Then maybe I take out a loan, and then pay it off via work study?
Usually college students can’t get loans other than the federal loans unless a parent co-signs for them. Would you parents be willing to do that? It’s also possible that with their income level they might not qualify for a loan.
However, are you able to work part time your last year in high school and over school breaks? California’s minimum wage is around $16 an hour and is $20 an hour for fast food restaurants. So working now could help you save enough for your first year and then working freshman year could help your for sophomore, etc.
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Do you have a job right now? If not it’d be a good idea, under 10 hours a week shouldn’t impact your grades and still allow you to set aside $3-5k till graduation and some more if you can work more hours after graduation. You won’t be able to use the money for fun stuff like a prom dress (well, perhaps a small treat for you/your family), but you’ll need to set aside and shelve 95+% of your earnings so you’ll have to have a bank account where you can deposit your “paychecks” without the temptation of using them.
Work study will tide you over for small purchases like toothpaste, tampons, socks, the occasional pizza (no door dash though). It won’t be enough for housing/food so all your savings will be handy. If your parents give you canned food or non perishable items it’ll also help you.
What you can do this year, if they’re okay with it, is shadow your parents and your grandmas when they’re grocery planning, grocery shopping (using coupons, etc), and cooking - then learn a few go-to recipes you will be able to make yourself easily.
At your HS library there may be some “learn cooking for HS students” or “cooking for teens”: borrow them and see what you can do. You can cook once and have several meals ready for the week.
Examples:
- soup: basically, throw vegetables into chicken broth (make it, buy it, or put a tablet in water and boil then add the veggies), after 10mn add tortellini. Bam, a meal per bowl of broth used.
- salsa bake: put chicken legs (or whatever is cheapest among the bone-in chicken pieces at your supermarket), add full shallots (or chopped onions), cover with half a jar or a full jar of salsa, leave in the oven for 25mn +while you cook rice. Several healthy meals right there.
You’ll develop cooking reflexes and next year you’ll be a pro. Might even help in finding a job.
Wrt jobs: young people often dislike getting up early. As a result, breakfast shifts at the college cafeteria are easier to get. Bonus, these often come with all you can eat breakfast for yourself ( meaning you could skimp on lunch if you had a giant breakfast).
Another college job tip: the most sought-after jobs are jobs where you can be “paid to study”, ie., where part of the tasks requires you to sit at a desk and help people who approach, such as on a dorm’s ground floor or in the library (obviously there are other tasks too but when you’re on desk duty you’re likely to have some time to read over your notes or complete your reading for class).
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It would be hard, but it is a possibility for walking distance jobs near home. I was going to wait until January of next year to consider it.
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Thank you so much! I appreciate the long response and advice, this is very helpful 
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I honestly wish I had some security, would’ve made things so much easier.
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If you don’t drive, are you near a bus line or light rail station that would open up additional options?
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Actually yeah, there’s some within walking distance. Ugh this is all new and confusing for me. I wanted to wait until I turn 18 to actually start though, which is a couple months
To broaden my options, I’m considering applying to the more generous CSUs with an average 6-8K after aid, it would just be a little more expensive than the CC option I mentioned earlier though
If you need to build up savings, I don’t think there is a reason to wait until you turn 18. The only concern I have is that you be able to keep your grades up, so don’t work so much that it interferes with that.
Good luck to you. You seem very mature and organized about all of this. I am hopeful that something is going to work out well for you.
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Yeah that was part of the reason, I back-tracked my schedule this year so that it is more manageable for me, it is a moderatively-high rigor schedule but much less than junior year. Thank you so much for your kind words, they mean a lot 
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You can see if you could start with about 8 hours a week somewhere (a supermarket etc). That shouldn’t affect your grades.
The UCs would be more generous than CSUs financially but as you said your HS grades don’t work BUT they’d still be more affordable if you do well in CC and transfer so both the first 2 years at a CC and the last 2 years at a UC would be cheaper.
The SBVC->SB State is another possibility since it’s cheaper.
Do other CSUs have a similar system?
(And you can run the NPC on the private colleges I listed before since you may get in with enough aid.)
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With a family income of $55K-$60K, you likely won’t qualify for a maximum Pell grant. Did you run the SAI calculator I linked above, or an NPC that showed an estimated Pell grant amount?
Regarding federal work study, it is typically limited/first come first serve. Even if awarded work study, that does not guarantee you a job at many campuses.
Sometimes, depending on the campus location, it can be a better option to find a non-federal work-study job, whether on or off campus. If you are a full-time student, you should ideally limit your work hours to ~10 per week. Assuming $18/hour in California, that would be $720/month before taxes.
I agree with other posters who suggested you might start working now to save money, if that is possible in terms of transportation.
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Good find. I’d contact the financial aid office at SBVC to confirm. See if you can talk to a real live person and discuss your specific situation. Short of that, some email exchange about your situation. Online forums are great for brainstorming but … you need confirmation.
Personally, I think $5-6k debt/year for a bachelor’s degree is OK if you go into it with eyes wide open. You’re going to have this debt – ask yourself what is it for. For growth and enlightenment? Career development? That’s a personal choice. You may not reach an answer immediately – or even during college – but good to think about it especially if you’re going into debt. Personally, I’d think about having your major align with some *broad* career fields you can see yourself going into.
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It seems CSULA has an agreement with East Los Angeles College(ELAC) which is also cheap and is pretty similar to the SBVC → CSUSB housing plan. The colleges you listed earlier would be too high, financially, as I looked. NPC for Ursinus was 36K.
Federal Student Aid Estimator | Federal Student Aid
I used this and the estimated Federal Pell Grant was 7,395K.
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My first degree choice is psychology, and yeah I don’t really have a perfect answer right now as to what I wanna do post-college but I know I like studying human behavior, so at least I have something. I’ll try to have a conversation with my counselor at school to see what she knows. Thanks for the advice
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Congratulations on finding the ELAC->CSULA articulation. Is it in a safe/okay part of the city?
I just found out it is only for students living in that district 
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Are you in-district for the SBVC-> SBSU deal?
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