I don’t know how anyone who does not come from a wealthy background in the USA can afford college. Tuition and rent are both 5-10X the cost while pay is only 2X from 20-30 years ago. I can’t even afford to buy my own house if I had to do it today.
See they ran this joke where the students who waste the most amount of their time on curating an application where you appear as a class A suckup along with high scores on an exam that doesn't measure anything useful means you get some of the precious scholarship money that will still not prevent you from gaining student debt.
Luckily, the cheat code is community college or trade school.
As a university graduate, I approve this message. Trade schools are underrated and seem to be almost demonized in many places (my public school, for instance). They should be promoted more heavily
That's the neat part, they can't! They take out student loans and they might be able to pay them back.
Personally, I went to a little in-state school and luckily my schedule worked out that I could take an extra class each semester, enough to graduate a year early. But it was still $10k per year. And that's pretty cheap for a four-year school.
It was bad when I was in college in 2012. Me and a roommate had to steal near the end of the semester because we couldn't afford food. Both hovering around lower mid to middle class so it's not like we were constantly living in poverty. Plus being students limited our access to certain government assistance (also lack of knowledge of them) and finding work in a college town is next to impossible when you've got 25 to 30000 grad and post grad students to compete with even for a McDonald's job.
Well, as a community college student living with his parents, I get government financial aid that has so far been able to cover tuition. So, I am lucky so far. Worst I've had happen is not getting financial aid last fall quarter because I didn't update an address on the financial aid disbursement platform the college uses (and not having it set to just go straight into my bank account instead of coming by snail mail).
You are especially lucky that you choose to and got admitted to a college that you could get to but still live with your parents. Which is mostly only something people fortunate enough to live in a town or city with colleges or universities can do.