international house: ok so i am a grade 12 student and still not a resident. last year my average was 84%.. i am going into biological science and i can see that including residence fee and all the tuition fees you have to pay almost 100,000 over the course of 5 years. that means 15,000 per year and 1250 per month ? HOW how the hell do you pay that much... i know there are some scholarships .. but not everyone gets it right ... ? ? so man i really need suggestions coz to be honest i am poor and my dad it poor he is a newly joined prof at centennial college but he's earning like 600 dollar because he is a part time teacher. and he has this other job and i work and mcdonalds .. not much money as i work only on friday after school and saturday that's why i need help guys plz .. i am so ****** up right now .. if i can apply to government for money then how... plz advise you geniuses out there plz .. thanx |||Yes college is expensive. Start by filling out the FAFSA form. Then, apply for every scholarship you can find. Apply to a few different colleges - if you can get accepted at a few, you can sometimes negotiate lower tuition or more aid. Apply for school loans (easier to get then grants or scholarships). Ask for work-study. If you plan on getting your masters (5 years?), get in good with the department head and see about fellowships. Expect to walk out with debt. Alternately, look into your local community college - in many states, the local cc's feed directly into the 4-year system with no loss of credit. CC's are cheaper (plus you can probably live at home) and you still get your bachelor's degree from the four year school. Using the 2+2 program can probably save you 15-25K of that tuition bill.|||First check into the college where your father teaches - his son maybe eligible for some discounts. Secondly apply for PEL grants, approach your bank for a student loan, check into scholorships. Go the student council at the school you are interested in for more information and paperwork for these programs.|||You and your parents should have been saving up since you were born: all your new baby gifts, birthday & holiday money, plus a regular savings plan out of your parents' earnings, your summer job money, etc. all should have gone into your college fund. You are years late in starting your college planning. Sallie Mae has very little funding. The last bond auction only one tranche sold out of 14 or 15 tranches. So student loans are getting very, very scarce. Many of the foundations and other sources of scholarship money have lost a bundle on their investments, and it was interest on those investments that funded the scholarships! And of course, competition is getting stiffer by the minute. So what do you do? First, assess things more accurately. You're going to have to do a bachelor's degree in the standard 4 years, and it typically costs $25,000/yr, not $15,000, if you can live at home and economize. You need more hours at McD's or a job that pays better -- add Sunday to your work schedule, or at least one more weeknight, or both. And work full-time during school vacations and summer. Then you can start working on your FAFSA form and apply for financial aid. Also look for independent scholarship funds. IIRC, McD's is a company which has scholarships its employees can apply for. Many colleges offer free tuition to children of its professors (leaves you with books, fees, etc to pay, but immense savings!) -- see if your dad's institution is one of them. Yes, it's hard. But you now have to do 17 years' worth of planning and savings in just a few months.