How do most of you pay for your college tuitions?

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Well, I guess you told me! The OP shouldn't take the PSAT at all, I retract it--obviously the college I attended was sh*t.

I wish. Student loans are exempt from bankruptcy except for hardship cases...which are near impossible to establish.

If I knew then what I now know....

It did mine, but that was back in the early 1980's, right after a series of medical procedures that left me in ten times the debt I had from school alone. The laws have changed since then.

I had National Merit as well. I'm not saying it's completely worthless or that the PSAT is not worth taking, but you vastly overstated its value. A branch campus of University of Texas, Oklahoma University, and a couple other random obscure schools are the only ones I know of that really take National Merit all that seriously. And honestly, it shouldn't be taken seriously because the PSAT is a joke. Having National Merit is at best a minor plus to a college resume, and certainly not worthy of all the hoopla people attach to it.

Huh, we had vastly different experiences, then. I received hundreds of brochures wtih offers from universities, both public and private, that included full tuition, room and board, usually a stipend, and some even offered a year abroad! I ended up going to one of the largest state schools in the country, completely free.

Yeah, yeah, I also collected roughly my own weight in spam from various universities. In any case, I can guarantee that they were not sending out brochures offering you all of that straight off the bat- for the most part, they are listing some scholarships for which you might be eligible to apply. And very few universities for undergraduate study even offer such lucrative scholarships at all- I've never seen a private school offer full tuition room and board plus a stipend for undergrads. Some state schools care about it more and so offer more money (I remember University of Oklahoma trying to bribe me with a laptop), but the ones that I looked into did not have the particular program I was interested in.

After getting National Merit, Valedictorian of the largest high school in my state (in the most competitive class it has ever had, with six National Merits), perfect SAT/ACT scores, excellent recommendation letters, and more high AP test scores than you could shake a stick at... I still got rejected from a laundry list of America's elite universities. Also, I barely managed to win the scholarship that made it possible for me to come to the university I attend (the scholarship was initially denied, and I had to basically beg the university to award it to me). I came quite close to not having an acceptable choice for where to go to college. At that point, I realized that something petty like your test score or your GPA is not what matters.

Sadly true. I specifically looked into bankruptcy BEFORE I took on student loans because I was concerned about "what if" I could not repay them because of what happens in the future.

When I went to school, the law was if you were in repayment for at least 7 years and had been paying in good faith, they could be dealt with in bankruptcy (that change put in to prevent people filing bankruptcy right out of school like a few had done).

Then, just as I was a year or so before finishing grad school, they changed the law to make it only if you had a "hardship." If that was the standard when I went to college, I would not have taken the loans.

It's a contentious issue in the USA. The same law that did that has also gutted most any consumer protection laws that would have applied to student loans and student lenders.

I don't understand why student loans are exempt from bankruptcy laws. That policy would seem to discourage the attainment of an education, and so the law as it stands is in opposition to investment in human capital.

Basically, student lenders bribed Congress to really change the laws in their favor.

http://studentloanjustice.org/

This is what many are starting to do to lobby the restoration of consumer rights and protections in the student loan market.

Yeah, I know. My Congressman was a major part of helping to push through some of those laws, notably the doubling of the interest rates on student loans.

Out of my own pocket, too. However, in my situation, I started working during high school, and ever since, I've been working part-time to pay for college. Also, I've received 1 scholarship so far. I shouldn't be in any debt when I finish, either.

My first year was paid for by a generous savings account that friends of my father contributed to after he died. Now that I'm in my second year at university, I'm making my way through university with financial aid, scholarships, work-study, and my mother's help. It may not be enough though, I stupidly didn't work hard enough in high school, and received poor grades in mathematics (my worst subject, since I suffer from mild synesthesia and couldn't learn math the traditional way, and couldn't do algebra) so I was denied a special grant that would have allowed me to pay in-state tuition. I may take the year off being a full time student, become a part time student, and live in work in my university's town for a year to obtain residency in this state, but I find the process to be ridiculous to charge me extra just because I grew up in a different state.

Work.

Actually, I'm quite lucky in this regard- Ireland has had very small college fees compared to America (typically less than 200 euro a year) for years, but just this month they brought back full fees. Had I started college a year later I wouldn't have been able to pay them.

My father is going to pay 70% (court ordered), and my mom and Lee are willing to do the other 30%. I'm struggling to keep on top of my work with a lessened schedule, there's no way I can do a job while juggling school. Thank goodness I'm getting this support, and I wish the best to everybody who has debts right now.

First 2 years it was 50% scholarships, 50% paid by my parents.

Last 2.5 years it was 50% scholarships, 50% loans and/or grants. I have somewhere around $40k owed in student loans.

yeah i forgot. harvard is a sh***y college. i know i should've remembered, the ivy leage sucks
you PSAT score is more important than your SAT score for some reason i have no idea why