I never expected so much help. I have a good deal more clarity now than I did yesterday. Thanks
Agree talk to Cru in Iowa and hopefully your parents are wiling to talk with one of the leaders.
In addition to the above comments, which have very good advice, I would caution against taking on any loans yourself. I wonder how your parents would react if you floated that you were considering the idea of joining the military or attending a local community college. Also, if Iowa is closer to where you live, you could point out that you could make it home to your local church and visit your family much easier. I just don’t like the idea of taking on debt if you can avoid it. You’re likely to have much stronger disagreement with your parents in the next few years no matter what road you take since in my view they are being unreasonable and should respect your input. Good luck.
Using your Olivet example, a point to remember in calculating any financial aid offers:
“With a $20,000 dollar a year merit aid gift and $5,700 a year from the school and the full Pell of $5,800 (my EFC is 0) and $5,500 in loans, Olivet would cost me $3,700 a year. Not terrible. A $17,000 debt in the end isn’t the worst thing that could happen.”
Don’t forget that the student loans for years 1-4 are 5500, 6500, and 7500 each for the last two years. That adds to 27k on top of the gap. And, on top of the $41840, they note up to 3700 for books, transp and personal. Just a word of caution. Review numbers carefully.
@forgetmenot98, It doesn’t matter that you’re almost 18. You need your parents to fill out the financial aid forms until you’re 24 to be able to get the Pell grant and federal student loan. You can only borrow $5500 as a freshman, ~$6500 as a soph, and ~$7500/year as a junior and senior on your own. If your parents want to apply for additional loans as cosigners, don’t agree to do it. If you think you’re controlled now, wait until you have $50k+ of debt. If your parents couldn’t save enough to afford to pay $50k for you to go to school, it’s not realistic to believe they can afford to pay off that kind of money if they borrow it.
I think it’s a good option to have someone speak to your parents. Try to find positive things to say about the campus that they would like too. Does your church have meetings on campus or nearby? They must have liked something if they let you apply. Do your best to convince them that the gift of a free ride shouldn’t be ignored. God helps those who help themselves, right? Good luck.
I can’t see if someone has suggested this (I see the suggestion to contact a campus ministry). Have you thought of talking this out with your youth pastor at your church?
Did you apply to Iowa without your families’ knowledge? I’m just wondering why they changed their minds. For most, a near-free or free college education is a blessing and not a gift to be discarded lightly.
Finally, I agree with the suggestion of contacting your youth minister, or church elders, and asking for advice. They should have some influence over your parents. Also, does your family belong to a homeschooling support group or co-op? Are there homeschooling parents your parents are friends with who might support your desire to stay out of debt? In my experience, homeschoolers, especially Christian families, are usually quite inventive about doing college debt-free, so those parents may be willing to explain what an opportunity Iowa presents.
What is the exact aid package from Iowa? Does it include a Pell Grant and a student loan? Is there a merit-based scholarship that requires a certain GPA? Is the package guaranteed for all four years provided nothing else changes?
If you become estranged from your parents, and they refuse to file the FAFSA for you in future years, you still can access the federal student loans (there are certain hoops to jump through). In some circumstances, the university financial aid office might use professional judgment to grant you a Pell, but that is very unlikely.
When was your adoption finalized? If you were in a court-ordered legal guardianship for even one day after you turned 13, you would be independent for the FAFSA. (for details about that, send a PM to @kelsmom).
What are your grades like? Your ACT is good enough to get you a full-ride at a number of places and makes you competitive for some others. If your parents aren’t happy with your choices this year, and/or those choices aren’t truly affordable, consider taking a gap year (or delaying graduation), and applying to college for Fall 2017. As homeschoolers, you have a lot of flexibility in determining when you graduate.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
@happymomof1 – The aid at Iowa is full tuition because of my ACT. With the Pell and school aid being an additional $10,000, I would attend free. It is, of course, offered under the assumption that I would maintain a GPA of at least 2.5
And I am a graduating junior with a 4.0 GPA (but I’m homeschooled so that’s to be expected). Oh, and yes, it was finalized (by a court) when I was 12, so it seems I missed the window!
@PJackson – No, they allowed me to apply, but I later discovered that is was a test to see if I really valued God at all. Apparently I failed. We do, actually, and maybe I could contact them for help.
For those of you who warned against loans, could you give me some advice on how to pay without loans? How hard is it to have a job, for example? And do you have loans? If so, how much? Was it manageable. Specifically @CorpusChristi and @austinmshauri
@forgetmenot98 Just a guess, but your financial aid package may include work-study money, which would include a campus job.
