How Hard is it Really to Pay for College

im a junior in high school and i really want to go to a 4 year university. i live in texas and i plan on going to a state school since private schools and out of state schools are expensive. the universities i have in mind are sam houston state university and stephen f. austin state university

i have a 2.676 and my class rank is 471 out of 777. i plan on getting a 3.0 gpa and above before i graduate high school

i have met multiple seniors who have plans on going to a community college after they graduate. some say its because of their grades and others say its because universities cost too much. i really don’t want to go to a community college. i want to go to a university.

i always thought it was kind of easy to pay for school since universities hand out need based scholarships to people who are not rich. my dad is a taxi driver so he does’t make a lot of money but he makes enough to take care of both of us. sam houston and stephen f. austin is around 15k a year.

if you have gone to a university can you tell me how hard it was to get accepted and how hard was it to pay for it.

Look up how much just tuition alone is for the schools you are looking at. That should give you a good idea. Are you going to live on campus if you go to a university? You are going to have to pay for housing and food too. It can get really expensive really fast. Your GPA is not good enough for any type of scholarship.

You can maybe get some financial aide from the FAFSA when you fill it out, but your dad is going to have to have a really low income. I went back to school in my later 20’s so when I filled out my FAFSA I only had to enter my gross income of the previous year because I was too old to list my parents. I was making a little over 20k a year and did not qualify for any financial assistance. Only thing I qualified for was a subsidized loan.

I went to a community college and got all of my general ed done then transferred over to a university. Your chance of getting into a university is much better by going to a community college first unless you have really good grades and good test scores. All they look at when you transfer is your GPA at the community college. Personally I saved a lot of money by getting my general ed done at a community college, but then again, I was older and that was my best option.

Why do you not want to go to a community college first?

I go to a public state school, but if I had to do it over again I would go to a community college for 1-2 years. My parents both make decent salaries but don’t pay for anything, which I don’t expect them too. I take out loans for my tuition then bust my ass in the spring - fall at my job to pay for my apartment, food, gas, and other things.

Some of my friends sign 30k loans every year and I’m just amazed how they can do it…that would scare the shit out of me.
Edit: the reason I didn’t want to go to a smaller college is because I thought the girls and parties would be better here…fuck that, get your grades and you can always spend the weekend there.

I went to a state university, and got an engineering degree. My parents payed my whole way through, BUT I did often think about what I would do if I was not as fortunate…

I agree completely with the first two responses, START AT A COMMUNITY SCHOOL. There is nothing lesser about the education at community college. I had that stigma when I entered school and soon realized that my classmates from community schools were just as competent.

And here is another thing…

I had to deal with the egos of the assholes at my state university, failing 20/25 kids in my calc II class, forcing the students to drop out of their major or pay to take the class again. The community classes are more straight forward (I passed calc 1 and 2 at a community college, and also took philosophy at that same community school).

You can finish your last two yrs of your degree at your state university just like you want to, but save plenty of money, this is how I would’ve done it if I had to put myself through.

[quote]chobbs wrote:
My parents both make decent salaries but don’t pay for anything, which I don’t expect them too. I take out loans for my tuition then bust my ass in the spring - fall at my job to pay for my apartment, food, gas, and other things. Some of my friends sign 30k loans every year and I’m just amazed how they can do it…that would scare the shit out of me.[/quote]

Good. I’m genuinely glad you’re doing it this way. I wish more people did.

I went to a community college my first year after high school and worked 35+ hours a week. The community college was actually harder than the 4 year school I’m currently at. After my First year I’ve taken 6-11 credits (half/part time student) and worked full time. Either go to community college or find a real University that also has the perks of being at a community college. We have a lot of moderate priced schools in decent cities in Wisconsin. I have no idea what the situation in Texas is like. I pay 4k a year being half time at University of Wisconsin -Green Bay

I can’t tell you how exactly hard it is going to be for you to be accepted. I would think if you got your desired 3.0 gpa, you wouldn’t have a problem getting into a state school.

There are need based scholarships. However, I don’t think they just hand them out to anybody and everybody who has need. I mean, there’s only so much money available, it makes sense for schools to hand out need based scholarships to those who have need and AND have a track record of academic success or show potential (basically, high GPA and ACT/SAT scores).

