Honest question for anyone with a Bachelor’s degree or higher who could not afford it without some kind federal aid: did your grants and scholarships ever fully pay for your classes, or did you have to take a loan to pay the rest?

I ask this here in Antiwork because student loan forgiveness is a notable topic here. “Go to college and get a better job” is a common refrain of trolls alongside the incredibly contradictory “you got a useless degree and should suffer under your loans”, to which the response, rightfully so, is that those loans are predatory.

More importantly though, I'm asking now because I'm looking at my future in higher education, and even though I am able to get an Associate's degree without taking a single loan, this is looking like it will not be an option for a Bachelor's degree. The grant money and scholarships most likely will not pay for the classes all the way, and I will not be able to afford the remainder out of pocket.

I'm not ignorant about these loans. I know just how much of a trap they are, and how much the debt will ruin my life afterwards. But looking at the writing on the wall, I would either have to get supremely fucking lucky to get a huge scholarship from somebody or spend the majority of my professional life saving up to pay for these classes without a loan. Classes that I would only fucking take to help bolster my professional life, so basically a grand waste of my fucking time.

Is anyone else encountering this or has already encountered it? Did you have options beyond simply paying for this shit or getting a loan and getting stuck with that?

It's a genuine question, but to be honest, I want to be wrong yet I'm pretty sure I know the answer already. I want to have an option here that doesn't involve debt.

I want to reach higher without strapping a goddamned ball and chain around my fucking neck or waiting till I'm old and crusty to finally get the chance.

I've done the work so far. I've pressed forward and starved multiple fucking times to get through my Associates without any debt whatsoever. But now I'm looking at this shit and I'm getting told that my efforts and my pain would be moot if I were to try and go higher. That I would still end up with debt despite years of effort avoiding it.

Please. If there is a fucking way to go higher without debt, winning the lottery or wasting decades of my life, tell me what it is.

I don't want to have my upwards progress cut short by greedy pieces of shit that like locking knowledge behind a sadistic deal with the devil that isn't even awesome.