Financial Aid

[Laila]

^ Reread the whole thread then you will see the problem

show me the website you were talking about. Oh and getting a job is not solving the problem.

According to my parents income, my family is considered upper-middle class. Last night i did a little bit of research and found that even families that are financially well off, are expected to pay more for college expenses than they should be.

[Laila]

But hey! i found a website for non-need based scholarships for someone like me

here is the link if anyone else needs or just simply wants to take a look

White Picket College - College Funding Info for The Upper Middle Classes

[Mayana]

Working a job as a Pre-Med student is difficult, too. First of all, your classes are difficult to begin with. Then you are expected to complete several hundred hours of volunteer work to gain experience with patient care and so forth. On the side, many are part of research programs which are very time consuming and look gorgeous on medical school applications. So yeah, going back and forth between lectures, labs, volunteer work and research is difficult. Barely any time to breathe, let alone a job =/

[Admin Khan]

Working a job as a Pre-Med student is difficult, too. First of all, your classes are difficult to begin with. Then you are expected to complete several hundred hours of volunteer work to gain experience with patient care and so forth. On the side, many are part of research programs which are very time consuming and look gorgeous on medical school applications. So yeah, going back and forth between lectures, labs, volunteer work and research is difficult. Barely any time to breathe, let alone a job =/

I know many pre-med students. In my company we have a bunch of them. They take 5 classes per semester and they work full-time. Its all about dedication. Worst case scenario even a part-time job shall suffice.

[Laila]

Working a job as a Pre-Med student is difficult, too. First of all, your classes are difficult to begin with. Then you are expected to complete several hundred hours of volunteer work to gain experience with patient care and so forth. On the side, many are part of research programs which are very time consuming and look gorgeous on medical school applications. So yeah, going back and forth between lectures, labs, volunteer work and research is difficult. Barely any time to breathe, let alone a job =/

Yeah exactly. Everyday i am in college from 8-6 pm. Then i work at a masjid on Sundays, all day. Then i get called whenever from the hospital for my volunteer hours. So that could be a Friday or Saturday. So my hours are unrealiable. I cant have it clash with a 'job' nor my studies.

I dont see how getting a part time job will help me much. Reason why, i cant do enough hours to get paid a decent amount. And if i was the only one who was suffering through this, then i would go for a job like everyone is advising me to. But since i am not the only one....the system has got to change.

Plus my main focus is getting nothing but A's, completing my volunteer work, and foreshadowing work, basically getting my acceptance.

[Laila]

I know many pre-med students. In my company we have a bunch of them. They take 5 classes per semester and they work full-time. Its all about dedication. Worst case scenario even a part-time job shall suffice.

LOL how do you have 5 units with a fulltime job.....40 hours a week job?

how do they even complete their lab work, or even their prep medical work?


I mean my last job i had to quit because it was clashing with my studies and volunteer work, and my Friday labs. I was only getting paid like $800....and that only covered *half* of my car payments and gas.

It didnt help my tuition problem at all.

But what i need is helping getting around the system....there has got to be ways to do it. Like maybe something is tax deductible, or maybe i can take a student loan, that i can pay interest as i am doing my college, instead of waiting till i graduate.

[Admin Khan]

LOL how do you have 5 units with a fulltime job.....40 hours a week job?

I never said I.

how do they even complete their lab work, or even their prep medical work?

I mean my last job i had to quit because it was clashing with my studies and volunteer work, and my Friday labs. I was only getting paid like $800....and that only covered *half* of my car payments and gas.

Well, this is what I mean. Don't you have a subway system? Why don't you rid of many unnecessary expenses and start saving your $ in your piggy bank. I strongly urge you to find a part-time job, It could even be on campus --start preparing to pay off your loans, and don't allow your loans get all piled up in a corner. Speaking of me, I was full time in college and I was employed full time.

It didnt help my tuition problem at all.

But what i need is helping getting around the system....there has got to be ways to do it. Like maybe something is tax deductible, or maybe i can take a student loan, that i can pay interest as i am doing my college, instead of waiting till i graduate.

No to interest! Visit your college departments, find out if they have any scholarship programs for you. I am sure there must be something available for you. Please don't stress yourself out, I can picture how stressful this can be for you.

