If you were me - what would you do? (paying for college)

[Aunt Spiker]

So most of you know that right now I'm a stay at home college mom. Well, my youngest will be starting school in August - just 2 months from now. I, being a college student, intend on attending college, of course.

Problem I've run into is paying for my college. Money doesn't grow on trees and education is not cheap. Due to a major stupid mistake of mine I refiled late and will not be getting a cut of anything this school semester - that I know of. . . and it's just too late to really come through with anything else.

That leaves me lost - what other options are out there for paying my way through college that I can take advantage of 2 months before the start of the semester?

I'm tempted to just do away with the drama of yearly re-applications and actually get a school loan to cover all my college expenses. . . but I know nothing of college loans so I need to do a lot of research on that.

Is a college loan of some type a smart or a very stupid idea?

 

[tacomancer]

So most of you know that right now I'm a stay at home college mom. Well, my youngest will be starting school in August - just 2 months from now. I, being a college student, intend on attending college, of course.

Problem I've run into is paying for my college. Money doesn't grow on trees and education is not cheap. Due to a major stupid mistake of mine I refiled late and will not be getting a cut of anything this school semester - that I know of.

That leaves me lost - what other options are out there for paying my way through college that I can take advantage of 2 months before the start of the semester?

I'm tempted to just do away with the drama of yearly re-applications and actually get a school loan to cover all my college expenses. . . but I know nothing of college loans so I need to do a lot of research on that.

Is a college loan of some type a smart or a very stupid idea?

Try to get a subsidized loan if you can. The interest rate is MUCH lower.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

So most of you know that right now I'm a stay at home college mom. Well, my youngest will be starting school in August - just 2 months from now. I, being a college student, intend on attending college, of course.

Problem I've run into is paying for my college. Money doesn't grow on trees and education is not cheap. Due to a major stupid mistake of mine I refiled late and will not be getting a cut of anything this school semester - that I know of. . . and it's just too late to really come through with anything else.

That leaves me lost - what other options are out there for paying my way through college that I can take advantage of 2 months before the start of the semester?

I'm tempted to just do away with the drama of yearly re-applications and actually get a school loan to cover all my college expenses. . . but I know nothing of college loans so I need to do a lot of research on that.

Is a college loan of some type a smart or a very stupid idea?

If you can get the Pell grant that covers all your expenses, there is no reason you should take a loan out for school.
None what so ever.

Avoid debt like the plague in every situation, if you can, seriously.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

I would like to avoid debt but I also would like to attend school. Since my options are flushed a non stafford loan is out (seeing as how I didn't file my fafsa on time) and so are pell grants.

I could just work until next year starts I suppose. . . if anyone would hire me anywhere. Or sell jewelry. LOL yeah right *smokes that one*

 

[lizzie]

Take a semester off, or maybe just take one or two classes (whatever you can afford), and see if you can get Pell grants. You may also be able to work on-campus in exchange for some or all of your tuition. I know that some schools do this, so at least check it out.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

I would like to avoid debt but I also would like to attend school. Since my options are flushed a non stafford loan is out (seeing as how I didn't file my fafsa on time) and so are pell grants.

I could just work until next year starts I suppose. . . if anyone would hire me anywhere. Or sell jewelry. LOL yeah right *smokes that one*

If I were you, I'd work on marketing your jewelery and trying to sell it someway.
Create a website, if you don't have one and browse/comment on jewelery/fashion related blogs.

I would not take a loan, wait until February and get a Pell grant.

 

[rivrrat]

If I were you, I wouldn't waste the money on college. :lol: But, since that's not likely an option for you, I'd look into grants and student loans. I've been out of that racket for far too long to mention anything specific though.

And then there's always escort services. You could have your college paid for in two months easy. :mrgreen:

 

[liblady]

I would like to avoid debt but I also would like to attend school. Since my options are flushed a non stafford loan is out (seeing as how I didn't file my fafsa on time) and so are pell grants.

I could just work until next year starts I suppose. . . if anyone would hire me anywhere. Or sell jewelry. LOL yeah right *smokes that one*

just get a job for the semester.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

*siiiiigh* Maybe a job and one class out of pocket?
Upside - if I work fulltime then I can save up *all* that money and put ti towards future books. . . and other things, not just books

 

[MyOwnDrum]

Do you have a specific goal for an in demand profession? There's no point in attending college just to get a general degree that won't generate income.

 

[liblady]

*siiiiigh* Maybe a job and one class out of pocket?
Upside - if I work fulltime then I can save up *all* that money and put ti towards future books. . . and other things, not just books

not a bad idea.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

*siiiiigh* Maybe a job and one class out of pocket?
Upside - if I work fulltime then I can save up *all* that money and put ti towards future books. . . and other things, not just books

I think you should try to develop your jewelery making/marketing skills.
Wouldn't it be nice to be you own boss.

