To the OP: if being in a sorority means that much to you, there are ways to make it happen. Not saying it will be easy, just saying it's not impossible.

My roommate balanced school and a night job to cover the huge tuition bills at our private university, AND she covered all her sorority dues. She received some grants and loans, but the rest she had to make up with jobs and working a lot over the summers.

We did not have a house, but she did have to cover dorm costs and then apt rent when she moved out of the dorms 2nd year. I don't know how she did it. But she had a lucrative job managing a restaurant at night and still made it to every class. She was not ONCE late on her sorority dues. Oh, and did I mention she had a double major AND graduated with a 3.7 and scored a major investment banking job on Wall Street after graduation? It can be done. She made it to every one of our formals, was social chair and then Vice Pres. Admin of our house. Best of luck at A&M!!!!

People seriously overestimate what loan forgiveness can do for them. Some of the idiots I went to grad school with INSIST that if you get a job with the federal government, that they will "forgive all your loans." That's not exactly true. After a certain amount of time, an agency, IF THEY HAVE THE FUNDING, can choose to forgive your federal loans, but not your private loans. The only 2 federal agencies that tend to forgive total loan debt are State and Justice, because they have it like that. Most of my classmates want to work for the Parks Service, which doesn't have that kind of money. They will be sadly mistaken.

It seems that there are only a few ways to get your debt forgiven--work at a high risk school, join the Peace Corps, etc. But this isn't true for the vast majority of people.

A lot of the top law schools can forgive your debt if you go into non-profits, but you shouldn't take out loans with the belief that they'll be forgiven.

I guess I was lucky.. but you are right, taking out loans is not to be taken lightly. The loan forgiveness program I was in was through the California Student Aid Commission. This has nothing to do with anything, but the state budget is CA is such a mess, I don't even know if the program is still in existence. I'm hoping the state has enough money to pay me at the end of August! (I'm a teacher) Someone on this thread mentioned Freewebs-I signed up for my son, and am already getting information! (we have a few years yet, he is just starting junior high!)