Are any of you currently in college paying your way through it? (No scholarships)

If so..is it a huge pain in the ***?

I pretty much slacked off throughout my HS career, got involved in the IB Program (like an idiot) and have been a consistent C student since sophomore year. Have a 2.3 unweighted 3.2 weighted GPA, and today I just got the email from the Florida Bright Future's board and they deemed me ineligible for the Bright Futures scholarship (in my case it would have been 75% tuition, 300$ sem for books, some other small allowances). The scholarship requires an ACT score of like..19, SAT score of 970 (both of which I'm well beyond), minimum of 24 credits (I have 36), and a core weighted GPA of 3.0. I didn't know it had to be the core GPA until today, and according to them my core weighted GPA is only 2.64, which needless to say is pretty ******* pathetic. I've only got 28 more days of school until graduation, and pretty certain that I won't be getting a 3.0 average any time soon, since the current marking period ends Thursday and my grades are mediocre at best. Though tomorrow I'm going to talk to my guidance counselor to see what (if anything) can be done. My mom/dad do not know about my ineligibility yet but when they find out they will absolutely flip their ****. I'm going to a local university (already got accepted..they love IB kids no matter what the GPA) so I don't think tuition will be all that high, but I definitely don't want to be just 'getting by' with job pay going towards college costs. I haven't looked into student loans or anything yet and to be honest I don't really want to have to rely on a loan.

But yeah I'm pretty upset...I hate the way this **** works, grades are all that matters in the eyes of anyone that determines your educational career and status as a person. lol......too bad they don't look at conduct and attendance because mine is perfect since kindergarten...and I used be one of those 4.0GPA ******* before I got into IB.


Worst case scenario right now is that I'm going to have to sell the stang and get a honda to save money on gas and insurance to help pay for school...but screw that.


Our education system sucks.

 

Yeah I its a pain in the *** but you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't have any major scholarships but you can make it though. Unfortunately it gets more expensive every year haha. As for the GPA thing its really no biggie. HS doesn't mean s*** once you get in. I'll be going into my 3rd year in the fall and your lucky Florida has that thing I've heard about that isn't it a 3.0 or something in college and the state takes care of your tuition if your a FL resident?

edit: whats IB by the way? Then it also all depends on how much income you make, and if your parents are helping you at all if both of those are not much then you will most likely have to get a student load. Because your first year at least your required to live in the dorms if your not a commuter and you have to sign up for a meal plan (which your first year they usually make you have an unlimited which is the most expensive)

 

You post is very honest and brave.....a good lesson to others. It is never too late to turn your life around, but there is no free lunch either. The fact is, there are other more deserving people who actually studied and earned grades.

My oldest brother was a C student in HS.....ended up with a double-major in EE and Physics from U of I. BUT, he had to go to Junior college first to re-establish himself as a student. He got straight A's in college.

 

i got accepted to PSU (the main campus, which is real hard to get into nowadays) and i had a 2.64 gpa (but i chose to go to one of it's satellite campuses). steady c's all through high school and a b here an there. i applied to a lot of colleges and got accepted to few. did you not apply to any other colleges?

what is the IB program? if im thinking correctly, it a program where you go to school for half a day and work the other half.

if i were you, i would find a community college that has credits that are transferable with a big school. (This is basically what WaterDR said. lol)

 

No offense but how can it be really hard to get into if u got in with a C average in hs?

 

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I was a straight A student until 11th grade year and then I started slacking. Everyone knows that is the actual year that colleges look at that the most. Well when college time came around I didn't know what to do, had no idea what field of study to get into. I ended up waiting a year and enrolling at my local community college for Electrical Engineering Technologies. Did ok with it the first semester and then I finally realized what I wanted to do but my parents didn't want to listen. Now, I have just recently dropped out of the community and I'm going to enroll at a real college in Central, VA called VCU in the fall semester of 2009. I'm going to be taking out a college loan when that time rolls around because I definitely don't have the money to pay for it and my parents won't help because they think I wasted their money with the community college.

But blah blah blah, that's about me. Here's to your advice. See if you can find a local community college. Alot of colleges with except transfer credits from other colleges including community colleges. I know alot of people who went to community college for 2 years and just studied general studies and then transferred their credits to another college where they only need 2 more years. Most of the time the big colleges will look at your GPA from the community before they look at the high school crap. And don't forget, community is alot cheaper. I think with in-state tuition, my classes were about $250 a piece.

Another thing to keep in mind is that alot of community colleges offer technologies courses where you only go for about 2 years and you have your bachelor's. I was enrolled in one of those and if I would have continued with it I would have been making $60,000 a year right out of 2 years of community college.


Tip for parents - Listen to your child when this time comes out. Don't push them into something they don't want to do or you will end up wasting your money because your kid isn't going to try. I'm a fine example sitting right here.

 

Where I'm going is really the only place I'd go, I could have applied to UF or UCF but I'd be in debt up to my eyes even with scholarships. I just applied and got accepted with no problems..affording it is the only issue I might have. I'm not planning on majoring in anything that matters on how prestigious the college you went to was when you got your degree (like electrical engineering/pre-med for instance), I'm probably going to do Business/management and planned on going into the military afterwards for a while anyway before getting into a career.

