College debt fears

June 17, 2011 12:54 AM

How do I bring myself to do what I want (which is go to college), while avoiding the various (mostly money-based) neurotic fears associated with this? Neurotic 'I talk too much' details inside.

While talking online with a friend a bit ago I unintentionally discovered that for the first time in my entire life, I think I figured out what I want to do with myself. In the middle of a rant about my current crappy 15 hours a week minimum wage job, I would much rather just go to college. The statement floored me so much because I saw it wasn't just a statement of frustration -- it's true. This is what I want to do with my life right now. (It's a bit terrifying to say that and know, in my heart, that I really do mean it. I feel like a sissy for almost crying at the thought.)

There are some good things, and some bad things. I am living with my parents who have been very supportive through a phenomenally messy divorce in which I got absolutely nothing. I've now lived in the area long enough to get my residency which would make college SO much cheaper, and the local college is pretty good. My friends and other family, from past experiences, would be super supportive of the idea and help me where they could.

... But I'm terrified I'll end up like my father's friend, still paying off his college education 25 years after getting his degree (or worse like my ex, who never graduated and gave up on higher education altogether because of it). I have about $300 to my name, and my parents may not be able to cover it all either. I'm scared of being a failure in this, or of losing the first job I was able to get in four years.

In the past I've bought or done things even though I really shouldn't have, solely because I wanted it. It's a bit intimidating to realize something I've been idly thinking about for years isn't such an idle thought anymore, and I do not want to screw this up. How do I follow what is evidently my dream while not accumulating so much debt that I end up still paying it off twenty years later? Is this something that I should sit down in the guidance office and talk about? Shit, I don't even know where to start other than 'Have you done your FAFSA application?'

posted by Heretical to education (18 answers total)

Think about community college for the first two years, as it can reduce costs. Do you qualify for a Pell grant? (Have you done on your FAFSA?)

The hardest part of starting college is just getting all the administrative/bureaucratic stuff started. It is likely you might accumulate some debt, but it's possible to keep it from inflating out of control if you're careful and not trying to attend a college with an enormous cost of attendance. If you're willing and able to work while also attending (without your learning suffering too much), that would help as well.

Visit the counselors and financial aid offices at the colleges local to you. They will talk through your specific circumstances with you, even if you haven't applied (yet). They are used to helping people who want to attend but don't want to rack up tons of debt.
posted by asciident at 1:35 AM on June 17, 2011

Do you know what you want to go to college for? As in what do you want to study there. That might help you figure out if it's "worth" it. Why not take one class at a community college in something you're interested in? You can work and go to school at the same time, so there is no need to quit your job. It just might take you longer to finish your education.
posted by monkey!knife!fight! at 1:36 AM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Have you thought about what you'd want to study, exactly?
posted by StrikeTheViol at 1:36 AM on June 17, 2011

You plan on attending a state school for the in-state tuition, and you get your first two years out of the way at community college.
posted by holterbarbour at 1:36 AM on June 17, 2011

It might help if you can say where you live; there are a lot of regional funds. There's the BOG fee waiver in California and the HOPE scholarship in Georgia, for instance.

One thing I wish I had known was that there are a lot more options for colleges than I realized that there were. Do some serious research and figure out where you want to go to school and why you want to attend that particular school. Think about what you want to get out of school. Head to the library (or some aggregate internet website) and read through some college catalogs to get a sense of the degrees they offer. If I had known about the concept of engineering, I might have studied engineering, for instance. If I had known that math didn't stop with calculus (math didn't go past calculus at my high school or community college), I might have studied math... so know your options.

Here is a starter list of potential schools that I would be looking at if I were to start looking at schools today (via google search for several of the schools that came to mind). There are trade-offs. If you live with your parents, you don't have to pay rent, but you get less financial aid. So if you end up choosing somewhere else, that's good to keep in mind. Even if you decide to go to the school that's near where you currently live (it's good to be around people you know, local college IS pretty good, for instance), make sure you are doing it because you actively make that choice to go there. Apply to the college you might be able to afford, but also apply to a few others just in case it turns out that they can cover the cost of your tuition based on financial need.

