financial aid

[DanielC]

Hey guys,
It's been a while since I posted here, but have been trying to get things in line to try and go back to school. I posted a topic a while back about berklee and how I didn't particularly like the school/teachers etc. Well, I ended up going broke and had to return to my hometown of South Carolina (really happening compared to Boston let me tell ya) and pay off debt I acquired while going to school. I come from a middle class background...where up north I would be considered poor as expensive as everything is up there. Rent for a place in Boston is twice a mortgage payment in SC. Anyway, I don't have parents that saved for my college nor did I receive any money from them while being at school as they decided (perfect timing) to divorce and seperate. The little bit of money they were going to send me now was going to attys. I recvd no financial aid from Berklee the first year and had 30,000.00 out in loan money...luckily I left after the first semester, so I only have 15,000.00 out...I did not learn nothing worth this amount of money, but want to go back because Berklee is a closer step in the right connections than any school SC will ever be. So I figured I'd receive financial aid now that my parents are divorced... I can file under one parent...guess what...recvd nothing...and Berklee now estimates the cost of living plus tuition should run a mere 42,000! Uh? I would only have 2 years left up there and that's 84,000 plus 15,000 I already have out...I'll put it this way...my loan payment would be the same as my parents mortgage payment in SC. Hmmm...have any of you guys run into this dillema? I'm 21 and cant' file independently on the FASFA, but I assure you...my parents don't have anything to give me...and let's say you've got to either be Vinnie or dirt poor to receive scholarship money from Berklee. Any ideas?

[benrand]

Yeah, don't go to Berklee.

Amazing that you can actually get loans to go to a school where the chances would be pretty damn slim the attendee would have the wherewithal to pay it back upon graduation.

Spend that money more productively.

[Jean-Paul]

I suggest try to find a job in a music store. If a musician comes in who needs a drummer tell him you are pleased to fill in. Spread your name around town while you are making money. It is difficult wherever you live but I've subbed in a couple of bands way beneath my level but was smiling during the rehearsals. Now they've asked me to gig with them. It is money and I am gigging during the week while my normal (and more interesting) gig is in the weekends! Finally I am / became a working drummer. My parents are divorced too with maybe a little more money then yours but try to earn your own money, it feels better!!! A friend of mine is a better drummer then I am and he studied for dentist for a normal income. He is one now and paid his study with all kind of gigs and things and couldn't rely on his parents either. If you want something go for it but do it yourself. You know finally that it took some efforts to pay your school but it will shape you in a good way. Be independant. I learn it my two children because I know the importance of it while myself was struggling a long long time! Good luck!