The IB program is an international highschool program where you take an advanced curriculum and are tested constantly and assessed during your senior year by people half way across the world. Most people aren't aware but Europe's school system is much more advanced than ours, they are learning in what we would call junior high stuff we don't even learn in high school. This program throws Americans, Canadians, Brits, Frenches, etc in the same boat on a level curriculum..so basically we're trying to learn on their level of academics, which is all college level courses. We're given an insane workload that either a) you do without much care and 'bs' your way through it..aka me, b) cheat on or c) actually spend your time on (basically your social life is done for if you plan on going through IB with a 4.0). They give us 1500-2500 essay to do as basic assignments, we have 2-3 tests a week, presentations all the time..etc.....it's pretty much the worst deal ever for someone like me, who isn't even getting anything out of it..accept a lot of headaches and wasted time...and not to mention it's made me look really bad on paper. I could have gone to the highschool I was in district for and gotten all A's and had my tuition paid for 100%. Oh well, bad decisions lesson being learned etc etc...that's life.

 

Ouch I would hate that. By the way online classes FTMFW if you can get them. I have 16 credits per semester and only class from 2-3:40 monday-thursday

 

I am ending my second year in college and I have no financial aid, loans or grants or w/e. My brother, sister, and I have all paid our way through by just working our jobs when we aren't in class and in the summer. Like whoever said though, tuition goes up every semester so it can be tight sometimes. Also I think I might be in school a little longer because sometimes I don't take as many credits in a semester so I can make time to work.

 

Cool.....that is awesome, but I don't suppose you go to Notre Dame.....that place is getting $50k a year now. Believe that ****?

 

I was lucky and ended up being a pretty good student in Highschool. 3.9gpa and 27 on ACT. Got a full scholarship to my college. But I had a roomate that wasn't so lucky. He started with a scholarship, lost it after the first two semesters. Now he has two student loans, credit card debt and probably alot more debt by the time he graduates. Your just going to have to work and bang it out day after day.

At most colleges you can still get scholarships after you are enrolled. Keep trying to raise your GPA while in college and keep taking the ACT to raise your score on that.

 

I forsee your future...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFQyib5ZQZY


Lol... j/k...

dont put all your weight into getting into a 4 year college, there are lots of ways you can go about making a living nowadays. I know your weighted GPA sucks, but damn dude, i graduated with a 1.6 GPA. I hated school man i diddnt get along with most people and my teachers all gave up on me before they had a chance to learn my name, plus i was bored out of my skull most of the time, i put no effort into it other than the base minimum to graduate, and the only reason i DID graduate is cause the principle diddnt like me and figured the best way to get rid of me was to graduate me.

Personally i think highschool anymore is horseshit, the government has done a good job of totally ******* up the educational system six ways from sunday. All this no child left behind bullshit, the special education program bullshit all that. More than anything highschool simply became a simple memorization exorcise with little attention to the development of intellect.

Dont get me wrong i dont condone people dropping out, a GED basically says you couldnt hack it in highschool and quit then figured you would put a bandaid on your lack of ability to commit to finishing your education. lol

Knowledge = amount of information retained
Intelligence = ability to use the knowledge
Wisdom = ability to determine when to apply the intelligent to knowledge.

Remember, you have like, 70 freaking years to get a degree before you die. There is nothing wrong with traveling for a bit, or going a vocational route and pulling in college on the side later on at your own pace.

Enjoy being young and be young, but dont forget to keep an eye to the future, but no, your life will not be a complete failure if you dont get in the college you want.



eh im ranting again... lol...

 

Not sure really. I went the route of loans so that I would not have to worry about making payments, working enough, etc. to pay for school. I am out of state so the cost is a bit more than staying in state, but I am on a scholorship which is a good help. I pay 50% more than instate, so instate is $4k where i go, so I pay $6k/yr(not including housing, books, etc.). I had a full ride(tuition) to stay instate but I hate NM and love Az so I am paying out, but I can't say I regret it yet.

 

True. I do live at home and I go to UW-Milwaukee, which is fairly cheap but it's a decent school too. It's about $7,000 a year right now which is not bad compared to say UW-Madison which would be over $10,000.

 

**** skool....muthafucksaaaaa!!!sss!!!!

 

dont know how i got in...i wasnt really expecting to get in..i know 2 other kids that had 3.0-3.1's and they didnt get accepted into the same school....i also did a lot more after school activities than they did..i got involved in my high school and was also on 2 teams (swimming and wrestling).


sometimes it does matter what college you go to as well....dont just say that going to this school is better than going to a smaller school....i could have gone to west chester university...i bet most of you dont know what kind of college it is, how big it is, or where its located. now since i chose to go to Penn State..every one knows what it is.lol. employers are the same way.

o and to answer the question about financial issues....your not alone in the boat your in.....lots of kids are taking out loans to go to school and most of the time, those loans dont have to be paid back until after you graduate college. i fortunately have the type of parents that believe that their children shouldnt have to pay for college as long as i keep my grades up and pass my classes...but only if i keep my grades up..thats pretty much my payment back to them

 

You can still apply for lots of other programs to help pay for college. UCF has tons of resources on this. I never needed it though as i got the bright futures 75% paid so i at most pay $415 a semester over the last 5 years. But there are defiantly other government resources you can get. Also i believe you can reapply for bright futures after you in college and raise that GPA up.

