This will be short because I'm still shaken up at the prospect of becoming 20 years old AND a college drop out in the same damn week. Without getting too personal, I've had to take out student loans from Wells Fargo for two years to go to school. I was never and am still not eligible for any financial aid for the government (parent makes too much to matter to them, too little to help at all), I'm not eligible for any scholarships and didn't get the ones for which I was and for which I applied. What money I do have saved up is from my last wonderful loan from Wells Fargo, and I've run out of options.
Wells Fargo denied my loan for this year on a technicality, and won't reconsider. I'm going look into getting one from Sallie Mae, but I've had terribly bad luck getting help from them, so I'm not holding my breath.
The way our lovely student loan system is set up is that if you have to go it all or go home -- if your university/college attendance has to lapse at any time, you have to start paying back your loans. That's what happened to me. Since I can't get a loan, I'm going to have to drop out of school entirely, find a full-time job, and start paying all my loans back by the beginning of next year. I live in a small North Carolina town, I have no car, we live 4 miles from everything, and I have no previous job experience. I doubt that's going to happen.
I'm not asking for money from you guys, I'm asking for advice, help, links, anything that could help me prevent having to drop out to start paying off my student loan debt. I didn't go to school for two fucking years to have to drop out to pay it back because Wells Fargo gets off on playing God.
What "reputable" (what a laughable term, eh?) banks offer student loans? What organizations offer them? My university waited until the last minute to release exact tuition/fee numbers for next year, and the amount surprised me (because they charge me out of state now...long story), so I don't have time to research and transfer to another university. They want me to pay $11,053 for the semester (the SEMESTER), and it'll be the same or slightly higher for next semester. I've got $6,500 in Stafford loans, so I need something like $17 or 18k to cover my tuition, books, and all the other crap that's involved with living at a college for a year.
Ugh. If you have any advice, lay it on me. If you want to call me an idiot and I deserve what I get for putting myself in debt to support an education (as a self-righteous few have), go for it. If you want to talk about the weather, that's fine too. Just say something...anything...please.
5:36 PM PT: Thank you all for the great outpouring of advice and kind words. I really appreciate it. My apologies if I can't keep up with all the responses right away -- the stress from having to deal with those people today wore down my nerves, so I have to frequently give my eyes a break from the monitor. Again, I appreciate it everyone. :)