I need some serious advice...

by confusedteenager 37 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  villagegirl

  PLEASE - If anyone posts a question about Student Loans, or getting into College,

  please state where you are, at least the Country. USA ? Canada ? UK ?

  Some of us would like to help, but there is a great deal of difference

  from State to State in the US.

  There is a basic PELL Grant and Gateway Grants. in the US

  Grants do not have to be paid back at all.

  http://studentaid.ed.gov/redirects/federal-student-aid-ed-gov

  In California there is an excellent system of two year colleges that are dirt cheap or free.

  And they are State and Federally funded and have excellent equipment

  and programs. Be sure any private school you inquire into has courses that are TRANSFERABLE,

  the term "accredited" has a variety of meanings, the important

  thing is: is the course acceptable by State Colleges and Universities and

  " transferbale" as legitimate units for real credit toward more advanced study ?

  There are bogus private schools University of Pheonix for instance,

  and the degrees they issus are both expensive and worthless.

  University of Phoenix advertise they accept your transfer units

  what they don't tell you is their unnits do not transfer.

  University of Phoenix will suck up all your military education money

  and all your PELL grant and all your financial aide, and you will be left

  with a usefless degree and huge debt.

  The famous "Art Institute" which advertises itself as a college for

  any popular subject, Animation, Culinary Arts, Fashion,

  anything they think will SELL they will claim to teach .

  They do the same thing as Phoenix take your loan money,

  and give you a bogus, useless, non-tranferable, education.

  So stick with State Colleges and instituions like City Colleges, Community Colleges,

  and the University of California. Take it one step at a time, start in a community college,

  or Provincial Colleges, get your basic foundation and transfer to a four year program.

  For Art, Art Center College of Design in California.

  Emily Carr in Canada, or many good schools in Ontario and Montreal.

  Art - has an Art History component. Art in different periods defined architecture,

  furniture, as well as painting, and the art was connected to the technology, religion,

  and politics of the age and place it was done in. Most untrained artists depend on

  a limited mental archive of what they think is "art" based on and limited to, images from their

  childhood and family home walls. The value of studying art in a larger context is

  it reveals to you ways of seeing and doing images you have yet to conceive of.

  This is very liberating.
• 

  skeeter1

  Please talk with college counselors, ones at a state college in your area (not any private school like those on-line/Univ of Phoenix scams)

  I talked with a local counselor about JW youths. She told me that youths need to tell the college counselor that they are a JW with no support from your family. They deal with kids who are in situations similar to yours. She tries to find them campus employment, housing, discounted tuition, grants/loans, etc. to help them get & stay in school.

  If you want a job that is outside college, try a temporary agency. You write well. I bet some office will "snap you up." You probably have pretty good speaking and writing/reading ability (more then the average 19 year old). Remember, you are inteviewing your new potential job. Many offices I know, use temps to see if they "work out" before hiring.

  Also, try USAjobs.gov for a federal job.

  Yes, take those personality tests. Many are on-line.

  Skeeter (an"ISTJ" personality to a t)
• 

  Badfish

  Don't take out any loans unless you are going to live away from your parents and need money for rent. If you can live with your parents and go to a community college, just apply for a Pell Grant at fafsa.ed.gov. I got my A.A. at a community college and bachelors from the state university here since I live in a college town without having to pay any money or take out any loans. With the Pell Grant, it pays for your tuition and books plus a couple thousand extra dollars each semester for spending money (you know like beer and stuff :) ) They will offer you loans also when you qualify for the grant but you can just check the box that says you don't want a loan. But if you do opt for the loan on top of the grant, go with the subsidized loan which means there is no interest on the money until 6 months after you graduate.
• 

  mP

  I would suggest that you look at working in a field that interests you or that you enjoy. The world is not that complicated, perhaps you already have skills that are useful and some education might complete you.
• 

  lisaBObeesa

  I second what badfish says...try not to take the loans unless you must take them because you can't make it on the grants.

