Would it be harder to get into good college if I were to take a two year break to volunteer and save money?
Friday, July 16th, 2010 at
1:04 am
person37 asked:
I’m going to be 16 when I graduate from high school and without any college money, except for scholarships that I’m going to apply for. Is taking a break a good idea? I just don’t want to be in debt from loans before I try and move on to Med school where I’m sure to incur it. I want to have a smooth first 4 years.
I’m going to be 16 when I graduate from high school and without any college money, except for scholarships that I’m going to apply for. Is taking a break a good idea? I just don’t want to be in debt from loans before I try and move on to Med school where I’m sure to incur it. I want to have a smooth first 4 years.
Tagged with: College Money • Graduate From High School • Smooth
Filed under: Student Loans
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i too graduated when I was 16 and had the same idea, and I said I would take a year to build up the finances, then a year turned into 2, then 3. It makes it so hard going “back to school” once you have left, and enter the life of the daily work grind.
I noticed you mentioned med school so I assume that you have strong grades and since you will be 16 when you graduate that you might have skipped a grade. My advice to you is to look for grants, there are so many people and organizations out there that want to help the young smart kids in the world. Talk with your school council and see what they can come up with…and do some looking on your own.
You will have to fill out a lot of forms, but it is much better than paying $100,000+ in student loans.
Good luck!
To be honest, you would probably be better off taking out loans than working a $10/hour job to save up a few thousand dollars toward school. In fact, if you have savings, those are just going to come straight off what you could have gotten in financial aid, so you may end up actually paying more for college by doing it this way.
If you really are sure about med school and have what it takes, yes, you will rack up debt, but you will make a lot more money when you get out than you will right out of high school, which means you can pay more off your loans per year then than you’ll be able to save toward college now.
Unless you have the opportunity to make good money at whatever job you want to take before college, or something that’s going to look really really good on your application and get you a scholarship, or have excellent reasons besides money to take the time away, I’d say don’t bother. If anything, you can take a year or two to work and pay down your debt between college and med school, and by that time you will qualify for better-paying jobs that are more relevant to medicine.