Thread: Tell me about college

As far as I know, ROTC is the most legit scholarship out there. Pays full tuition. If you're alright with serving as an officer in the military for 8 years (5 active, 3 reserve).

Ya no fuck the army LOL, sorry, just goes against everything I believe in.

If you don't mind answering a few questions and giving some information, this site here is pretty good at telling you what scholarships you can apply for and how much they will pay.

Unfortunally, most of the scholarships require an essay.

http://www.scholarships.com/

Also, as for how much college costs, look around your area and see what colleges are around. Different colleges have different prices. It also depends on if you would want to go to a large college or a small, community college.

My advice is to shop around and see what is out there.

The first thing you should do is fill out a FAFSA: Federal Application for Student Aid. There are many "fafsa" sites, but the one you want is :

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

The others just want to sell your info to third parties and don't really do anything for you. Depending on your age, you just have to prove that you're broke by using the info from your last year's tax return. This year I got $5000 free money to go to school with in the form of grants. You can also opt for work-study where you get a job with the school and you just get a paycheck from them. But it's guaranteed in that you have a set amount of money they will give you.

After filling out your fafsa and submitting your tax return info, you'll get an award notice stating how much money they will offer you in the form of loans and grants... and work-study money if you choose that option.

I've been in school for four years now (working on my Master of Teaching), so if you have any more questions, please feel free to PM me.

good luck!

Yeah, make sure you don't fall for scams, such as sites that will tell you that they can find you a scholarship "guaranteed!" because you can find the same scholarships yourself. Like Mezzanine said, the only real FAFSA site is the one she gave the link to. Others will try and charge a fee or something.

Have you done a lot of things like community service or service projects? It's amazing how many scholarships you can get if you have a service background (despite poor grades). If you are close to a school (as in you live in a university/college community) they often give local scholarships. You can also make an appointment with a college advisor on a campus, and they can help you with scholarships as well.

It also depends on what you want to do. Many places have community colleges or trade schools if you're interested in any of those things. However, if you don't know what you want to do (like me) I'd say that your best bet would be to go to a standard 4-year school. It's also good if it's close (e.g. do you have a university/college less than twenty minutes away) so that you can live at home and save yourself some money (if the money is an issue). It is also good to go to an "in state" school, because you don't have to pay as much money for tuition. I was lucky that I've lived in the US and in the state of my university for long enough to have legal residency. It saves money and heartache if you go in-state. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Abra

As far as I know, ROTC is the most legit scholarship out there. Pays full tuition. If you're alright with serving as an officer in the military for 8 years (5 active, 3 reserve).

ROTC is more like a student loan. It gives you a 4 years of free education, but 8 years of paid slavery.

Thanks for all the info!
I'll be filing the fafsa in january - I think that's when it starts. And I'm looking at two schools - one in state and one out. There are no schools close to me, I'll have to dorm there, and that's where a big chunk of my money will be going. Is there any limit to the amount of loans you can take out? I didn't want to do loans but I don't think I have much of a choice.
I don't have much a community service background. I put in 40 hours at a hospital a while back but that's about it.
Thank you all again! It's seems so overwhelming. And I took a year off since highschool to really decide that I wanted to this, it seems to have motivated me well but I don't know if schools look at motivation over grades.

Originally Posted by NewVamp

And I took a year off since highschool to really decide that I wanted to this, it seems to have motivated me well but I don't know if schools look at motivation over grades.

I took off 7 years. It all comes back to you when you need it.

Typically your entrance score (depending on the system your country/state uses) is what counts. In Australia we have what's called a STAT test for people to take if they didn't get a very high entrance score. Because the test caters to the lowest common denominator, its a piece of piss to ace it. Unfortunately you have to be 21 or older to take it.