  You don't have to know what you want to do with your life to get the first half of your college done because the first two years are almost all general education. A college counselor at the school will be able to give you a list of many classes for you to choose from that will satisfy some of the general ed requirements. Everyone has to take a little English, some math, some science and so forth before they move on to the classes for their major, so you have lots of time to think about what you want get a degree in before you will have to actually tell them what you want to get a degree in.

  So just go down to the community college and talk to someone. Find out how to sign up and when to sign up and what classes you should be taking for your general ed. Then just do it! One foot in front of the other...one step at a time...on to your future! You don't have to have it all planned out to get started.

  When I was 18, I got a job and moved out of the house. I tried to go to college and support myself, but it didn't work out for me. I was too young, didn't understand how important college really was, I had to work more than full time to be able to support myself on my tiny wage, and I had no idea why I was going to school.

  If I could go back in time I still would have moved out of my parent's home because I couldn't stand living there. But what I would change if I could go back is I would have stayed in school, NO MATTER WHAT. Even taking one little class at a time, I would start and never, ever stop until I had that degree. If I had done that, it would have taken me many years to finish, but I would have finished years and years earlier than I will finish now! (I'm 43 now, still finishing up because I took many many breaks from school). The years are going to go by one way or the other, might as well take classes as they go by!

  If you can stand your home situation and maybe slowly warm your parents up to letting you go to college, then I would say stay home as long as possible and GO TO SCHOOL. Living at home could really help you out. It sure would have helped me! But if you have to get out of there, you have to get out of there but STILL go to school, even if it is only a class at a time.

  Good luck. Please keep us updated. Let us know if you go down to the college and get some info...

  Also, good luck on finding a job. Keep at it. You WILL eventually find a job if you just keep on looking and applying and don't stop looking and applying.

  Please don't worry that you are a year out of high school. That is nothing. People go back to school all the time, at all ages. And you are still young enough to get 'the college experience' if you really want to go for it...

  *sigh* I wish I could go back to where you are... You have the whole world before you, your whole life to live... lucky you!

  Ok, one more thing, find all the support at the college that you can. Join all the groups to support students who are first in their family to go to college, make use of all counseling and advice services. You need extra support since your parents as JWs are 'prolly not going to do what most kid's parents do for them when they go to college...you know, support them in reaching their goals of getting an education and little things like that....So find that support in other adults at the college who can guide you and encourage you.

  Ok, that's it. :) I'm done. Really.
• 

  confusedteenager

  Wow! I can't begin to thank you guys for all of the really great advice. You guys really mean well, and I do appreciate. A little update, I am in the USA for everyone who is asking. And I'm actually going to be heading down to a community college today to see how about applying for a Business associate degree. It's not exactly what I ever saw myself doing, but it is a start, and like a lot of people are saying--it's better I start somewhere. For now I will be living with my parents, and they actually are okay with the idea of me going to college. They just don't want me to give up pioneering. I don't know exactly how I am going to do both, but I will work it in somehow. There are some pioneers I know that work full-time and still pioneer. My main thing right now is not to focus on that though. I just want to get my education and work towards getting a good paying job, so eventually...when the time is right...I can move out. :)
• 

  QC

  Best way to flip the work dynamic in your favor quickly, in this economy, is to narrow focus on being multilingual. First I would do Spanish, then Chinese (or some other combination that captivates you). Then do college Spanish with immersion in a Spanish congo (pioneer) with an eye on college Chinese.

  Don’t get sidetracked and you are job golden (instead of you look’n for jobs, jobs will be look’n for you). And, parents will love it. Plus you won’t be into a curriculum morass that wastes your time, and money.

  By 25 you will be financially beyond your peers.

  That's what I would do. Just imagine you were thrown into one of these cultures and HAD to learn their language.

  Sounds like fun.
• 

  jgnat

  Well, you could always be a really lousy pioneer.