked is one of the cheapest available in that state. We don’t mind taking out loans, but we can’t obtain the amount of the loan needed because we don’t have income to qualify borrowing for that amount.
I agree that community college is a GREAT idea. So much so that we had her taking classes for the last two years in the evening and summer. She has already had her introductory physics, chemisty, calculus, english, history, etc. though either AP classes or community college. Its time for her to start classes appropriate to her major.
The reason we are having her go out of state is because the California UC-CSU system is too unstable to risk what little money we do have. At this moment students with time and money invested in the CS-CSU are left hanging within a year of graduation with either their program or required classes no longer available. They are scrambling to get into other schools, with overwhelmed programs that are also planning cuts. Its not a matter of quality, its a matter of availability.
I work at a community college. I see the programs that have been cut. I see the students who have had their plans and goals completely blown away. Most of our students who were on the verge of transfer to a UC-CSU, got notices that either the school had cancelled their program of study, was limiting enrollment, or that their California based financial aid had dried up and wouldn’t be available.
Two friends of mine got degrees for free this way. They could take 2 classes per semester for free. One was at U. of I. Champaign-Urbana, one at Loyola U. of Chicago, both quite decent schools. They both graduated with no debt.
No, an unexpected illness plus having to buy expensive textbooks out of pocket plus missing a whole week of work puts me in starvation territory. I do have groceries and gas, that was hyperbole. I’m not claiming that any system works, I’m claiming that you can get an education without scholarships and grants, without going to big expensive universities in another state, and that you don’t have to be completely miserable doing it.
Dunno if you are looking for random ideas or not, but one I can offer is that she could pick a major that has more students and less likely to be cut – mechanical or electrical in particular. Those 2 are generally the first to come and last to go in any engineering program. It doesn’t make a huge difference at the undergrad level. At least, not a $25k/year in loans difference, IMHO.
Oh yah, I really believe that if I woke up tomorrow and I was black, my loans would disappear without a trace and I’d have a free ride to any college I wanted to go to. Isn’t it obvious?