Financial Aid - TERRIBLE idea?

zenzen
Fri, 01 May 2009 02:00:44 +0000

Hi,
I’m confused, frustrated, and defeated.
I am a 22 year old student who has completed my A.A. degree at a local state community college. I have not taken out any financial aid of any sort and have paid 100% out of pocket for my college costs.

I want to go back to school and get my Bachelors Degree. Now because I admit I am not the BEST student out there (lower 50% of my class) (2.9 GPA) I can’t just get into all of these amazing schools that all of you are talking about. But I can get into some good schools.

The problem is, my very well MEANING but in my mind mis-guided mother is having a heart attack and giving me serious anxiety about considering taking out Financial Aid for my last 2 years of school. The program I want to go to will cost approx $15,000 for a year. The school has everything that I need in a school. It has support services for my disability that really are willing to work with me, both online and on campus courses, not too far from me, and a number of other things.
My mom wants me to go to a school that costs $6,000 a year (which there really isn’t such a thing anymore) and NOT go to school until I can pay for it all out of pocket. She wants me to work full-time while going to school.
I am at the point that I simply want to invest myself 150% into school and quit trying to juggle the work/school/family thing.

I am going to be majoring in Healthcare Management (Business Management with a focus in Healthcare). My mother is having a heart attack because she thinks that if I owe $30,000-$35,000 a year I will never ever get out of debt. She thinks that financially, going into this much debt for school is basically the biggest worst decision I could ever possibly make.
She wants me to wait 5-6 years before I try and see if I feel better at handling the whole work full-time / school full-time thing but I really truly just want to get my degree and get on with my life. I want to just DO the program and get done with it, and deal with the $30,000+ in debt afterwords.

Should I take out a loan like this or am I basically doing something that will make my life absolutely horrible? Wouldn’t I be better off getting my degree now and being $30,000-$35,000 in debt NOW than waiting 5-6 years and seeing if any of my circumstances are any better? (I don’t think they will be at all)

Advice? Any other adults / parents out there willing to give a very lost, confused, frustrated college student some advice on this issue? I feel like I am doing something awful for doing something that will give my mother a heart attack if she sees the Financial Aid amount.

Thank you