Just a thought.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Do you have a specific goal for an in demand profession? There's no point in attending college just to get a general degree that won't generate income.

Indeed I do!
I fully intend to cohort with the Devil and become an Actuary - Risk Management. . . though I'm waffling on my field of interest.

If I was a 'solid work history' type person I wouldn't be worried about an education - but I'm a 'high school dropout in my pocket with a ton of kids' type person and have been a SAHM for years and thus just diving back into a management position (what I use to be) isn't going to happen.

When I was employed as a manager I had quite a few issues - mainly because I was employed blindly and had little experience. Those who employed me gave me little 'on the job' education. AKA: I ****ed up a lot. I'd like to learn more about the field I'm interested in before I work it some more - I'd like to be successful in it.

 

[VanceMack]

So most of you know that right now I'm a stay at home college mom. Well, my youngest will be starting school in August - just 2 months from now. I, being a college student, intend on attending college, of course.

Problem I've run into is paying for my college. Money doesn't grow on trees and education is not cheap. Due to a major stupid mistake of mine I refiled late and will not be getting a cut of anything this school semester - that I know of. . . and it's just too late to really come through with anything else.

That leaves me lost - what other options are out there for paying my way through college that I can take advantage of 2 months before the start of the semester?

I'm tempted to just do away with the drama of yearly re-applications and actually get a school loan to cover all my college expenses. . . but I know nothing of college loans so I need to do a lot of research on that.

Is a college loan of some type a smart or a very stupid idea?

Explore every option...on weekends and downtime apply for every scholarship and grant you can even if you dont qualify for them. Apply for Pell Grants. Talk to your university financial aid person. Go to every website you can and look for every nickel you can...then apply for subsidized student loans. Manage the hell out of your loans...pay off the interest as early as you can while you are still in school. Look for jobs after school with tuition reimbursement (depending on the field, some jobs will pay off your loans if you commit to a certain number of years of employment). Stay away from going straight to a bank for a student loan. Credit unions can be good options tho. See if your university has a pay as you go or work/tuition program. Have a goal...long term...and make sure your degree field has a high liklihood of employment and sufficient pay to be able to afford living expenses and paying off the student loans.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

I think you should try to develop your jewelery making/marketing skills.
Wouldn't it be nice to be you own boss.

Just a thought.

I could - I could . . . I've got some skizzlez . . . I could give a crafting business another shot.

Heck - I could likely just ebay off all of my work that I have in my closet between now and next year even while I work/attend school - cover expenses . . . and still pursue this college issue I'm already working on.


Vance - those are good suggestions. The college I'm attending, now, is a local university that acts as a 2-year school which most students like me use as a hopper into college because of ACT scores an inept background education. Now that I've staked out a solid 4.00 for quite some time I should be able to transfer into a more 'options available' school situation.

I'll make some phone calls and do some more searching to see what's available in that area before I commit to another semester at this school.

 

[MyOwnDrum]

I've heard actuary work can be extremely lucrative. My math genius son was thinking of going into it, but he found a job with a spamming company that pays very well. He programs spam email to get past email filters for a living.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

I could - I could . . . I've got some skizzlez . . . I could give a crafting business another shot.

Heck - I could likely just ebay off all of my work that I have in my closet between now and next year even while I work/attend school - cover expenses . . . and still pursue this college issue I'm already working on.

That's pretty wicked.
How much for the girl? :2razz:

Seriously, if you have skills like that, use them.
Online marketing and business can be very successful but it does take some dedication.

I'll look through some of the blogs I read, if you need some pointers.
They usually have articles about home business marketing and development.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Here is a starting point, lots of different articles on the subject of turning a hobby into a business opportunity.

Free Money Finance: $10k Challenge: Turn Your Hobby into an Extra Income

It takes time to build a business but you have a skill that, to me, appears to have some market potential.
I'd explore it, if I were you.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

That's pretty wicked.
How much for the girl? :2razz:

Seriously, if you have skills like that, use them.
Online marketing and business can be very successful but it does take some dedication.

I'll look through some of the blogs I read, if you need some pointers.
They usually have articles about home business marketing and development.

:lol: - she's use to be a dancer in a bar around Dallas, Tx somewhere - her stage name was April. At that time the guy who was my business partner (did the online portion and legwork, I did the crafting) frequented clubs and such and that's where all of our business came from. Things seemed really promising - but he started making business promises we couldn't keep to these pretty young girls that worked there. . . I guess they were irresistible.