 

I am 21 and it took me 3 years to finally get the wheels turning on going to college. And it just so happens, now that I live on my own, fully support myself, and don't live off of food stamps. The government wants me to go to college badly enough to pay for it. FAFSA FTW

 

FWIW i had a 3.73 gpa, had my associates degree at 18, ohio allowed you to go to any state funded college during hs for free, and still didnt get any scholarships to the out of state school i want to go to.

i get there and its a bunch of **** off burning up instate scholarships that make it a year and lose their scholarship and take out loans anyway.

 

Yeah im one of the few people i know that kept there scholarships all threw college. This is my last semester for my BS in business management and I still have my 75% state paid tuition. Its not like its super hard to stay above a 2.75gpa but lots of kids that go to college just screw around.

 

I'm a big believer in Junior college no matter what. I don't see what the rush is to go off to a university. You can take the same credits at a JC for a fraction of the price, and then just transfer in. Not to mention there's a possibility of your classes being easier. I think it all depends on what kind of person you are PCola. Some kids don't want any other stress loads, so they take loans and don't worry about anything but graduating. Other kids don't want to be in debt for their first 10+ years out of college, so they pay it off as they go. But it will be much more time consuming, and you MUST have a good work ethic to do it. I'm not trying to judge how you'll do in college, based from your high school grades, because I had a very similar GPA. But if you already struggle to focus on just school, then adding 25+ hours a week of work isn't going to help in the long run.

 

i was in the ib program all through highschool aswell. i got 75 avg. ur best bet is talk to ur teachers and see if there could possibly be an "extra assignment" or something to help boost your marks up. thats how i got my free ride through a canadian college. ( no such thing as a scholarship in canada )

like i said talk to your teachers and explain your situation to them and sometimes they might be willing to give you a chance to achieve what your after or if not then atleast get close to it......i say if u bust ur *** in one of the programs ur already doing well in just enough to raise your overall average then the shittyones might not have such a huge effect on you.

best the luck

P.s IB is International Baccalaureate........its like a gifted program, for the smart kids its run outa switzerland i think and all your marks at the end of the year are send overseas and taken care of or some **** like that. cant remember....never really cared. it just looks dam good on a resume and helps with admittance into university

 

Join the Coast Guard!!!! you dont have to go fight int he sandbox.....you are not underway for over half the year at a time....you never really get shot at.....you can go to the bar almost every night too! what more could you want???? oh yea....you can get some $$$ for school as well....or even take classes while you are in. but that runis all the time for fun stuff! LOL

 

friends dont let friends drive rice

do what i did. get a ducati.

i thought u were in florida.......i can only ride for like 8 months of a year. down there u got the whole year......lucky u...

been thinkin. once i get my degree... im guna move to miami

 

Well I guess I'll update this since class starts Monday.

I took the IB Exams in May, didn't study for any of them but Biology. Was sure I wouldn't get the diploma since I messed up the Biology exam by doing 4 sections instead of 2. Graduated in June with a 2.2, and last month was able to look at my IB scores on the website and lo and behold, I actually passed. Got 24 of the 36 points total (24 is the minimum to get diploma) It was probably the best moment of my year. With the diploma I have %100 Bright futures (Full tuition, some book allowance, etc) Also since I made good marks on most of the exams, I tested out of English, math, history, and biology and have over 30 credit hours completed because of it. So now I'm starting college as a Sophomore and don't have to take anything work intensive until I start my major.

I guess stuff sometimes works itself out. I got lucky.

This means I'm keeping the mustang

 

Nice congrats on things working out. What school are you going to? I'm moving into my apartment thats closer to the school tomorrow morning but our classes don't start until Wednesday.

 

University of West Florida. I'm not staying in a dorm the first semester, it's only about 15 miles from home so I'll commute there everyday.

 

dude, commuting sucks!!!! i did it for a week when my dorm room was being worked on (had a leaky roof and got mold and mildew all down the walls...). im only about 30 mins away, but it just sucked. i slept on my friends futon that lived next to my dorm. will never do that again

but!!!! congrats!!!..ive been in school for a year but im still considered a freshman because i failed a class and dropped a class, though it is only 1 credit away so it is only a technicality. i will be a sophomore for one semester and then straight to junior (taking 18.5 credit/ semester this year instead of 15 first/9 second semester like last year)

 

Good job on getting all the accomplished. Sounds like you ended up with a pretty good deal. Our classes start today but I don't have a class on Thursday, lol. I moved into a new apartment right across the street from the college. Now I can park the Stang for a week and just walk to class.

 

hell you get discounts for having ADD now, hell everybody in this world should qualify!