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I'm almost 30, graduated a decade ago from a tiny farm town high school that didn't have much of a college prep program. I had a GPA around 3.0 (weighted? unweighted? This is a new concept to me), scored a 29 on the ACT, and had 7 years of band. My school had a couple sports, none of which I was involved with, but none of the "typical" extra curricular stuff like drama, track, debate, etc. My high school only had us take the ACT, the SAT was never mentioned. I've never taken the SAT.
Basically, that's it. I went to work full time after high school and have been bouncing from one crummy job to another ever since.
I'm fairly intelligent, but this whole college thing has really shaken me up.
I want to go and get an education and actually accomplish a thing or two while I'm on this earth, but I really don't know where to begin. I'm unemployed now, yet again, and am sick of the cycle of find job, apply for job, get job, lose job, look for job... How can a broke bumpkin from a tiny town in the southern rural U.S. get into a good school on the west coast? Can I get student loans to cover my living expenses? Should I even bother trying to get in at anything higher than a community college? Am I doomed because I went to a crummy high school and don't have any volunteer credits to my name?
I sort of feel like I've wasted a lot of time up to now and would like a little guidance as to how to straighten up and get with the program. College is starting to scare me and I haven't even tried to apply yet....
First of all, figure out the kind of job you want to do what kind of degree is required.
Then, look around at which schools have the best programs in that area (the best programs are not always at the highest ranked schools, so focus on individual programs rather than overall rankings). Check your grades and ACT scores against the median grades/test score for that school. If you fall into that range, it's probably not a stretch. You will probably have to re-take either the ACT or SAT because I believe your scores expire after 5 years. You can find prep stuff online for both programs and the official ACT and SAT websites allow you to search for the next testing session in your area.
I'd start at a community college if I were you and then look to transfer. Unfortunately, a 3.0 isn't competitive if you want to go to a good (ie, brand name) school, but a year or two of good grades at a community college will help you a lot (and take pressure off your test scores) and increase your chances of landing financial aid besides loans.
When it comes to paying for it, you can get loans to help cover living expenses, but only a portion will be subsidized loans. You don't seem like you're in a position to take on huge amounts of debt, so I'd be very, very careful about taking out more than you need to survive. I'd also be careful about going to college just to move. Remember, even if you get into a public school, you'll be paying out of state tuition, which is just as bad as private school in most cases. Doing your first two years at a CC will get rid of a lot of the financial burden. Don't dismiss your state's public universities either- most states have at least one good public school and the admissions requirements are easier for in-state students. Once you have your degree and are in a better position financial, then you can move out west.
Thank you very much for the solid sounding advice. I've set my sights on a film program at a private school on the west coast. I need to go to where the industry that I want to be in actually lives. Out of state tuition is not an issue with this college. It's supposed to be one of the best, so my chances are probably fairly slim.
If I can't get accepted on my current merit, would it be logical to go ahead attend a community college on the west coast while I work on my grades and try again next year to transfer to the "big school"?
Oh, you want to go for film school? I'm guessing you're considering UCLA or USC. A BFA in film, even from those schools, won't get you far unless you are very talented. You'd probably need an MFA to gain any respect if you don't have a professional background.
If you seriously want a career in film, move to LA and work on a few films. Start out as a Production Assistant and work for a year or two. Film school is a huge waste of money for 99.9% of people and is ridiculously expensive (and this is coming from a fellow artist with an advanced degree in theater). Unless you are good enough to get into one of the top few programs (USC, UCLA, NYU, maybe Columbia), you will be wasting your time and money and will never make enough money to pay off your loans. These schools are also very difficult to get into- you will need top grades from your high school and/or AMAZING natural talent and an outstanding reel.
I would save up for a bit, move to LA and start looking for PA positions. You will probably have to work for free for a little bit while you build up a reel, but you'll have to do that if you go to film school in most cases. At least this way you won't be working for free with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. I've worked in film a bit and the career people didn't go to school for film- they started out at the bottom and worked their way up. If you really have no idea of where to start, take a class in film production at a community college so you know how to use the equipment. I'm usually a huge proponent of post-secondary education, but film is one of the few areas where it is usually a huge waste of money.
If you want to break the cycle of "'unemployed now, yet again, and am sick of the cycle of find job, apply for job, get job, lose job, look for job" then you really don't want to work in the entertainment industry.
You can also take a reduced credit load and continue working, it will take longer to get your degree but you will have no debt. Of course if you are trying to get a degree to get out of flipping burgers then you might want to take some loans out becuase flipping burgers for 7 years while you go to school part time is a non starter at least for me. If you have a solid job you could tolerate for the next 7 years then go part time. UND has full blown online ABET accreditited engineering degrees after you finish up your first 2 years at a state school or you could do it from start to finish but you want to make sure your state participates in the WUE program otherwise UND is expensive.
The biggest advice is do not get an artsy fartsy degree, make sure you get an education in a solid skill (engineering, welding, etc). You can do a masters in basicly anything you want later on with a BS in engineering even med school or law.
If you want to break the cycle of "'unemployed now, yet again, and am sick of the cycle of find job, apply for job, get job, lose job, look for job" then you really don't want to work in the entertainment industry.
Amen to that. I work in theater and I've always had a second part-time job to tide me over from gig to gig. I actually get a lot of work, but maybe 1 gig in 6 actually pay a living wage.
Figure out the career interest part first. What kind of career do you see yourself in besides film? You can aim for a 4 year degree with something else as your major and film as your minor.
Read as much as you can about the FAFSA. Gives you Pell grants if you're not too high income, or if nothing else, loans.
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