I am a senior this year, and am so stressed out about college. Not that I wont get to go, I've already been accepted to a few and waiting to hear back from some others, but that I am going to be in debt up to my head once I get out of college. The price for a good education these days is ridiculous. I know that by getting a good education I can make more money and pay off the debt, but still I am worried.
I come from a well to do middle class family, and because of this am not really eligible for need based scholarships. My grades aren't straight A's either, making merit based scholarships are also less likely. I am going to do FAFSA and we have some money saved for college, but still it will not be enough. I know that there are tons of scholarships out there, but at the same time there are tons of students applying for them. The idea of doing all the work of writing an essay, getting recommendations, and filling out the application, just so someone else gets the scholarship is a real turn off.
I guess I just wanted to vent, and I am sure that there are lots of other people out there who feel the same way I do. It just seems that something isn't right. We work hard for twelve years, we get into college, we go to college, and we come out with debt. What’s the point? It is not a big enough deterrent to keep me from going to college, but it does frustrate me.
I guess what I wanted to say was that college is expensive, and even though I know it is what I should and need to do, it is hard because of the financial burden.
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I was very nervous about that too when I was a senior!!! College is outrageously expensive!! And honestly, a lot of people that go to college and graduate aren't even paid what they should be paid. Only a few dollars above average. How fair is that? Not at all. I mean, we spend all this money for a "good education" and then we end up oweing the government all this money for pretty much the rest of our lives. They're already taking our money anyhow-I don't see why we would have to pay them back, when they don't give us all our money back. They must have billions of dollars and how do they spend it? Spend our money? I want to have a say in what my money is going towards! Okay-sorry I got a little off topic. But back to school-I'm going to the College of Legal Arts. It's cheaper than any other college I've looked at and I'll be making big bucks when I get out so I can pay back my debt fastly. I'm going to become a Court Reporter. Sounds boring I know, but it's really very exciting!
There is a lot of money out there for students just like you. You just have to know where to look for it.
I am a senior in high school right now also and I understand you completely! My mom and I have just finished filling out the FAFSA and some of their questions seem to personal sometimes. Even with a lot of the scholarships out there you are required to give your social security number. I am trying hard right now to work on scholarships and save up my money from my job. What else can we do? Keep up the work! Try not to get too frustrated it'll all work out. We just have to think of the many who have gone through this before us. You might have heard of these websites before, but try www.fastweb.com, and simply www.scholarships.com. I try to search for some on google all the time too. Good luck!
I'm from a middle-class family in Israel. Both my parents have been unemployed in the past year. They have six kids, five of which are still at home (except me, I'm in the US). Taxes take over 60% of their income (Israel is a socialist country with a very high tax rate). They're really struggling to pay my tuition here... because for some ridiculous reason, their EFC is 35k - which there's absolutely NO way they can come near paying! So I get NO financial aid whatsoever. I took out a loan and I'm applying to scholarships, but I have yet to win any. It's especially difficult because i'm a high-school dropout and so have no academic references, and I haven't worked in the US so I have no work references, either. I'm studying full-time and because I don't have work-study, it's very hard for me to find a part-time job that's close enough to campus that I can work and study.
So... I expect to graduate very in debt... I'm broke most of the time, there's been times when I had no food. I'm really hoping to get scholarships... but I'm mostly counting on loans.
I actually don't mind that much though. Yeah, I'm usually broke, I've had to literally live off peanuts and chocolate milk for three days... over 60% of the time I've been at college, I had less than five dollars in the entire world. Thankfully my shared apartment is pre-paid for and so is my meal card (though last semester it ran out three weeks before the semester ended... hence no food). I buy everything used and I live very meagerly. But I love college. It's totally worth it. I don't mind being dirt poor as long as I'm still going to college. I figure once I graduate I'll be able to pay back my loans within ten years - the nice thing is, you can have like, 25 years to pay back your loans. :)