In a lot of cases, it makes financial sense to go to a community college first. That's what I did. But it turns out that financial aid would have covered me if I had gone straight to the university, too.

College was a lot more affordable than I thought it was. I saved up enough money to make it through my first year of college thinking that I'd have to take time off to save up more money, but there was enough financial aid out there to help me cover tuition all the way through my degree. I made it through with part-time work and no debt; so yes, it can be done.
posted by aniola at 1:53 AM on June 17, 2011

I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about the book Debt Free U, which apparently goes into some detail about minimising the cost of college in the US.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:25 AM on June 17, 2011

Fafsa, its annoying stupid but it HELPS A LOT! also, there is this book called "From panic To Power" By Lucinda Basset. It's great at helping your mind deal with all these terrible "what if" scenarios. It's a cheap buy at amazon for 4 bucks used, it has some amazing reviews.
Good luck!
posted by Jofecopa at 2:26 AM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even if you are paying off your education after 25 years, won't you still be better off than you are now? Student loans aren't that much of a burden. There are many ways to have the payments postponed or adjusted to your income. Making a good living and paying off loans beats the hell out of working a crappy job for the rest of your life because you were afraid to assume some debt.

Keep in mind that many people with low incomes qualify for grants or other kinds of financial aid that don't need to be paid back. You sound like you would qualify for some of that.

Also keep in mind that the cost of a college education at a state school is lower than many other debts people usually incur in their lifetimes, such as the cost of a nice car or a house. A college education will improve your life more than any of those would.

What you need to do is fill out a FAFSA as soon as possible, and then talk to the admissions and financial aid departments at schools you consider attending. Do it now! You have nothing to lose but a little bit of time, and you will gain all of the information you need to make a decision.
posted by twblalock at 2:29 AM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't speak to the money questions, but I firmly recommend coming up with a solid plan. If you don't know what you want to do, definitely take a few community college or even continuing education classes. If you do know what you want, do some research about your prospects. If you know going in what your opportunities will be after graduation, you will feel much more secure about embarking on a new adventure. Education for education's sake is fine and all, but make sure you've got a plan that will offset any debt you might incur. Four years from now you will thank yourself.
posted by oohisay at 4:10 AM on June 17, 2011

Not sure about where you live, but going part time at a local state school (and thankfully there's almost a dozen within an hour's commute from where I live/work) costs me about $3000 per year, plus books (which you can always get used and then resell for about the same amount online). Sure, this will take 6 years to finish the standard 4 year degree, assuming you take summer classes as well while you work, but if you pay as you go, you graduate debt free. (Or at least, that's my plan.)

Plus, there's tax advantages to all of this. If you just pay for it outright, it's all a tax write off and if you take out loans, the interest is deductible (I think, never took out loans).

I filled out my FAFSA for the first three years, each year I got nothing. That's what I get for being single and making $40k a year in NY at my day job and trying to get some help to go to school at night. I stopped after that, it was a waste of time. I assume that making (just guessing) $7*15*4 = $420/mo will get you some more aid then me.

That being said, you want to go to college. Do you understand that college is a means, not an end? What do you want to go to college for? What degree do you want to get that you think will open doors? If you live in an area of the country where it takes 4 years to find part time employment, maybe there are no jobs where you are. I know it's a catch 22 to move to where there are jobs to make money when you have no money.
posted by Brian Puccio at 6:02 AM on June 17, 2011

Check for test out options (such as CLEP). In my case, I was able to use CLEP for several classes at community college and then the articulation agreement between my community college and my university meant that those credits transferred, even though CLEP is not an option at my university. Basically, I turned a pointless 6 credit/600$ class involving 80 hours of lecture over two semesters and probably a lot of work into a painless 80$ test which only took about two hours (and was super easy).
posted by anaelith at 6:36 AM on June 17, 2011

There is no community college where I am. I already have my residency in my state (Montana), so I can get in-state tuition at the ONE college that is in town.