With your gpa, unless you just completely dominate the ACT/SAT, I don’t know how much schools will be willing to hand out to you money wise. For my school, you needed at least a 32 out of 36 on the ACT to get a full tuition scholarship,. If you got a 31, you really didn’t get much in terms of scholarships (read: maybe 2000 dollars). It’s kind of BS there is such a huge difference in scholarship money for 1 point, but that’s how it worked here at least.

You may be eligible for grants. I had 2 siblings and a single parent who didn’t make much money, and I got $7500 in grants my first year of college, it decreased each year because the state I live in kept cutting funding.

There’s also Work-Study for a lot of colleges I think. Basically, you work 10-20 hours a week for the University (library desk clerk, rec clerk, something incredibly easy basically) and they pay you a set amount I believe. Most of my friends who did this got put into jobs that they had so much down time they could do homework or study while at work.

If I wouldn’t have gotten a bunch of scholarships/grants, I would not have been able to afford college without a ton of loans. If that would have happened, I would have went to a community college first and did the prereq’s then moved onto a 4 year. MOST general education courses are so ridiculously easy, even at a 4 year college, that it’s a waste of money to pay a 4 year college to take them. Seriously, there were classes I either didn’t show up to or did other homework during them and just showed up on test day and got an A for the course. Would be a complete waste of $1000+ dollars for tuition. Classes like these you can easily get done at a community college for much, much less and not hurt your quality of education.

You may want a 4 year college. And you can definitely start there if you want, but honestly if you aren’t going to get scholarships and your dad isn’t going to be footing the bill, start at a community college, work a part time job, and live at home if that is an option. Living at home will save you easily over $7000 a year, and thats in my state where the cost of living is lower then Texas. After 2 years of that then go onto a 4 year, pick a major you want, and take out loans if need be. Paying off $40,000 in loans for 2 years is way easier then paying off over $100 thousand for the 4-5 years.

And get a part time job NOW if you don’t already have one, and work a part time job the WHOLE time your in college. You can do it, most people I know work part time in college. I mostly work 2 eight hour shifts on weekends, and thats it. It won’t pay all of your bills, but if you can make even $6,000 a year it helps to reduce your debt.

As long as you go to a public school and have a decent understanding of the tuition + how the financial aid works, it’s not all that expensive.

Just be sure to spend the time to figure out how FAFSA and the like treat you and your financial situation. It should be generous, and if it’s a public school then paying shouldn’t be all that difficult if you just take a part-time job.

Oh, and +1 to the community college idea. The only possible bad with that is that it’s quite possible to get stuck there if you’re not motivated to begin with/ do terribly at the 4-year college because the community college sucked badly.

Motivate yourself. While people claim college doesn’t teach shit, etc, that’s not actually true in the least. While you’re at college, your job is to study and do well at school. Thus, at the very least, college is the place where you develop self-control and work ethic. If you slack off at that job, how can employers expect you to do well when/if they employ you?

The only exception to this are people who clearly have a vision of what they want to do, and college is not a part of that vision. Those people just drop out of college and do their own thing, like Bill Gates and Zuckerberg.

But motivation and firm idea of a future/plan is still involved, regardless. Don’t treat college as the time where you meet young women and just play.

You will regret it.

Coincidentally, the same applies to high school. Did you know that if you do bloody well at high school, some colleges are more inclined to give you good scholarships?

How do you guys grade high school GPA that determines if you get into college? We only have GPAs in college here. Couldn’t some schools be more generous than others hence high school gpa is biased because it is not standardized like SATs/ACTs?

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
How do you guys grade high school GPA that determines if you get into college? We only have GPAs in college here. Couldn’t some schools be more generous than others hence high school gpa is biased because it is not standardized like SATs/ACTs?[/quote]

High schools have prestige, and college admission folks know this. As such, good GPA from prestigious high schools may be considered higher.

Another is through AP/college-level courses. AP tests are standardized, and as such having a number of APs with test scores from 3-5 (it is scored 1-5) will be viewed more favorably than those with no AP courses/AP scores of 1-3/refused to take the AP test in spite of taking the course (The course itself is meant to prepare you to take the test). This is why you had that movie with the math teacher trying to teach his students AP level math a long time ago.

Way back when- An A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0 and F= 0, and advanced placement or college level courses were 5 (that may have changed, I don’t know the current structure)

Your GPA is the average of these, so if you have 3 A’s, 2 B’s, and a C your GPA= 3.33, and if you were an AP student or higher you coud conceivably (and actually) graduate with greater than 4.0.

