Comment by quizbiz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by quizbiz | Hacker News Reader

I felt great these past few weeks.

I finished the last of my college applications and heard back with notices of acceptance.

Today I feel crushed.

The recent and current financial crisis has hurt my family to say the least. I guess I have been in denial until now but today my dad put it pretty frankly. Affording the school I worked so hard to get into would not be difficult, it would be impossible.

I am asking, pleading for ideas. For those that can afford it, I humbly ask for a small donation. I can't believe I just wrote that. I know so many others are probably going through so much worse.

I know this is utterly, purely selfish.

But every little bit counts, and if everyone donates just one dollar, well.. the effect would be tremendous. One of the links from "Best HN threads in '08?" said to take chances. Here I am, holding tight to a small shred of hope as I work on several alternatives and brainstorm ideas. I've worked so hard and taken so much pride in monetizing the internet since a very young age. It's been disheartening realize that it all makes such a tiny dent. I still remember the day I got a check from Google Adsense. It was $103.61. The money is still in my savings. I know there is more that can be done and I will work my ass off in order to peruse the very best education for myself.

I would appreciate any encouragement, ideas, and stories of your past experiences. Maybe I have this all wrong.

I don't really anticipate much. This is just a very selfish and uncreative attempt. But for those that have read this far, thank you so much for your consideration and your time. For those that donate, I promise to contact you personally and keep you updated unless you want otherwise. I hope that one day I will be able to turn this situation around and donate an equal or larger sum to charity when I can afford to do so.

Every penny counts.

Thank you so, so much.

Go to the financial aid office of your college, say that you really, really want to go to their school, but you just can't afford it. Be ready to provide supporting documentation about how you can't afford it. And if you have competing offers from other schools that are way out of whack, mention those too.

Most financial aid offices will negotiate, oftentimes pretty drastically. IIRC, Middlebury almost doubled their grant package when we went back to them, by $8-10K/year more. I ended up going to Amherst because it was still cheaper, but they made up most of the difference. (And Amherst paid for about 2/3 of my tuition outright.)

Colleges really, really don't want to see you get in and then fail to go there because of money, particularly if you seem very excited about them. Particularly the better schools - many top colleges have "If you can get in, we will find a way for you to pay for it" policies. They're hurting too, with the financial crisis, but if they admitted you, they want you to go there.

Is this serious? Come on, don't freak out, there are plenty of ways to pay for college.

How about applying for a couple of local scholarships? My Dad's employer had a couple of scholarships that I applied for and received, and I also got a small scholarship by applying to one listed on the university's website. There are work study programs or you can get a Federal loan.

I worked a couple of student programmer and computer lab proctor jobs on campus to pay my rent. They were low stress, I could study on the job, and I even learned some programming. There are many options. Hell, I hear there are actually some people that "work" and "save up" to go to college. I've even heard there are some people that are successful without gasp going to college at all. Maybe you could build something that people here want and they'd be willing to buy something from you, but straight up begging seems silly and pointless.

Anyway, I'm just saying, you sound like you are freaking out (or making this whole thing up). Most of my friends didn't have help from their parents, but they were still able to get a high quality education at Univ. of Texas through some hard work, not begging random people on the Internet.

I paid for college from a few different sources. I tutored, privately and in the learning center. I taught some classes. I had research assistanceships, and a few scholarships because of my grades. I worked a couple small programming jobs. I still needed some help from my parents, but how much was cut down to a fraction of what it would have been.

That's not my point, though. My point is that I learned far more from those methods of raising money than I would have if I simply had the money. There are ways to turn this obstacle into an advantage. Good luck.

A lot of schools will work with you to provide financial aid so you can attend. I would get in touch with your school asap, and find out what they can offer you.

There is also a _lot_ of scholarship money out there. They are out there for any demographic and interest you can imagine. I would start applying for anyting you think have a chance of getting.

Finally, you might want to consider going to a cheaper school. Remember, your education is largely what you make of it, not where you go to school.

Agreed. There are loads and loads of scholarships that wind up going to a the best of a very iffy pool of applicants because no one knew about them. I spent every Saturday applying for stuff during my senior year of high school and wound up with about $20,000 for my efforts from winning 5-6 scholarships.

If college is so crucial to you, go hit the books and web and find out what you can apply to in the next six months.

thank you.

Take a loan. If you can't, go work and save money until you can at least take night classes. This is how everyone does it. "I'll tighten my belt before I beg for help" is one rap lyric (Hov') I can really identify with. Life is much better when you're paying your own way.

So don't go to college. Have you considered that? That probably sounds awful, but really it's not. Your alternatives are to take on debt that isn't worth the education you'll get, or to get a sub-par education wherever you can afford to go. (Not that there's a direct relationship between the two.) There's a lot to be said for working a few years, saving, and then paying outright. And there's always the military and GI Bill. It's not for everyone, but not every gig in the military is holding a rifle in Iraq or Afghanistan. Especially if you're smart.

Is this one of the ways you're looking to "monetise the internet", begging? Shameless. Even assuming this isn't pure scam, three words: Get a job. Flagged.

There are much more eloquent ways to express your distaste.

I'm reminded of the "Ask for money, and you might get advice, if you're lucky. Ask for advice, and you may very well end up with money" maxim.

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