school help: I am an 18 year old college student in California, and I have basically used up all of my resources and still owe $400 to my university. - Help.com

HA! Only $400? I owe thousands. Go to financial aid and ask them for a deferrment or ask them if they can accept a bit now and more later. Ask if they can put you on a payment plan for the next four months….$100 per month.

Can you request an extension, explaining your situation? A counselor may be willing to work with you on a payment plan of sorts.

Work part time. You can apply for freelance writing, bookkeeping, software, transcription, online tuition or customer service work at home jobs. These companies do not require any fee and pay well . List of companies(with websites) offering genuine work at home jobs is available at http://www.pcworkathome.net . Many of these companies have been in business for several years

im sorry to hear of your situation.. have no monies here but will be praying. God Bless

seamsavv wrote:
I am sorry that you are so in debt, but I rely on financial aid to cover my education, being a 1st generation college student coming from a family of 5 that lives on 20,000 a year.

As of now, I stand 4,000 grand in the hole because of California not passing a state budget, and I am precariously waiting it out, hoping not to lose my spot to a freshman.

I paid my own way through college as an undergrad. I worked full time and went to school part time. At the time, I was the ONLY ONE in my family…extended family as well…including parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, who went to college. Nobody in my family thought it was important. They did not help me. They did not even attend my commencement. Now, several years later, I am paying once again for my own education, in the process of getting a graduate degree. With a family….three kids ages 3, 5, and 7. With grad school, it is extremely difficult to get any financial aid other than loans. So I have loans. I don’t ‘need’ the full amount they gave me, but I took it and paid off a credit card, too…b/c credit card interest rate is 21% with pmts due now, while student loan interest rate is 5% with payments due in two years….when I’m working a good job…and can even be deferred.

When I was getting my Bachelor’s, I could not get financial aid because I had medical issues. Even tho’ my family did not think it was important to go to school and did not help me with paying for my education…they DID think that it was important to keep me on their insurance plan as long as possible b/c of medical conditions. To do that, I was their ‘dependent,’ even tho’ I paid my way through life (I was emancipated and lived on my own during my senior year when I was 17). But since I was their ‘dependent’ for medical reasons only, I could not get financial aid b/c they made too much money….but their money did not go to help me pay my college tuition, rent, groceries, etc.

It has been tough. And now that I have kids, I will try my hardest to pay for their educations b/c I think the “college lifestyle” is important and they need to be able to be free to go on pizza parties///study… I couldn’t do any of this b/c I worked so much.

susan1 wrote:
Sell $400 of your things.Wash windows, mow lawns and ask for cash.

While getting my undergrad degree I worked everywhere I could…cleaning the local clinic at night (10 pm to 3 or 4 in the morning); waitressing; and yes…even washing windows. The manager of the convenience stores in town had met me while I was waitressing and got to know me and even tho’ he couldn’t offer me a job; and I couldn’t have taken it since I was already working so much, he offered to let me clean his store’s windows ‘whenever I wanted’ I would stop by on my way to or from class, spend 1/2 hour cleaning his windows, and he would pay me $10 cash. I would then buy food with it in his store.

hmmm… don’t you have any friends that can help you out?
it has happened to me several times,in the begining of the semester… when i needed books for my courses, and i needed money for the books! friends offered to helped me buy them, and i paid them back as soon as i could. it made our friendship stronger…
just let your friends know that you are in need of money… dont ask them for it. if they had the money, and were true friends, they will offer it! but dont forget to keep that in mind and help a friend when he/she is in need.