A four year university in my home state is $20,000/year. Going out of state to almost anywhere is even more expensive (california is up to nearly $40,000/year), and if you do find somewhere cheaper, you need the savings for a move, which is difficult at the poverty level.
Many colleges are completely unaffordable, even working full time jobs:
"The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If a minimum wage worker is employed full-time (forty hours per week for 52 weeks), that worker would earn $15,080 annually."
http://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-annual-earnings-full...
And that's IF you can find full time work, which is difficult in many areas. I had to live off of half that for several years because I couldn't find anything better for a long while. If I went to a community college, they'd only give me $900/quarter in student loans when the cost was more like $1500/quarter for tuition. So, I couldn't afford community college either, for quite a while. It was only once I was working 35-60 hours a week (it was a fulltime job, but weird work schedule) that I was able to afford to both not be homeless and attend community college. As a result, it took about six years to get even my associate's degree (between the waiting and the working).
There are a lot of barriers. I think a lot of people on HN don't realize how rough it is out there for low income people right now.
I had to do the same thing. My parents were only able to afford two years, the rest was on me. I got some partial academic scholarships which helped, but I had to bust my ass to go, and it made it that much more fulfilling. Nothing makes you feel better than being able to tell someone in an interview that you worked and paid your own way through college without the aid of your parents.
There are a ton of options available to smart kids. Also, don't kid yourself that you need to go to an Ivy League school for an education. My roommates all got jobs at large companies and two of them were chosen over Ivy league grads. They both came from a state college engineering program.
If you really want to go, then go. There's SO MANY opportunities out there which weren't around when I was coming out of high school. Two year technical degrees can get you a $50-60K a year job. There's code schools, online colleges, and other avenues you can explore. Hell, maybe you don't want to be a programmer - there's a HUGE deficit of skilled labor right now. I have a brother in law who's a welder who makes a low six figure salary because his job is in such high demand right now.
Don't let life get you down. If you're driven and want to succeed, then go out and do it. There's no many less barriers today then there were 10 years ago.