I'm ranked top 10/500 in my class and I still can't afford college; what do I do??? Should I take a gap year?
This is my first time asking a question on reddit. In fact, I made an account specifically to ask this question. I'm graduating rank 8 in my class, but my cheapest college offer is $21k a year after aid and scholarships, which I just can't afford without taking out private loans. As far as I'm aware, everyone else in the top 10 is only paying 10k or less. This is mostly my fault I think, as I was completely lost this year and slacked off a bit, missing the deadlines for a lot of scholarships and opportunities that I should have capitalized off of, including pretty much all competitive scholarships for the schools I applied to, leaving my with just the financial aid package from my FAFSA. Should I take a gap year and reapply to colleges and more scholarships next year? Should I risk it for the biscuit and take out $10k yearly private student loans? Is this even the right place to be asking this?? I'm so lost. School counselors ain't worth shit.