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does "working" to keep scholarships/grants count as "working" to pay for your school?
forgot the link, besides it being a few years old, back then there were enough "free" money from public and private sources that every college student could have gotten $30k/year... we all know this didn't happen, some got more and some didn't get any, and the rest of the money kept getting rolled over to the next year
but point is that there "is" enough money out there for people to not need to take out loans for school. But much of the debt (half or nearly) is debt taken on for living expenses, this has nothing to do with "education", because anyone not working and living on their own for years at a time, run a deficit <--- this is what the UK/European students are running into, even with their "free" colleges, the students are coming out in debt because they didn't think about the cost of actually "living" while in college
The cost of housing and subsistence is a part of the cost of college. Pretending it isn't doesn't make that cost go away. The idea of "just live at home" is really a fantasy for most people. There are far more people looking for colleges than there are good colleges near where people live. Esp when you start talking about quality programs in technical and professional fields.
It was important to my wife and I that we pay for our sons' Bachelor Degrees. We also held some influence on which schools they attended to maximize scholarships and minimize costs. Both were high ranked schools in their field of study so they weren't cheated on choices.
However they were told any Graduate degrees would be their responsibility! The oldest son borrowed for his Law Degree - at the least expensive Tier 1 Law School after turning down a Full Ride at a lower ranked school. The youngest got a Full Ride to Med School and used it.
You're not alone. My parents also did not pay for my college. And I never skipped a class because I knew exactly how much each class was costing me. And I've worked my butt off to make money to pay back loans I had to take on.
We had three who all went to college and beyond. We were able to pay for about three years of education for each. I personally paid $500 a month out of my pay every month for about a decade toward someone’s education. And all of my kids have school debts.
My parents could have paid for mine but they didn’t & I don’t blame them one bit!
I was expelled from the entire school district on my 16th birthday, left home to live with my 19 year old boyfriend & his parents in their trailer & was pregnant by the time I was 17.
How much should they have invested, when at age 18; with a 9th grade education & an 8 month old baby ... I decided to go to college?
Probably exactly what they did: $0.00. So I did it the hard way. I worked. I qualified for Pell grants & for two semesters I had to take out loans. And 4 years later, I got to be part of the 2% of US women in my situation that actually graduated.
I certainly only attended a small state university that had little scholastic affluence in the world but my parents were much too poor to pay anything on my education, not that they would not have done so had they been able. I did however use every dollar of my Vietnam era GI Bill which I suppose was available to anyone who wanted to go into the military at that time. Additionally as an undergraduate, I drove a semi-truck part-time and my wife worked part-time as a Mayflower home packing assistant. As a graduate student I stopped driving because I had teaching and research assistantships.
In short, except for the utilities on our tiny 1962 mobile home and the 50'X100' lot that we had paid off during school, I was very happy to graduate with no debt.
OP, regardless of any debt you may have incurred during school, you should be very proud that you did it yourself. Someday maybe an employer will be proud of that effort as well.
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