Financial Aid BLOWS.

I am currently very unsure of how my future is going to pan out.

For the longest time, I planned on attending Philadelphia University for four years and study biology.  In the meanwhile, I was hoping to get an apartment with my boyfriend and further my career at ACME to maintain a steady income.

That was until I received my final financial aid packet in the mail yesterday.

I received absolutely no free money other than the $12,000 a year scholarship that I already knew about.  Sure, $12,000 a year is great.  But I still have to pay another $16,800 a year.  How the hell am I going to do that?

They told me that I could break that money up into three different loans.  However, they want my parents to pay a "Parent Plus" loan of about $13,000 a year.  That's about $52,000 total.  And then they want me to pay the additional $5,500 a year. 

It is true that my parents make a combined $160,000 a year, approximately.  But the problem is that financial aid apparently does not take into account the fact that I have three other siblings, including one that will be attending college in two years, also.  In addition to that, my parents already have enough debt to deal with anyway.  The bottom line is that they can not and will not pay that much money.  And I have no idea how I can get $5500.

And I am sure as hell not taking out a million loans and ending up with $110,000 worth of debt once I graduate college.

So I am basically screwed.  All of my dreams of attending a four-year college are gone.  Now, I am most likely going to have to attend Community College for two years on a part-time level so that I can work full-time to pay for the classes.  My life sucks right about now.

The only good thing is that my relationship with Eric is still growing stronger each day, and that that apartment idea is still on my mind.  Hopefully things will get better throughout the year, especially once I turn eighteen in August.