[Christina12345]

Im 17, have had 3 jobs and am a full time senior in high school.

Im stressed about paying for college and being able to be what I intend to be when I am older. I stress that Ill never have the chance to accomplish my goals...any advice?

:/

[kaliope]

don't stress too much, there are plenty of grants and loans these days to pay for college.take care.

[Christina12345]

That is true...I appreciate your advice

[hvert]

Have you finalized your college plans yet? I find that not knowing stresses me out and having a plan makes me feel better, even if I don't like the situation.

[Christina12345]

Yes. I know exactly where i want to go and what i want to be. I already got early acceptance. Its very expensive and my financial situation is really bad right now.

[hvert]

I was in that same situation when I was in college. I was accepted, early admission, to one of the most expensive schools in the country. I wound up not being able to go because I couldn't afford it. I was happy, in some ways, because the state school I went to instead gave me a full scholarship and I have no student loans. I was able to buy a house in my early 20s.

So just some random ideas based on how things worked out for me:

Try to find out if a particular department or branch of your school gives out better scholarship money. I learned too late that I could have gotten a free ride if I had applied to School X rather than School Y (both within the same university system).

Reconsider getting married to a major now. I was dead set on my major and wound up switching to something else a couple years in.

Don't limit yourself by only applying to the one school. See what other deals are out there. I had no other options when at the last minute I learned that I just couldn't swing the cost of the early admission school. My parents wouldn't take out the loans (and probably wouldn't have been approved anyway) and as an undergrad, you are limited to 3k a year. I had no choice but to go to the state school at that point-- and my financial aid the first semester was awful since I applied late.

Start asking everyone you know if they know anyone who has something to do with your dream school. A friend's father knew someone on the board at my dream school. I may have gotten a better scholarship package because of that, but it still wasn't enough.

Try to establish a relationship with the professors in your department. Get your name in front of them. Personal connections will really help. Find some alumni of your target program and network with them.

Fill out all financial aid stuff the very day it comes out. This makes a BIG difference in your award package.

That's what comes to me at the moment. I hope it all works out in your favor!

[offthegrid]

Agreeing with hverts advice of marrying a major (I like that phrase lol). Do what you enjoy, shadow a professional in your field.

Try to get a feel for exactly what classes you will need to take and when. If you don't sign up for certain key classes for your major when you're supposed to, it may mean spending an extra semester in college even! The best way to avoid this is to constantly talk to counselors and people in your department and sign up for classes as early as they let you. Take classes in the summer breaks!

Since finances are an issue you may want to consider taking some classes at a community college, especially in the summer and winter breaks. They are often less intensive and you cut a lot of cost like that. I know you want to go to a 4 year school but have you considered starting out at a CC and transferring? There's no shame in that. Most people do that and it's a very smart way to go about things. It takes a lot of stress out. I have a sister who did that and it allowed her to not get slammed by the situation so she could think clearly every step of the way. By going straight to university away, I felt like I was in a whirlwind. Things happened faster than I had time to process and I was stuck on doing things in a "conventional" way. I started out in 2 majors that didn't work out, almost flunked out of school and I was broke pretty much the whole time.

[hvert]

Oh! Offthegrid's post reminded me of something else! You can test out of a lot of classes. Each school is different, but almost all of them will allow you to use past experience and/or tests to fulfill required classes. I saved thousands of dollars and a lot of time this way. You can study on your own and take a two hour test to get out of, say, Biology or whatever. Tests were usually only $100 or so.