<p>If you’re not at home during the summer, most of your summer earnings will be going towards paying your rent and expenses for that period. Unless you land a terrifically well-paying job (or a job at a camp that pays for R&B, for example), it is hard to live away from home AND sock away summer earnings. </p>
<p>The private loans that require a co-signer also start charging interest from Day One. There is no grace period, and no period where the interest is subsidized. If you borrow $50k in those, you may well owe $65k by the time when you graduate. In this economy, I don’t know who would be willing to cosign loans for someone who’s not an immediate relative (and not many who would do it for their own kids). Private loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. The bank will come after you and your co-signer. Forever.</p>
<p>If you hope to graduate from college in three years, you will need to take APs in junior and senior year. (I can’t tell from your post what grade you are in.) Depending on the school, not all APs will get credit, and you will generally have to do reasonably well on them. This varies by school, but some state schools are pretty generous with AP/IB exam credit.</p>
<p>I had to put myself through school. It was not easy, and any hopes I had of attending an OOS or private school, despite decent FA, went right out of the window. I went to my state flagship and was lucky to scrape through on work, a small scholarship, loans and FA. This was back when students could go through the process of becoming independent. That option has now been closed for all but a very few students.</p>