Hello all, 18M college student here in my first year of an Electrical Engineering degree. Im a bit conflicted on whether I should take on 15k worth of debt over the next 3 years in order to pay for my school or if I should keep working 25-35 hours a week and pay my way through that. I have to work a minimum of 20 hours a week to pay the bills and have no emergency fund right now.

My main issue right now is I don't have enough time to focus on my classes and future carreer. Im balancing it all fine right now, I work 30 hours a week, have mainly B's, and am working on 2 projects in a club. However it's only going to get harder from here on out so I either have to let my grades suffer, stop doing projects, or take on debt.

Im concerned I won't be able to get internships or research opportunities relative to my peers who don't work.

However I've never dealt with debt like this before and it's hard for my to quantize in my mind just how much 15k is.…