Any suggestions for going to college?

Question

I'm 20 years old and currently live at home. I'm helping pay the bills and I work in a factory. I've worked there for 3 years and make 10 dollars an hour. This factory only has 1st shift. I want to go to college, but to do that I'd basically have to quit my steady job. My boss is easy to get along with and so is everyone else in the place. It's a small company, less than 20 people. I don't have a college fund, so I'd have to get loans to cover books and tuition. I'm helping pay the bills at home and if I quit my job, my mother could possibly lose the house. I want to live without having to worry so much about having the money to pay bills. I know about online courses but I believe I would benefit more by being in the classroom.What should I do?

Answer 1

Hey CrazyGirl -
you have yourself quite a situation. How is it that mom can't pay the bills herself? What did she do three years ago before you started to work? I can think of many life circumstances that would leave your family in this situation, however, mom has to think that at some point you have to move on with your life. She cannot continue to lean on you, her daughter, for financial support.

So - a couple of suggestions - which you may or may not have considered:

Option 1. look into taking classes part time at a community college. A lot of these offer classes at various times - am, pm, evening - there are bound to be classes you can fit into your schedule where you do not have to quit work.

Option 2. look into the community college again - but this time alter your work schedule so you can take a heavier load - maybe work 2 days/wk or 3 days/wk and take classes the other days.

Option 3. move out, go away to college and take out a student loan like the rest of us.

I admire the fact that you want to help your mom. Suggest having a heart to heart and indicate that you will pay x portion of bills (for your living expenses), however, you really want to go to school and cannot "carry" her financially. If she is so deep into financial trouble, then maybe she should consider downsizing her living accomodations, etc so she can live within her own budget.

In any scenario, I do recommend being physically in the classroom. Especially for the first few years. I know online courses are very popular, and maybe you can take some of your courses this way - but I would start off in the classroom.

Answer 2

I agree with you that you could benefit more by being in a classroom instead of just taking classes online. I've had great teachers who have inspired me & made me more interested in a lot of different subjects.

A lot of colleges & universities now offer night classes: have you checked into those? If you're really serious about going to college, you should start talking to all the colleges that you might want to attend & see what your options are (in regards to class schedules).

Also, have you ever talked to your boss about wanting to go to college, since some companies help you pay for tuition & some companies would even give you a raise upon the completion of your study.

If your current company doesn't have such employee assistance program, maybe you could consider looking for a job who does offer such benefit? I know it's scary to leave such a steady job that you feel belonged to & comfortable with, but sometimes you just have to make an important decision like that.

I don't know where you live, but I think $10 per hour probably doesn't give you too much extra money to apply towards tuition & books. I'm not saying you couldn't, but I think it'll be pretty tight, & I just hate to see you stressing out about financial issues on top of your school work.

I'm actually very excited for you that you're considering to go to college, since it was not that long ago when I decided to go back to school (for a graduate degree). Wish you the best of luck, & please let me know if I could be of any help.

Answer 3

You can attend college part time. Get started at a local community college. They're cheap and have lots of night and weekend classes (some of the best teachers I've had have been at community college) they are also local. You'll be able to get some classes in (and even get an associates) it's very cheap, you won't have to quit your job, and you shouldn't need any loans (maybe an advance to get books if you're unlucky)

You'll also get 2 years of college out of the way before going to an expensive 4 year institution.

Count on spending 1 hour on studying/homework for every 3 hours of class.

I went the community college route before a 4 year university and was very glad I did. I don't know why more people don't get in on this sweet gig.

Hope this helps.
And good luck!

Answer 4

I've been working on my "real-world" business for a while, and I think I've found a secondary income online. I've tried all sorts of things, pay to surf (and I got spyware), read email (for $.01 each), do surveys (and not fit the criteria for 90% of them), enter multi-level marketing schemes (and get sick of it in days), and Google AdSense (so risky!).

I've been reading about this company called AGLOCO, which stands for A GLObal COmpany. Its following a business model which was succesful before with a company called AllAdvantage. AllAdvantage payed its members $100,000,000 (one hundred million) in two years from 1999-2001. However, it became a victim of the .com bust in 2001.

Now that everything has stabilized, and we've entered "Web 2.0", this will work again. I'd sign up quickly, because its still fairly new, but has already gotten over one million members since starting in late november 2006.

Here's the site's link.

www.agloco.com/r/BBBS7579

Answer 5

I go online with University of Phoenix. So I am at home going to school and can sit down at night and get it done! I love it