Most of the real expense is not the tuition but cost of living (unless its a really good university). Community college is usually more cost efficient because there is usually one within driving distance to most people which after high school means you can still live at home. If money is an issue I would suggest community college, it may not be you first choice but when money is limited nothing really is.

[quote]magick wrote:
High schools have prestige, and college admission folks know this. As such, good GPA from prestigious high schools may be considered higher.[/quote]

Yeah. In all honesty, that’s the main reason I finished high school early instead of transferring when my parents moved.

I went to two high schools as-is though, both of which had prestige.

What was interesting is that the second one graded a lot harsher than the first, even though both were good schools. B-level work at one would get you an A at the other.

But… seriously, work to get that GPA up. And work on your ACT/SAT scores. There’s tons of prep material out there, and you have time.

GPA and standardized test scores are what’s really going to drive your finanicial aid options. You can have fun, but the grades need to come first.

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Way back when- An A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0 and F= 0, and advanced placement or college level courses were 5 (that may have changed, I don’t know the current structure)

Your GPA is the average of these, so if you have 3 A’s, 2 B’s, and a C your GPA= 3.33, and if you were an AP student or higher you coud conceivably (and actually) graduate with greater than 4.0.

[/quote]

That’s how it was at my 2nd school.

My first school went all into this A-/B+ stuff, and it was weird the way they mapped it to a percentage scale. 96-100 was an A, 92-95 was an A-, 88-91 was a B+. You could actually get over 90% on a test and still get a B.

Granted, lots of good kids came out of both schools, so they might have known what they were doing.

As far as GPA, if it was an honors or AP class, it was a +1 to all grades. Getting a B in an honors class was equivalent to an A in a “regular” class. That was at both schools.

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Way back when- An A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0 and F= 0, and advanced placement or college level courses were 5 (that may have changed, I don’t know the current structure)

Your GPA is the average of these, so if you have 3 A’s, 2 B’s, and a C your GPA= 3.33, and if you were an AP student or higher you coud conceivably (and actually) graduate with greater than 4.0.

[/quote]

That’s how it was at my 2nd school.

My first school went all into this A-/B+ stuff, and it was weird the way they mapped it to a percentage scale. 96-100 was an A, 92-95 was an A-, 88-91 was a B+. You could actually get over 90% on a test and still get a B.

Granted, lots of good kids came out of both schools, so they might have known what they were doing.

As far as GPA, if it was an honors or AP class, it was a +1 to all grades. Getting a B in an honors class was equivalent to an A in a “regular” class. That was at both schools.[/quote]

I never paid that much attention to the details and thought that the whole permanent record thing was a joke…

Until I had an interview at Parker Hannefin and they asked for high school transcripts. That got embarrassing pretty quickly. You could even see on the copy where admin whited a couple of things out and penned in enough passing grades to get me out of their hair.

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
I never paid that much attention to the details and thought that the whole permanent record thing was a joke…

Until I had an interview at Parker Hannefin and they asked for high school transcripts. That got embarrassing pretty quickly. You could even see on the copy where admin whited a couple of things out and penned in enough passing grades to get me out of their hair.
[/quote]

That’s pretty funny.

Screw the FAFSA, I didn’t even fill it out my soph year. They only take into account how much your rents make, not if they help you out at all. I have 3 younger siblings and my parents legitimately talked of getting a “divorce” because of much cheaper it would be for us.

That is true. FAFSA does not take into account whether you are being supported by your parents or not.

However, it is still an option for people like libanholt, whose parents don’t seem to be making enough to fully support a college education + housing anyhow.

And, ya, it’s housing that costs so much. UCs when I went to them costed about 6k a quarter. Not all that bad, especially since financial aid covers quite a bit of it. Except housing is bloody murder.

community college is a much cheaper, more beneficial way to go if your overall goal is finding a job.

I have some loans from the gov, Canada is a different story. Our tuition is cheaper but the highesti s in our province or alberta not sure. Get good grades, part time jobs work your but off and be respectful to those who can help you out. Apply to all bursaries or scholarships, I got a few and never though I would get them, they all add up so apply to a bunch.

University courses are very impersonal so I would suggest joining study groups once your there to do well. It takes over 3 gours or more a day of studying for each course a day to do well. Cornell note taking system is a life saver google it and use it. Thats all I got. Anythings possible with a good plan and execution.