Low Income / HighSchool Dropout - College still possible?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, I am in somewhat of a stalemate right now for where I should head in my life regarding college, social-self, and having a source of income.

I was diagnosed with AS at 10 years old and had a fairly decent time going through middle school and most of highschool, at around the middle of my Junior year at my first High School I started going through various phases of minor depression and skipping classes, My IEP team decided it would be a 'better' idea to transition me to another school that was much smaller, group-based, and with kids who also had AS and other issues. Well, this was around the beginning of the recession when times were getting tough for most people, including my single mother who cares for her three kids and me, she had to give up going to college herself majoring primarily to be a nurse/surgeon and she ended up being a barber at this small shop that rarely sees many customers.

So for the long run since then: our income was very little, my schooling did next to nothing to prepare me for college life and living independently, and I live in an area which has little job openings locally for people such as myself.

Anyways, back to my schooling. After transitioning to the alternative school, I began to develop a few friends a lot of enemies among the other kids my age. It was so drastic that I just began skipping long sessions of going to school without second thought. The rest of my Junior year, and nearly half of my Senior year (including the last month where I was supposedly going to get my diploma and full pay for a nearby technical college) I skipped due to a lack of motivation. Summer came (this summer), and no phonecalls were received by them until recently. The recent phone call said they'd allow me to go back to my school but would not provide transportation because of last school-years problems. We had to deny that because there is no transportation we could come up with, and I don't drive... A week after that we had to rely our last option which was to get my GED, I'm supposedly going to go in and get it next week after I passed the pre-test a few days ago. I have a high chance of passing it, but that is not the issue.

I'm nearly out of known options to get myself jumpstarted in finding where to go, I spend a large majority of my days on computer forums/games and sleeping, I would be more than willing to start getting somewhere with myself, but in todays world there are little options.

Some main things I should list are:

~ I have little transportation apart from whenever my grandmother is available, but she is gone half the year every year during winter time on a vacation.

~ There are little, if any, job openings locally that I am aware of.

~ My family is too poor to afford any type of college for me.

~ My mother and everyone who has higher authority than me said if I was to somehow get social-security or unemployment checks that my mother would take them for herself and use them for our own
problems such as bills and rent.

~ I have a minor criminal record

~ GED, No Deploma.

~ And lastly, something I forgot to mention, I have severe insomnia and my sleep problems can occasionally be wacky at times.

Is there any websites or groups I can get contact to receive any help for my situation? I don't want to spend years in this stuffy basement loathing people such as my NT brothers who are already on their way to getting a job, college, relationships, and their own homes.

You do not need to have graduated highschool to attend college.

Most communities colleges lets you enroll without even having a GED. You would typically attend two years of community college and then transfer to a university.

It's actually better to be low income than the dependent child (under 24 and living at home) of parents who are of higher income who still can't afford to pay for your schooling, because you then qualify for things like fee waivers and state and federal grants.

Make an appointment with an academic counselor and financial aid counselor at your community college to see how to sign up for classes and what classes you need to take, and how to get funding. Also speak to the people at the college's office for students with disabilities about accommodations.

I agree with the former poster; he is right and you will receive enough financial aid to cover all of the costs of community college. Unless you have a drug conviction you will not receive any federal aid; I'm not saying you do but if it were true you can still follow the path of college albiet at a slower pace. I know many states have a carpool program, also at college people often post ads for car-sharing. I am not sure what you can do about finding a job except keep trying and the unemployment office often has exclusive postings and they'll very helpful in helping -anyone- find a job. And for the manner of your conviction; previously working at a law firm I know that your record can be expunged by a judge. If you gain your degree and show the judge that you have become a productive and safe member of society I am sure you can get your record expunged which would remove your criminal violation making it as if it never happened. I wish you the best of luck.

Well, if you're poor, you generally get more money from the feds (as well as work study). However, if your "minor criminal record" is drug related, they won't give you anything. There should also be more scholarships open to you... If you get enough money that way, you could live in the dorms, so you wouldn't need to drive anyway. Or if you go to community college, you might get enough to get an apartment off campus...

Make sure to major in something marketable though, lest you end up being a debt slave for the rest of your life...

Thanks guys, I've put a bit of research into everything and hope I can get things put together easily for myself. Also, sorry I didn't list what my criminal record was about, it was just a fight that happened between me and my mothers boyfriend back when I was about 16 years old.

I have a few questions. I've been pretty much a near-hermit for the past half year, It's almost frightening to see people near or at my age because last time I was in a center like this I was a Junior in High School. My education has been lacking anything meaningful for a year and a half. A large portion of what I actually learned in school I have forgotten, plus the fact that I have been in special-ed math since 7th grade, which doesn't help much. But anyways, that means I have almost no sense of where I begin, where to look, who to call, what to ask once I call, etc.