I do know exactly what program I want to study. I actually attended a class last year before I had my residency, but had to drop it because that ONE class was costing three times as much money as waiting until I qualified for in-state tuition.

The funny thing is there are jobs here -- they're just way above my current pay grade. There's a huge dichotomy of super low-paying jobs, and higher-end jobs. There's not much middle ground unless you want to turn your low-paying job into a career, and I don't want to do fast food management.
posted by Heretical at 8:43 AM on June 17, 2011

You don't necessarily have to lose your job if you can schedule classes around it - 15 hours a week is a totally normal work load along side studying full time.

You need to really look at the money. I guess that most people still paying their debt 25 years later did not go to a public school/were not able to live rent free (food expense free?) at home.

Also, there are more programs in place now to protect against ridiculous debt loads (thanks to Obama), especially if you end up working in a nonprofit setting.

A college degree would definitely open doors for you (even though it's not the fast track to career success it may once have been). And hopefully it would be enriching also.

If you can feasibly make this happen, I think it's a thing that's worth acknowledging your fears about and doing anyway.
posted by Salamandrous at 9:55 AM on June 17, 2011

Heretical, if you meet the age qualifications (you have to be 35 or over), you should apply for a scholarship from the Jeannette Rankin Foundation.

You might also qualify for Pell Grants, which are federal grants for low-income students. The max Pell Grant is $5500 per year, which will very nearly cover your in-state tuition at, say, Montana State in Bozeman. And you would pretty much break even at the University of Montana. After that, you would just have to cover your living expenses.

If you've got a solid idea of the degree you want and how it's going to set you up for a career afterwards, this looks pretty doable from where I'm sitting.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 11:00 AM on June 17, 2011

The three community colleges in Montana all offer online/distance learning options: Dawson, Flathead Valley, Miles, which can help you get credits cheaply, but you have to be dedicated and disciplined. Talk to advisors at these schools and/or the in-town college about what you would need to take and do to transfer credits from the community college to the in-town college, and how much you could do this way.
posted by brainmouse at 12:14 PM on June 17, 2011

MSU Bozeman is where I would be going, Snarl Furillo. Your scholarship/pell grant idea looks awesome, I will DEFINITELY be checking that out. I hadn't thought of it. I can't say for sure '... and when I graduate I'm going to work for Company X!!' but I'm pretty sure if I do reasonably well that I'll be able to find something.

Salamandrous: I do not live grocery-bill free, but I do grow a ridiculous amount of vegetables in my parents' backyard and have the ability to grow some things in winter to help keep costs down. Technically right now I also qualify for SNAP benefits, but I'm hesitant to get back on that. Feels wrong when I have a job, y'know?
posted by Heretical at 5:43 PM on June 17, 2011

If you can feasibly make this happen, I think it's a thing that's worth acknowledging your fears about and doing anyway.

Yes, yes, yes to this!!

Let me give you a little more context to the answer I gave at the beginning, Heretical. I'm 28 and started community college 2 years ago. I put off higher ed until I was old enough to qualify as an independent student (which is 24 years of age), and then another 2 because I was scared about going into debt when I didn't have any solid(ish) plans for what to do after college that would justify that debt.

Once I finally had some good ideas about a career past the degree, I had to get over the hump of administrivia that is required to begin. All those forms, and meetings, and orientation...blah! But I did it, and it was worth it, and here I am doing some of that stuff again to transfer to university.

You can do it, too. Go grab the attention of MSU Bozeman and get them started on working with you!
posted by asciident at 12:32 AM on June 18, 2011

studies show that a college education does pay off (versus not having a college degree) when it comes to income, job security and quality of live. if you have a dream, don't let obstacles get in the way. i put myself through graduate school. yes, i had loans to pay back but i would do it all again. good luck!
posted by periwnklz at 6:54 PM on September 21, 2011