[Mayana]

There are 168 hours a week, if you're taking 5 classes, that means you're in class about 15-23 hours a week. For every one hour spent in class, one has to study for 3 hours, so that means 45-60 hours a week just for homework and studying. If you sleep 6 hours every night, that's 42 hours.
60
+23
+42
=125 hours just consumed by 5 classes and sleep
That leaves 43 hours of "life". You can work 40 hours a week and have 3 hours a week left to.. I don't know, use the bathroom, eat, drive to school and work.. and I don't know, interact with people lol

[Laila]

I never said I.

LOL no i meant them :D

Well, this is what I mean. Don't you have a subway system? Why don't you rid of many unnecessary expenses and start saving your $ in your piggy bank. I strongly urge you to find a part-time job on campus and begin preparing to pay off your loans. Don't get your loans all piled up in the corner. Speaking of me, I was full time in college and I was employed full time.

No, LOL its not NY here....there is only one train in the metro city, but my college is far from it, in fact on a complete different route.

Well the good thing is my car is paid off....so i can save monthly $800 towards my college saving, which i already have. And it will pay for about one semester.

No to interest! Visit your college departments, find out if they have any scholarship programs for you. I am sure there must be something available for you. Please don't stress yourself out, I can picture how stressful this is for you.

I went to my financial aid department two weeks ago, and they asked for my parent's gross income paperwork and their tax copies. So i took my mom with me (just in case) and we had a long chat about it. He said my goal is to find non-based needed scholarships. That would give me hope. Unfortuntely, my last semesters GPA was not that strong as it could have been. But hey i can make good essays

But he basically said i am not the only one dealing with this. It happens to every upper-middle class families. They are expected to pay so much for annual taxes (both state and federal), along with that, the government doesnt help them much with college funds. The best thing for us, is my parents have to sell one of their investments (which is used for their future retirement). Or take out a second mortgage...but we already have 2 other houses. The reason why my parents bought a third house, was so that the rent will give me a little bit of money. So that hopefully by the time i transfer, i have close to $60,000 for college.

a year after i transfer, my brother transfers from a community college, to a university. So back to back, my parents have to come up with a certain amount. But he might have to take out a loan.

Personally, i cant do a full time job. I am in college 40 hours a week. I know it will bring my grades down, which i am not willing to do.

[Roshina]

Hey, Laila, at least there's a way to avoid having to pay so much for gas/car expenses: Consider car pooling. There's GOT to be someone at your school who lives near or around you. I think all schools have a system for carpooling, and many even give discounts for parking and all. See, my university demands a parking fee of $650 a year per driver. But if you carpool, then it becomes only $600 :D (lol.) Actually, I think it's lower, but I'm not sure what price exactly.

Another university I know of has weekly drawings for carpoolers, and almost always, the winner gets like a $50 gift certificate for gas. So, see, you should definitely do it if possible for you at all. Plus, cleaner air and less traffic for everyone else.

I don't do the bus or train here; no public transportation works for me because they're too complicated and I live in the suburbs, so they're not frequent either :S But if I were in your situation, I think I'd give carpooling a chance.

[Mayana]

lol Mayana I cant agree with your numbers. No one studies that much for classes and not all 5 classes require that much attention.

2 classes on a Monday and Wednesday.
3 classes on Tuesday and Thursday.
Friday you have the entire day off. Monday - Thurs you can work

Yeah, for classes in humanities you won't need to study as much. For science classes that's the bare minimum. If you have three science classes on Tuesdays/Thursdays, there's absolutely no way you can work on those days. I have barely 2 classes on Tues/Thurs and I'm in school for 12 hours lol

Trust me man.. it's really time-consuming. I'm not saying that it's impossible but being a full-time student and a full-time employee, you'll have to sacrifice one of the three: good grades, work quality, family/life/health.

[Laila]

^ well I think what Mayana is saying is that for those science classes you have like 1 or 2 hour lectures, plus labs....and labs are each 4 hours long

[Mayana]

12 hours for 2 classes? what in the world? why is that?

7-8 Supplemental Instruction (study group kinda thing)
8-9:20 Lecture 1
9:30-12:20 Lab 1
2-4:20 Lab 2
5-7 Lecture 2

[Ghilzai]

Canada doesn't even acknowledge the units we take here lol

@ Admin Khan, wokeh, same here, I get about $6,000 a year just for personal purposes, my tuition gets waived, I get my books paid for. But that's the official cost of attendance lol

CSU doesn't have as much prestige as UC. Also, they don't offer graduate programs and UC is more research orientated as far as I know =/

Yes they do offer graduate programs. Stop hating on the CSU system you're making us sound like a 4 year community college.

[Laila]

^^^ LOL!! dont tell me you go to Chico