Looking for advice on paying for college. My parents make 110k (single parent income, if that matters), and are able to afford the in-state costs, but I want to contribute if possible. I applied for local scholarships in February (around 40, many were church/sports scholarships and I am involved in neither) and won none of them. I was considering exploring other scholarships, but because local scholarships are supposedly the easiest to attain, should I even try? I talked to my counselor and she said that I would have little chance because of my family income. I wanted to take a job down in SB, but my parents want me to focus on keeping up my GPA and getting internships/research and such.
I’m graduating this year and attending UCSB for CCS Biochemistry next year. My stats are 33 ACT, 3.7/3.9 GPA, and I have multiple leadership positions (in music), involvement in academic and cultural clubs, and decent amount of service hours.
What scholarship opportunities should I focus on or should I just give up and get a job against my parents’ wishes?
Take a job for the summer.
Work a summer job. If college costs get difficult for your parents, and they still don’t want you to work during the school year, then the second parent can get a job.
Yes, try to find a summer job.
In terms of jobs during the school year, it may be better to consider that after your first quarter of school, so that you can adjust to college course work and know how much time you have that can be used to work a job without interfering with your school work.
These are not mutually exclusive.
You should work this summer for sure. Save enough to, at the very least, have your pocket/spending money on hand when you head to college. This will be a help to your parents. If they have to send you no money and focus solely on paying your tuition bill, you will be contributing.
Once at school you can see what is available. Generally I too feel that you should wait a bit to grab a campus job, as @ucbalumnus wrote above. However, keep your eyes open from day one, just in case. My oldest got a job in his dorm 3 weeks into freshman year. It was a VERY easy job, just a handful of hours a week, right in his dorm. He could study while working, so he grabbed it. I could not argue against his desire to take that job off the bat.
All that being said, your parents know more about their finances than you do. If they are fine with you not working at all, consider yourself fortunate. But do discuss with them spending money once at school. If they STILL are saying they do not want you to work for pay, then find service work to do this summer and at school.
If you do really well in college there might be departmental scholarships you can apply for as an upperclassmen.
Your courseload in biochemistry is going to be pretty rigorous and time intensive.
As a parent I don’t want my kids working during the school year. College is their job, and I want them to focus on it. There are numerous studies showing that kids who have a job during college take longer to graduate and have lower gpa’s.
Summer jobs are good, though. And I second what @GMTplus7 said-keep trying for scholarships and work-it’s not an either/or.
Jobs at college are sometimes a good thing, too. Some schools say that a 10-hour per week job or less during school can help you. You learn new skills, you earn money, it’s a nice distraction (can people study 100% of the time? or do they use that time to party?); allows you to focus more on your studies when you return to them; helps you value the subject you’re studying, in contrast. For many students I have known, their campus jobs help inform their eventual career plans. I wouldn’t obsess too much about what job it is, either. If it’s not “directly related”, that’s okay too. Working in the school cafe, even if you’re going into lab science, is not a bad thing. The cafe work can teach you people skills and customer service, skills that are useful at any job.
There are also studies that show students with jobs during school have higher grades.
Get a summer job.
We’ve been working at this scholarship thing for several years now, my daughter is graduating this year. I can tell you the scholarships are pretty much closed. All the big dollar programs closed months ago and we are at the awarding the money phase. With the income your family has, it is not likely you would have been eligible for many of them anyway.
Get a job - it will be a great growth opportunity, not to mention earning some money for yourself.