Unable to afford post-secondary, and am in a bit of a tough situation.?

The question

Sorry for all the in rank, feel free to skim through it.

Alright, so here is the gist of my situation.

I’m a Canadian, Caucasian male, with English heritage and about 86% average in secondary school. I am in Grade 12, so I graduate in 2012 of June.

My parents aren’t able to afford me or my brothers’ post-secondary, though according to Student Aid BC(I’m not sure what the likeness is in the USA) they should be able to. This means I do not qualify for an official student loan from the government of Canada.

Further, as I am just graduating and haven’t had a paying job yet, I haven’t had a chance to build up any credit with any bank in particular. My parents probably won’t (nor will they likely be allowed to) co-sign for me and my other brothers’ who have the same year of graduation so I won’t be able to get a student loan from the bank.

I have looked through some scholarships, and while the potential for me to apply to 1K and 500 dollar scholarships don’t go by unappreciated, they don’t help much when your starting balance is 0. I do have some unique skills but haven’t found any scholarships which would apply them (I’ve been brainwashing computers since I was about 10 years ancient, working with Java, C#, PHP, C and C++ – I have some honestly excellent demos I could submit in an attention. HTTP Server written in C, a game engine written over-top Managed DirectX(I only chose managed DirectX & C# because at the time I wanted to place the game on the xbox – which cannot be compiled into native executable code without a very expensive license.)). Unfortunately, as most scholarships tend to require, I have a few volunteer hours and haven’t been too proactive in school other than my courses of study. I haven’t found any which are at all relevant to my leisure activity of computer brainwashing – which is relevant to the degree I want to get (Electrical and Computer commerce).

I don’t mind getting a job and working but, never having been employed before, the job market out there even for a student is tough. My brother had to apply around for a couple months until my other brother found an opening when his manager questioned if any family members want to work at the theater. I was a bit late for the offer unfortunately.

What bugs me about getting a job and working though, is that I’m worried that by the time I finally to get into university, I won’t be credited for any of the courses I have worked hard in now(Phys, Chem, Calc) and I’ll be forced to redo them. Which really sucks. Its also kind of disappointing when all your friends are graduating when you just start…

I know there are others out there in a similar situation and I was curious what they’ve done to overcome the obstacles.

Also, I’ve already been accepted into the school I’ve wanted to get into, BCIT. I don’t reckon that by going to BCIT I am being selfish, its cheaper than many other options.

Best answers:

Apply to any and every erudition.You can write vital people in your community and question them for scholarships. You will at least get one if u have a excellent GPA. Apply for work study at your school, these jobs expect you to do school work on the job.

Apply for internships and Co-op after your freshmen year in the field you want to work in. Some pay and they want freshmen and sophomores. With your interest in computer your should be able to find something after freshmen year.

one thing about the courses you’ve already done… they might not directly transfer over into college credit but you may be able to test out of the classes(they’ll usually have you take a test to show that you know the material, so you might need to review for each). Im not sure if you would then get credit for those or just not have to take them and take some other simple stuff to fulfill your credit hour condition. Check with the school.

I hear similar things from students all the time. My first piece of advice is to stop thinking negatively and start making yourself feel more optomistic about your situation.

First, if you are relying on any online student loan estimator, don’t believe it. They are only approximate so you won’t know until you really MAKE your loan attention whether you will get funding. So do make an attention (although you may have to wait a few months for the 2012-13 one to be available. Then, once you get your funding calculation, go to the financial aid office at BCIT and question if there are any review items — these are items that you cn use to increase your funding. In BC you are going to be eligible for Canada student loans and BC studnt loans. I am not familiar with the BC program but you should be able to review based on: exceptional parental expenses; excessive distance from school; etc etc. There’s a bunch of them.

Second, apply for every busary and erudition you reckon you might be eligible for. don’t forget to check out scholarshipscanada.com. Right now there are 13 scholarships for BCIT, all with deadlines of June 15 – 30. 7 are for any field of study, 1 is for computer systems. they are all between $ 1000 and $ 2000 each. Now is the time to start as many scholarships for Fall 2012 have deadlines of April/May/June.

You need to find a job and/or get some volunteer experience. Try www.charityvillage.com and search for volunteer positions. There are 94 in vancouver alone. Many of the computer positions are ‘virtual’ which means you can be anywhere and do the work.

Finding a job. You may not be able to get anything in the computer field but its always simple to get jobs in the hospitality industry. If you have no experience at all and you’re not worried of a small hard work, apply at a well loved chain as a dishwasher. It’s not glamorous and it can be cr*ppy but you don’t have to stay in the dishpit forever. Most places, if you show up on time and give an honest day’s work will be pleased to ‘promote’ you. With some training as a prep cook and a line cook, you can find work anywhere. And it’s mindless – which means that you are not taking time from your studies worrying about stuff at work. You can walk away after your shift and not reckon about it. I’ve just checked monster.ca and Kelseys, Milestones, Swiss Chalet, Montanas are all hiring in VAncouver/Langley. don’t sit back and wait for the perfect job – it’s not going to come along. Take anything because I’ll let you in on a small hint – it’s simpler to FIND work if you are ALREADY working.

Does your current school have a decent guidance counsellor? Make an appointment and question for help! They know the background and they know what works and doesn’t work when it comes to university.

Excellent luck!

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