Transportation is always a hurdle if you work off-campus. (You mentioned not having a driver’s license.) Consider how good public transpiration is and/or if the University (either Iowa or Baylor) have a bus service for students. That will be important if you aren’t within walking distance. (If you have to rely on a bicycle or foot power, then dig around to find out how “bike/foot friendly” the cities are.
Since you don’t have experience juggling work and study I suggest you be conservative about how many hours you take on your first year, especially that first semester. Many college work sites (especially campus jobs) are good about working with student schedules, but balancing work and school is a learned skill.
I wouldn’t suggest working much when you first start college, especially since you have to maintain a specific GPA for a scholarship. If you get a workstudy job, I’d try to work ~10 hours/week or so because you’ll need spending money and you want to start building a resume.
I wouldn’t take out any student loans. If your parents are dead set on you going there it should be 100% parent plus loans and they should be on the hook for it. If they want to make the call and the decision they should have some skin in the game. I would talk to them about it and see how they feel about that agreement.
When you applied to Iowa did your parents know about that or was that completely against their wishes?
Okay, so a major development.
We got the Baylor numbers back concerning financial aid. When my parents actually saw the debt I would incur, they were thrown into shock. As horrified as they were, I struggle with the doubt that’s it’s enough to convince. But it might be. We’ll see. They’re starting to doubt that God told them Baylor was right.
That’s good news, @forgetmenot98. It surprises me that parents who adopted a child whose birth parent(s) had passed away wouldn’t take that into account when planning for college. They’re low income, right? What would they expect you to do if, God forbid, something happens while you’re in college (injury, prolonged illness, or unexpected death) and they can no longer afford to borrow money to pay for your school? If you have a full ride, you’re protected. If you’re borrowing, you’ll end up having to leave school early without a degree, but you’ll still have a lot of debt and no way to pay it back.
@Baylorpoly – Yes, they allowed me to apply, but it was a test of my faithfulness to God more than anything else (as I found out later). But the news we received today may just change everything.
@austinmshauri – Yes, thanks for understanding. Even though it’s not funny, I admit I smiled a bit when you brought up the possibility of me dying. It could happen – thanks for reminding me. There have been so many death related things going on today…I hope it doesn’t culminate in my death! Or yours! I kid…thanks for the help
@forgetmenot98, No, I’m not talking about anything happening to you. I’m saying that one of our jobs, as parents, is to make sure our children are provided for in case something happens to us and we can no longer work. Your parents really need to consider what they would do if their financial circumstances changed while you’re in school.
The best aid goes to freshmen (transfers don’t get much), so you’re better off taking the full ride. If you enroll anywhere else and it’s no longer affordable a year or two down the road, you’ll no longer qualify for full ride scholarships like the one at Iowa because those only go to freshmen.
Lots of things can happen to derail plans. Your parents could be turned down for a loan, someone could lose a job, if you can’t get into all your classes because they book too quickly you may need extra time to complete your major, costs could rise faster than their ability to borrow does… Sometimes things happen that require changing to plan B midstream. What would your parents do then? The school wouldn’t let you stay. You likely won’t get enough aid at another school to be able to afford to transfer. You’d have loans, but without a degree it would be very difficult to pay them back.
If your parents continue to push for a school that requires loans, ask them what they would do if they get turned down in a couple years. What’s the plan if one of them loses their job? Do they have retirement savings? Taking out loans when you’re retirement isn’t prudent. If I were going to try to list situations that I thought could be caused by the devil, leading low income families into unaffordable debt would have to be one of them.
Have Iowa and Baylor already sent financial aid letters? Or, are you working off estimates from FAFSA calculator and/or school website Net Price calculators? Raising those questions since receiving 100% pell grant allocation ($5840 for 2016-17) is not a given.
@austinmshauri – Ha, yes, I realize that you aren’t being rude. It was a joke. And I didn’t know about the fact that more money goes to freshmen. Thanks for telling me. I’m glad the money is coming in.
@hmays1 – These are from letters. I am not going off of anything that isn’t concrete. I qualified for the full Pell because my EFC is 0. Only Baylor doesn’t seem to agree? Even though every other school has my EFC as 0, Baylor has it as 3,000. Any clue why?
Also, does anyone know anything about Baylor’s University Scholars program? Does being in all the Honors Programs make the debt worth it?
@Baylorpoly – Do you know anything about this ^^