This is why you should do well in High School! Work hard and get good grades and in the summer before your senior year, apply to dozens of scholarships! You're bound to get some and the money will help college. Every lil adds up. Yes its alot of work, writing dozens of DIFFERENT essays isn't easy! But it does help!
I know this doesn't help Cait much now, but maybe there are other youngins looking towards college and are worried about it financially.
I was one of the top 15 students in my school (#11), and went to the state university for free (financial aid, scholarships, and NO LOANS). I walked out 4 years later with a Bachelors and no school bills. It can happen but yes its alot of work! I now go to graduate school part time and the company I work for pays for that.
As for my advice about credit, since you have no credit, you can apply for many credit cards (not all but many). Once you get one, your credit limit may start low ($200) but it can grow. Every month, buy something small with it and pay off your credit card bill every month! When I mean small, I don't mean something that costs $199.99. Treat yourself to the movies once a month, or buy a DVD, or one nice shirt. Then at the end of the month, pay it off. I will swear to you, after one year, you will be getting MAIL from credit card companies who want to give you THEIR card.
At this point, you will WANT 5 total credit lines (1 which you already have with the first credit card). Apply to 4 other credit cards, make sure they all have low APR rates and no unnecessary charges (monthly/yearly fees). READ the FINE PRINT! American Express has yearly fees so I'd avoid them.
What do you do with 5 credit cards? You pick ONE with the lowest APR, and continue to use that one, making small purchases and paying them off. Activate and rip the other 4 apart and never look at them again. Why do this you may ask? 5 credit lines is the minimum companies look for when they want to give you loans, either its for a car, a house, a boat, or school, whatever.
This takes time but you will be better off in the future! It will be EASY to get loans and GOOD loans with good rates if you have a VERY good credit score. See? During all this time, you have been upping your credit score by being on time with your monthly payments. This counts EVEN for those credit cards you never even used!!!! As long as the balance is zero (4 credit lines), and you have a record of paying off at least one credit card, you're golden.
The hardest part about all this is, as usual, the human part. Self control is A MUST!!! If you CANNOT afford something, DON'T BUY IT! It is easy to dig yourself into a huge hole and it would be very difficult to get out. This my friend is how you get bad credit. Not paying your bills on time, not just once, or twice, but every time. Temptation is very pursuasive and people often try to rationalize their decisions.
However, if you stick to the path and you stick to your budget, you will have a very good credit foundation where you can do anything, even get a loan to start up a business, if thats what you want. You're credit limit will soar, I've seen limits go as high as $25,000 or more. Enough where you can buy a very nice car on a piece of plastic!
All it takes is care and planning and self control. Best of luck Cait, and I hope you still reads this, and get someting useful out of it.
-Rock
P.S. Sorry for the long post.