OP was brave to ask the question and owned up to lack of knowledge about how colleges budget FA.
Let’s not discourage posters from asking earnest, info-seeking questions.
“Just because someone has money, it doesn’t mean they feel okay with throwing it away if they necessarily don’t have to. You wouldn’t voluntarily pay full price on an item that’s for sale!”
There are many colleges that are on sale and some are even on clearance, especially if you have good stats. But it seems you do not want to and do not have to shop in the clearance section.
The operative word is AID. This means assistance-- for those who need it.
OP, even though everyone says there are no stupid questions, the CC crowd can be quite harsh on basic questions.
When I was your age, I asked a similar question at my school’s financial aid office. They were much nicer in answering - financial aid is for those who need the money to afford the school. You and your parents don’t need it.
What you can do is work during the summer for pocket money. Later, you can seek out paying internships that help you in reaching your carry goals. Not because it will lighten your parents’ financial obligations (although that’s nice) but because it puts you on the path of independence and becoming self sufficient.
Don’t feel bad about picking the $67,000 choice. Your parents can afford it. You got in. The school has what you want. Period. Enjoy your time in college and work hard.
I think everyone should be encouraged to ask whatever questions they want. They should also be given honest answers. OP isn’t just asking if his dad’s previous employers may qualify him for a scholarship; his responses on another thread indicate he wants his family’s high cost of living area taken into account so they can still qualify for need based aid despite their $400k income. I think that thread is what’s driving some of the answers here.
It’s not harsh for posters to offer suggestions on how students can save their parents money when the student indicates that what they want. CC parents frequently suggest that students in that situation choose a less expensive school, or one where they qualify for more merit, or get a job to help cover the costs. OP doesn’t seem interested in any of those. At least now he knows what his options are, which is what he came here to find out.
Perhaps part of the confusion is that the OP may be looking for sources of cost reduction/scholarship information separate from need based aid (which they will not qualify for with that income), but he is using the term “financial aid” which is confusing some. While there are things like resources for people on the GI bill, its unlikely there are “discounts” (for lack of a better word) for past government employees or mom being in school. Nor does a past employment status “catch FAFSA’s interest” (since its just a government form). If dad owns his own practice, that’s a separate issue for the Profile schools. If the OP wants to help defray costs, which is noble, looking for outside scholarships or getting a job are probably the best places to start. And the OP can accept the unsubsidized Stafford loans and pay them back himself.
In that other thread OP said that the family lived in rural Pennsylvania - not exactly an expensive place to live.
*I think there is nothing useful left for the OP or anyone else to learn from this. In fact it probably could have stopped after post #4.
I agree with those that say the OP asked a valid question, given the OP’s knowledge base, in a very respectful way. The OP even said from the start that they understood certain aspects of the question could be misconstrued if not for the front loaded acknowledgements.
Those that were less than respectful towards the OP should be a little bit ashamed of themselves. I am sure they NEVER IN THEIR LIVES asked a question out of ignorance that in retrospect they could have thought through better. The OP did in fact think through this one pretty well, since they anticipated misinterpretations upfront.*