That chain dress is a fine example of his bad business ideas. He promised that complicated beast crafted and delivered in 1 week - it took me over 60 clocked hours of actual crafting time - pain in the ASS to make - and I did it in 4 days, stayed up for 2 nights to work on the damn thing . . sent it overnight out of my own pocket and in the end my cut for all my work was just $130.00. He gave her 1/2 off because it arrived one day late (a 1200$ deal dropped to $600 - take away materials, divide 50/50 - I got the shaft). If there wasn't such distance between he and I - I'd've killed him.

Another bad thing he did for business was that he sold pieces to beautiful girls at clubs - but the models for the website were middle-aged and, well, not so 'dancer-esque' While I myself am an average-looking woman and prefer to see items displayed on women who are shaped like me I also prefer to keep things in reality - that doesn't sell your work when you're trying to make a market for the young, shapely pole dancers in town, you know - that just doesn't work.
I never did get why he did that :shrug: Sales fell.

That, there, is actually what made me lose interest altogether in pursuing a chain business further - Its VERY time consuming to do an online catalog with high quality photos - and then craft and sell everything. You NEED a customer base and because I don't go places - I don't have a customer base.
Ah! But - once I'm back in school (this semester or next) I will then have a customer base - up until now I've been taking classes online.

There's a yearly craft-market, though, that sets up Downtown Little Rock called the River Market which I keep swearing I'll craft for and enter in at least *once* - but I haven't dedicated myself to it enough yet.

I almost did one year - I knew I couldn't craft all the pieces to sell so I got a lot of online chainmail artists interested in sending me their pieces. The idea was to have an international booth of artisans hoping that the uniqueness of the pieces would really draw attention and it would all sell well - but I never pulled the plans through all the way because of time, I didn't start planning early enough.

However- if I'm not in school for a little while - I do have time. The market wouldn't be for almost another year - plenty of time.

Here is a starting point, lots of different articles on the subject of turning a hobby into a business opportunity.

Free Money Finance: $10k Challenge: Turn Your Hobby into an Extra Income

It takes time to build a business but you have a skill that, to me, appears to have some market potential.
I'd explore it, if I were you.

Thanks, Harry - I'll look into it, again, maybe I can actually have some success this go round.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

:lol: - she's use to be a dancer in a bar around Dallas, Tx somewhere - her stage name was April. At that time the guy who was my business partner (did the online portion and legwork, I did the crafting) frequented clubs and such and that's where all of our business came from. Things seemed really promising - but he started making business promises we couldn't keep to these pretty young girls that worked there. . . I guess they were irresistible.

That chain dress is a fine example of his bad business ideas. He promised that complicated beast crafted and delivered in 1 week - it took me over 60 clocked hours of actual crafting time - pain in the ASS to make - and I did it in 4 days, stayed up for 2 nights to work on the damn thing . . sent it overnight out of my own pocket and in the end my cut for all my work was just $130.00. He gave her 1/2 off because it arrived one day late (a 1200$ deal dropped to $600 - take away materials, divide 50/50 - I got the shaft). If there wasn't such distance between he and I - I'd've killed him.

Another bad thing he did for business was that he sold pieces to beautiful girls at clubs - but the models for the website were middle-aged and, well, not so 'dancer-esque' While I myself am an average-looking woman and prefer to see items displayed on women who are shaped like me I also prefer to keep things in reality - that doesn't sell your work when you're trying to make a market for the young, shapely pole dancers in town, you know - that just doesn't work.
I never did get why he did that :shrug: Sales fell.

That, there, is actually what made me lose interest altogether in pursuing a chain business further - Its VERY time consuming to do an online catalog with high quality photos - and then craft and sell everything. You NEED a customer base and because I don't go places - I don't have a customer base.
Ah! But - once I'm back in school (this semester or next) I will then have a customer base - up until now I've been taking classes online.

There's a yearly craft-market, though, that sets up Downtown Little Rock called the River Market which I keep swearing I'll craft for and enter in at least *once* - but I haven't dedicated myself to it enough yet.

I almost did one year - I knew I couldn't craft all the pieces to sell so I got a lot of online chainmail artists interested in sending me their pieces. The idea was to have an international booth of artisans hoping that the uniqueness of the pieces would really draw attention and it would all sell well - but I never pulled the plans through all the way because of time, I didn't start planning early enough.

However- if I'm not in school for a little while - I do have time. The market wouldn't be for almost another year - plenty of time.



Thanks, Harry - I'll look into it, again, maybe I can actually have some success this go round.

It does sound like people are interested in what you're selling.
I think it's pretty slick.

If you want to pursue it further I think you should develop a way to streamline your manufacturing process.
Try to make one in 1 day vs making one in 4 days.

I'm just an amateur marketing guy, so take my advice at that level but I do think your skill has a lot of potential.