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Depends on your situation. I didn't say at every public university or any major.
At UDC's community college, full time, full academic year tuition and fees are $3,000. If you are independent, you can get up to $57K of direct federal loans, of which $9,500 can be used your first year and $12,500 by your 3rd year. That isn't easy, but definitely doable. You aren't going to live in a 2BR in Dupont Circle, but you can afford to share a studio (like a dorm room) with a roommate or 2 in a lot of poorer neighborhoods for very moderate cost.
That assumes you don't have a parent or guardian willing to sign a PLUS loan for you, which can be for up to $40K a year. Many parents sign these and have their kids take them over by either doing a loan consolidation or taking over the payments.
Plus, many colleges have need based grants, fee waivers, etc., or even easy part time jobs where you can study while working (i.e. working at the library).
So you would have $6,500 left after tuition and fees? I don't think that the $3,000 covers books? Does it cover student health insurance? Even if the $3,000 includes everything, you are only left with $542 per month. Only $542 a month, you definitely aren't going to be living near the campus, so you're probably going to have to spend a significant amount of money on the metro/commuting expenses. Even in this case where the tuition is very low, I'd assume that if one has no outside resources (parents, scholarships, private loans), one would have to work part-time to supplement the federal loan. (Note - I worked part time a number of semesters in college, and I certainly don't think it's the end of the world if the # of hours is reasonable and the work schedule is something that doesn't interfere with classes.)
One of my friends graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Business from UDC. She thought she needed a passport to go to Florida. Not saying she represents the whole or even the majority, but, I was just reminded of when she said this to me.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mighty_Pelican
Well not everyone is a trust fund baby or otherwise rich enough to afford taking 15 credit hours every semester, while simultaneously having to survive and forage for food and shelter.
If students have to drop down to 12 credit hours or even half time in order to work enough hours to afford college, shelter, food, health, etc. and it takes them 5 or 6 years to graduate, more power to them. I don't think it is something that should somehow make them inferior job applicants or less smart when they apply for that entry level job or grad school because they didn't graduate in 4 years***
***By all means attack the people who took longer because they were partying on their parent's dime
This is exactly what I did to gain my bachelor's degree. If anything, I think I should be MORE valued to employers since I had to handle at least 30 hours a week at stressful jobs and a FT course load on my back.
It's improving as it was strictly an open-enrollment community college accepting all. Hence the low graduation numbers..
It has evolved into a full-scale university with bachelor's and master's programs with an overall six-year graduation rate nearing 40%. Much better than 9% and it's been just a decade or so.
It's improving as it was strictly an open-enrollment community college accepting all. Hence the low graduation numbers..
It has evolved into a full-scale university with bachelor's and master's programs with an overall six-year graduation rate nearing 40%. Much better than 9% and it's been just a decade or so.
Yes....a somewhat newly designated four-year college operating as a publicly-funded HBCU is aiming that direction with high expectations.
Dear god, grow up.
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