

Ask HN: How can I pay for college? - josephpmay

Hello<p>I am currently a high school senior and need to commit to a college by May 1st. I was accepted into a number of large universities with great computer engineering departments, but I was denied from the &quot;name&quot; schools (Ivy&#x27;s, MIT, Stanford) that have the resources to truly cover financial need. My top choice school is USC, as I was accepted into the Iovine&#x2F;Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;iovine-young.usc.edu&#x2F;), which appears to be an awesome program focused on exactly the areas I want to study. I was lucky enough to have been awarded a half-tuition merit scholarship, in addition to $8,000 in federal loans. However, that still leaves a $30,000 a year gap. I have some college savings from past internships and a Florida Prepaid savings plan, but not nearly what I need. As my parents currently have no income, I don&#x27;t think they would qualify for a federal PLUS loan or even be able to cosign a private college loan.<p>[continued in comments- HN&#x27;s character count is inaccurate for some reason]
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tom_b
When I was a student, I met a guy who would go to school one semester, then
work the next+summer in construction. Then back to school. He seemed perfectly
happy to pay the school bills this way.

Some years later when I returned to undergrad education in CS, I took
advantage of several summer internships and coops. The money I earned through
those basically covered the completion of my undergrad CS degree.

Maybe you could do the same? Does this USC program support coops? I would
guess that you could make a large portion of the costs through that type of
work.

I will say that my first suggestion echoes many other comments on this page.
Don't incur a bunch of debt for undergrad education. Go to the cheap school
and work hard to do really well. Definitely try to get internships and work
experience. I might go so far to suggest that you look at the institutions you
are considering and see which ones have particularly well-formed, visible
internship programs in place.

My CS undergrad program was incredibly focused on the transition from school
to work. It made getting internship and coop opportunities much easier. My
(top 25) CS grad school was almost entirely focused on turning out PhD
candidates into academia and had almost no real industry network to speak of.
As a matter of fact, the several job offers I had in hand when finishing my MS
in CS were with companies I had interned with during my undergrad days. My
grad school professor network resulted in not a single job lead.

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argonaut
Wouldn't going to USC mean $120,000 in loans, not 150k?

Unfortunately I don't think 120k in loans in tenable. Go to UF and make the
most out of a free education.

I'm actually surprised you didn't get more financial aid, if your parents
truly do not have any spare income for college (I'm assuming when you said
they have no income you mean no income for college; if they truly don't have
any income I'd be even more surprised you didn't get more aid).

~~~
josephpmay
USC would be slightly less than $120,000 in private loans plus ~$30,000 in
government loans.

The reason why I didn't get better financial aid is that my father had a very
high income last year, but lost his job. He now owns his own business while
trying to find a job, but his business is loosing money. So right now my
patents literally have no income, but financial aid calculations are usually
calculated based on the previous year's tax returns.

~~~
thejteam
Contact the school's financial aid department and explain the situation. They
may not be able to help you much this year but they may be able to help you
figure out how to re-apply next year. Unfortunately, financial aid
calculations are a mysterious black box and your inputs do not fit into it
well.

If you REALLY don't want to go to Florida, then there is always the option of
community college for a year or two and then transferring. And again you may
qualify for more need based aid that way in a year or two.

Also remember that you may change what you want to do several times over the
course of your college career. And then several times in your adult life
afterwards. At 150k in loans you may very be better off financially working as
a janitor at one of these schools than being a student.

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josephpmay
My affordable option would be to go to the University of Florida. Because of
my Florida Prepaid plan, the Florida Bright Futures program, and a scholarship
I was awarded, I would actually be GIVEN money to go there, at least for my
freshman year. However, Florida does not have a partially strong computer
engineering program, and I have been told that the department is very
theoretical, where as I would prefer a more practical education. (I also have
strong personal reasons for not wanting to go to UF, but any economist would
tell me that making a decision off of these would be highly irrational.)

So, with the exception of taking out $150,000 in loans that I may not even
qualify for, is there any other way I could pay for college? I was hoping to
get an internship this summer that could possibly cover part of the cost, but
I haven't been able to find one. Are there any programs that offer tuition for
a percentage of future earnings? Would any investor want to pay for my college
for a large stake in my first startup?

Thank you for any suggestions.

~~~
tokenadult
University of Florida would work well for you under those circumstances. You
can get the practical side by working on your own GitHub projects--I know
young people who have been there and done that.

~~~
brudgers
Gainesville isn't appealing for everyone. For some just as a city [the former
"Hogtown"], for others perhaps because of the continued exposure to obnoxious
sports rivalries typical in the Southeast.

It can even come down to which fraction of one's graduating class is attending
which school and other factors which often disappear once people actually get
to university.

~~~
brudgers
My comment based on _I also have strong personal reasons for not wanting to go
to UF,_ from the OP,

I lived and studied in Gainesville at two different phases of my life. I have
longtime friends who still live there, more who graduated and moved away. I
have high school friends who many years ago went and left in their teens
because it wasn't the right environment for them.

Now I live in a southern university town and meet young people whose college
selection is strongly shaped by sports team affiliation. That's American high
school and university culture whether or not anyone thinks it should be. At
the OP's age I categorically rejected considering FSU for entirely non
academic reasons - my high school class broke FSU or UF in part based on who
we did not want to go to school with.

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pawn
I was able to graduate with no debt by attending College of the Ozarks, where
students work 15 hours on campus to pay for tuition. I worked during the
summer to take care of room and board and books. I might be biased, but I
still think it's a great school.

[https://www.cofo.edu/](https://www.cofo.edu/)

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bitonomics
It is not much help the first year, but on campus jobs, specifically in
housing can help a lot. It can cut $10-20K/year down in cost.

Room and board is typically the highest expense after tuition and if you can
cut that down to nothing it can go a long way.

It also doubles as a great way to meet people who are working their way
through school.

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jesusmichael
prostitution

