Firstly, I'd like to give my condolences for your mother ):

Also, I'm not sure the details of your father, only you know that, but you could always try calling him up and asking for advice, just to see what happens. He can't do anything to you on the phone, you can always hang up if it gets too nerve-racking.

OH MAN! I know how you feel!

I'm college right now, and I'm Indian, first of both sides of my family to be born and raised in America, by spiritual parents, who while keeping out most of the bad parts of tradition (arranged marriages, all the crap with gender roles, so forth) I've also been raised with a strong responsibility to family, and to working for myself and not spending a lot of money, and to knowing my culture, even if I don't always practice my culture, as well as to practice my faith (I'm Christian meself actually~)

And it really annoys me when I see all these kids who have fancy cars, have their parents paying for their tuition and housing and everything, and are eating everyday at Chickfila and things like that, where I'm paying my own tuition, rent, food, everything, and I make my own meals and bring them, and I have an ten-yr old car that has tons of problems because my mom didn't take care of it properly >.<

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't feel my parents SHOULD do any of those things. I'm just annoyed that all these other kids are taking all these things for granted, as if they deserve them >.>

And ugh, don't even get me started on what I think of most of their clothings and behavior styles >.<
I can't tell one apart from the other! >.> Whereas I am easily distinguishable, even in casual clothes, because I've got maybe a tinge of Lolita, or something different, or just look different for no apparent reason.

But that's geting of topic...

Now back on topic, first we'll go with the schooling.
Now, I think a Highschool diploma is a necessity, however college is not always a necessity, especially in the case of artists and writers, or those who start their own businesses. College can help, and for some people they do need it, but not everyone needs it. You can make a living without a degree if you work hard.
It is tougher for artists nowadays who don't want to go into graphic design or video games or comics or that stuff; My boyfriend's sister is an artist, and while she gets disability pay, she's highly relying on my boyfriend to get a well-enough paying job that she can live with him when he has his own house and all, which is fine, as she is even more thrifty than I am and an effing epic painter. However, most artists don't have that option. My boyfriend's mother is also an artist/writer and a realtor-ish, and I really don't know how she does it. My boyfriend is self-reliant, as he's got nice scholarships that pay for everything and a job, but he has 5 siblings that are relying on his mother for place to stay as well as several little dogs. She's ridiculously good at making ends meet @.@ I really don't know how she does it.
If you're considering going artist/writer without a degree, I can ask her for some tips for you ^.^

School housing is nice for those who can't get a cosign; I was able to get my apartment with a deposit because I apparently have some amount of credit because I haven't defaulted on my federal student loans yet o_O, but my boyfriend was unable to get off campus housing at this same place because he has no credit, and his parents have terrible credit because they defaulted on a mortgage on their old house when the property value dropped way below their mortgage payment >.< so the boyfriend last minute got a place on campus.

Now, if living on campus isn't an option, what you can do is get a regular apartment, or rent a house, with a group of people. While my particular apartments are student lofts, so they have much stricter legality on everything, what I could do is next year get a normal apartment, sign up to pay for all of it, and have my boyfriend live there and pay me half the rent, or even set up a contract with him to wear he agrees to pay half the rent. This requires a lot of trust however, as if he bails, and doesn't pay his half, I'm still responsible for the whole rent each month.

Another option is to pay the rent amount up front. This is good for of campus living when going to college because you can get a 9 month lease or whatever and pay for it all up front and stay there.

As for credit...well, my boyfriend faced with the problem of having no credit and treated worse than I, who am in debt 30k for college fees (I think that's stupid...you'd trust someone in debt 30k more than someone with zero debt? ugh...stupid! ), is looking for ways to earn credit. What he's thinking of doing is his bank, Wells Fargo, has a student credit card that you can hook up to your Wells Fargo bank account and have it automatically draw from there every time you make a payment. I'm not sure on the logistics of this, but he's going to see if that will raise his credit. This might be a good idea for you to look into.

For me, as I already have (crappy) credit, the fact that I am paying my rent every month and my utilities on time is raising my credit score, which is nice, hooray! But I'm thinking of doing the same as my boyfriend with the credit card - hooked up to debit thing

Um, what else... oh! If you are in college, bother the heck out of your financial advisor! They can help!
Also, I know there are some free advice places, like Salvation Army work help centers and such, try those! If you find out anything particularly useful, let me know! I'm still learning everything. Thankfully, if I graduate, I'm studying Nuclear Engineering, so I have job security, and should be able to pay my loans, but I'm also a bit of an artist on the side, and it's actually the stuff I've done doing art that got me my on-campus job working in the library helping people with the multimedia programs.

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