Should I take out Student Loans?

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I think people are just trying to think creatively.

Ultimately though, I think your putting the cart before the horse. You need to know what your going to major in, so you can decide if it's worth taking out student loans or if it's worth pursuing another path. I know a guy who got a job that only required a high school diploma, and got his bachelors degree paid for by the company.

For cost conscious people, there is also the option to attend community college for 2 years and transfer. If your not too interested in the freshmen social scene (drunks) it might make sense.

But all that said, I would strongly suggest you focus on what you want to study before you discuss how your going to pay for it. Otherwise you might end up a debt slave. My room mate is a prime example. She went to college without an idea of what she wanted to study, got a degree, and now realized she loves something else, but can't afford to go back now.

thats great advice, but my best bet is a combo of Loans and Small Scholarships. Most scholarships have deadlines, and I might not know what I'm going to do by the end of the year.

I'm gonna go bald by tearing my hair out

You can always apply for student loans, and then not accept them if you decide not to go.

If you truly have no idea, I'd DEF suggest community college. You can take some different classes in your interests at 1/3rd the price of a 4 year school, and they transfer.

Community college is another EXCELLENT option.

The main thing, ESPECIALLY if you don't know what to do, is to take it SLOWLY.

That's why so many of us are pushing trade school-- it's a step, but a small one that will let you work slowly. Community college is a bigger step that has you working a little faster-- but it's still a smaller and slower step than committing to a 4-year course at university.

I made the mistake of doing a direct-admission to a four-year nursing program (thinking that I HAD to do something fast, since I had a four-year scholarship and a ton of family and teacher pressure); in retrospect, that might actually have been a good job for me, but the problem was that I was 18, with minimal life experience, and had no clue of what I actually wanted.

So I spent 4 years majoring in changing majors, then got frustrated, got pregnant, and dropped out at 22.

Eighteen months later, with more experience and a better idea of who I was-- well, I might have been fool enough to get an English degree, but at least I knew HOW TO FIGURE OUT what I wanted and did not want my life to be.

The English degree isn't a total waste-- I learned quite a bit about written communication, I write A LOT, and I might be able, in a few years, to supplement the household income as a freelance writer. But-- the only reason it works is that I'm not (and will never be, as long as I'm with Hubby) the primary breadwinner.

Look-- stop pulling your hair out. It will not get you anywhere, other than into a meltdown. There is NO LAW ANYWHERE that says you have to have the next phase of your life all planned by graduation or be a failure. I know that message is out there-- I remember feeling that way at 18; there is a HUGE amount of pressure to adopt exactly that attitude.

But-- It's an illusion. It's born of anxiety (your parents' anxiety about whether you'll fly-- which they'd have even if you were an NT kid, and also society's generalized anxiety about the state of the job market) and greed (banks want interest, universities want money-- you're about to become a legally free consumer, and everyone wants you to consume their product).

Do you have to do SOMETHING with your life?? YES. You're an intelligent, insightful young man-- it would be a shame not to do something with all that smart.

Do you have to know what that something is by April?? NO.

You're 18(ish). There is no reasonable reason on God's green Earth that you should be expected to have a road map for the rest of your life. I think it's ridiculous that America seems to espouse the idea that that's how it should be done-- most other developed nations do not. The people who know what they really want at 18 are very few-- out of all the people I've met, I know TWO who are still doing what they chose at 18 (and both of them are extraordinarily mature, extraordinarily-- almost wierdly-- self-possessed men).

Take a deep breath. You don't have to decide tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Or, for that matter, next year.

As someone with over $100K in student loans an no real hope of ever getting rid of them, for the love of God DO NOT borrow a dime for education that you don't have a written guarantee you will be able to pay back. Do not have your parents co-sign an education loan either.

Student loans are the most predatory lending practice in America right now. They are not required to do any of the legal disclosures any other bank would have to do before lending you money. The consumer protection laws have been gutted where student loans are concerned. You have effectively no recourse in bankruptcy if you are well over your head in student loan debt, and the collection powers granted to student loan lenders makes the mafia look like amateurs.

If you borrow the money and don't secure a good job that enables you to pay them back, they will be the source of endless stress and can make your future seem even more hopeless that it may now appear to be.

Right now, if I just chose to stay with a grocery store chain I worked for back in the early 1990s, I would have more going for me than if I went to college. I might be making less, but I'd not have a massive debt hanging over my head I can't deal with.

Right now, over 50% of college graduates (NTs) CAN NOT find a job. Of the other half, about half (25% total) are lucky to find anything that qualifies as a "good" job. What do you think someone with AS is looking at as far as odds of success.

You need a smarter way to gain a job skill, not an expensive one. You need to be sure a good job awaits when you finish, not take your chances. The best bet is to find something you enjoy, get in on it and start job skill training once you are already working in that field. Spending $100K or more for an education that does nothing but open the door to apply for a job in a field is not a smart strategy anymore.