Also you said something about scholarships? I don't really get the concept of scholarships, do they lend money via checks to me to pay for some/all of the stuff? do they take a percentage of the college tuition price out? You make it sound like it pays for everything which sounds kind of ridiculous. My mother has said as long as I live with her, any source of income -be it loans I need or other- she will take it for herself and use it to pay her bills and other needs, which reminds me that I don't even know how to pay bills or payments I would need to take care of if I would perhaps get the chance of living in a dorm. I don't really want to ask how I do all these things because it's embarrassing I don't know by now, but it'd definitely help.

You can see where I have been at in my life recently. I have heavily relied on relatives most of my life for nearly everything, and the aspect of "growing up" is a pretty difficult thing for me to deal with.



Is there any way to assure whether a community or technical college transfers to a university like you said? I love my states university, and the amount of majors and activities that happen to be there would be much more enjoyable for me to take part of than the limited amounts my nearby colleges offer.

You have to apply for scholarships, but there are a lot of them online (just type in "scholarships" on google and you'll get a ton of websites). The annoying thing is that they aren't guaranteed. They'll usually ask you to do something like write an essay... but the money you get from them is free. You don't have to pay it back. If you want to get most of your stuff paid for though, you'll have to get more than one. A lot of them will give you $x every year for 4 years...

You should also look into Pell Grants, which is money from the government that you won't have to pay back.

Then also fill out your FAFSA, which will give you loans from the government that you'll have to pay back, but not until after you leave school.

You say your mom will take whatever money you get if you live at home... Well, the thing with FAFSA, scholarships, etc is that they'll be sent to your school to pay tuition, so your mom won't be able to touch them. You'd only get money sent back to you if you had more loans/grants than what's required to cover your tuition.

Oh, and whatever you do, do not take any loans from Sallie Mae. They are worse than the mafia. You can find a whole ton of horror stories about them online...

I'd suggest:

1. Get your GED (if possible look into an online program)
I don't know if/how much you need to pay for this
2. Take the SAT's (I know they were semi-sucky for me) b/c they are one of the major criteria for college admittance after your GPA (which I don't know how they figure GPA with a GED)
3. Look into financial aid options and fill out any necessary government forms; you have a single mom & come from a low income family, you should qualify for financial assistance
4. Apply to community and state/local colleges (non-private schools tend to be MUCH cheaper overall)
5. If possible, learn to drive or else you will have to continue to rely on other for transportation.

Good luck

I did the near-hermit thing for a couple of years, and just recently started college again. It's not a small school, and there are hordes of people, but with a bit of time, I've started getting used to it.


Course catalogs for colleges have loads of details about procedures and requirements, etc. When I was looking at colleges before starting again about a year ago, I didn't find any college websites that didn't have a course catalog on them in .pdf format.

The special-ed math since 7th grade might slow you down, but you should be able to take remedial courses to get yourself where you need to be. Is math something that comes easy to you? If so, you could get some cheap books on the math you want to learn/review, and just teach yourself. My school has a math placement test, probably a lot of schools do something similar. Getting out of as many pre-requisite math courses as you can is nice, if you can do it, but if math is hard for you, you definitely don't want to start with something that's over your head.


You might be able to find this out by emailing the admissions department of the university. You might even be able to find out from the course catalog.



You should probably study for the SAT/ACT (you only need one) and GED. The school I'm going to has an admissions criteria for the GED that compares the GED score and SAT/ACT, and if you have a low score on one, you need a high score on the other. I have no idea what your school does in this area, so that would be another thing the course catalog would be good for.

If your income is low enough then you may be able to get a very low/no interest loan from FAFSA with very generous repayment terms. Deal only with FAFSA and nobody else for financial aid.

You shouldn't have dropped out of regular school like I got kicked out of college.

I feel like my life is on hiatus also, but I just got a job at chipotle and I'm attending IvyTech (a community college) right now. But still, my family is poor as s**t too, and I can't wait to leave because my parents are as*holes. I actually might transfer to a Minnesota school.

Yeah, I think I definitely have aspergers.

This is my first post on this site.

You can still go to college.

See about enrolling online for a GED course. Or go to the local Community College when you can and talk to someone about your situation and see if there's any kind of help (carpools, etc). Ask about scholarships.

Complete a FAFSA(did I spell that right?) online and with your family income you will probably qualify for a lot more money than others. There's an option for work study on the application which you can also ask about at the school. The fact that your charge was not drug related is good; you can get financial aid. If you get enough money in aid you can move on campus if the CC has dorms, getting rid of the transportation issue. Or, you can take distance learning (or online) courses.

If you get money back after financial aid is disbursed, think about buying a cheaper car and learn to drive if you can't already.
(how disbursement works: you get aid but it goes through school. After you're enrolled and after a certain time period, the aid will first pay for your tuition bill, then books, then housing, and down the line. After if there is anything left over the school will either send a check to you or put it in your bank account if they do direct deposit.)

And like others have said: do the FAFSA first. Outside loans are to be regarded as a last resort!