If you expect money to show up under your pillow like it did when you were five and lost a tooth, you're kidding yourself.

This is a little difficult for me to discuss, but it's an issue that bears mentioning.

Let me start off by saying the following anyone who's just now looking into colleges, deciding between two or three choices, or trying to find the money to pay for college:

College is fucking expensive.

I know we all know this, but it seems that one of my friends didn't realize just how true that statement is. Actually, she'll probably need a name for the sake of this post, so we'll call her Madison. Madison's had a hard life family-wise and money-wise. Her mom doesn't have a job, and her dad's not in the picture. They basically live off welfare and Madison's waitress job. Anyway, her money issues have not changed for a long time; she hasn't come under recent struggles because of the economy. She's known about and been in this situation practically her whole life. This had made her very independent and taken away a lot of her childhood, but she's gone into her college experience very naively.

When she first started her college search, she had her heart set on a very expensive private liberal arts institution with a huge name value. She didn't get in, so she started looking into the places she was accepted to. They include two large public universities, one in-state and one out-of-state. Because her home situation is so bad, she opted for the one out-of-state. She fell in love with the school but when the bill came, it was a higher number than she'd realized. Long story short, she's now having a huge problem coming up with about $6,000 a semester.

My friends and I feel bad for her, of course. But we feel like Madison went into her whole decision with blinders on. She knew how much FAFSA was giving her and she knew how much the school cost. If she'd gone to the in-state school, FAFSA would've paid for her entire education. Tuition, room and board, books, spending money, everything. Now, she's facing the difficult situation of not being 18 and thus, not being able to get a private loan without a cosigner, which she doesn't have, and the choice of either staying at home and doing online courses or transferring to a different campus but not getting housing.

It's obviously an impossible situation, but one that could have been very easily avoided. If she'd gone to the in-state school and done her core requirements there, she could have transferred to the out-of-state school and started her major's courses where they have the better program. She could've saved loads of money and would have been able to work to save money while having her entire education paid in full.

One of the worst parts of the entire situation is how she's let her troubles permeate her entire life. We're all excited to go to school and talk about about it all. the. time. If we talk about around her, she gets pissed and yells at us for not being considerate about her feelings. If it were just one or two times, it wouldn't be so infuriating. But it's every single time we see her. Even if we're not talking about college, she is constantly depressed.

Now none of us are rolling around in the coin ala Scrooge McDuck so we try to do things that are inexpensive or free. When we do things that cost money, she either gets upset that we didn't invite her even though she's said many times that she can't afford it, or expects one of us to pay for her. We'd be happy to if it evened out in some way, but we know it never will. We all have to go to college and are saving for our own spending money, and we just don't want to pay for her, especially if she's going to spend the entire evening moping.

Moral of the story: be realistic about what you can afford. Most public in-state schools are less expensive than their out-of-state counterparts, and much less than private schools. In this economy, full rides are almost unheard of for out-of-state students and especially from private schools. Look into private and federally-funded loans before the bill comes. Check the school's endowment and see what percentage of students receive aid, and how much of their demonstrated need is met. But most importantly, have a plan to pay for everything way ahead of time. Don't be surprised by the bill. Money doesn't grow on trees and it won't magically appear just because you want it to.