Am I in a hopeless situation?

Paying for College
1

Hello everyone.

Long story short, I don’t feel like i have the funds to go to the colleges I want. I’m currently a junior in high school and I’ve always wanted to go to Virginia Tech.

Funding college had never crossed my mind before. Now, I’ve been hit with the cold hard truth. While I used to be under the false impression that I could just get a student loan by myself and pay for my college education independently, I was dead wrong.

As far as I understand, its your parent’s responsibility to pay for college. My parents are divorced. My dad refuses to pay for college. My mom does not have the credit to cosign a loan for me nor does she have the funds to contribute. Now, when I say refuse to pay, I don’t mean COMPLETELY pay for my tuition. I don’t expect either of my parents to pay for college. My dad however, refuses to give me a single penny for college. On top of that, he will not cosign any loans for me.

I understand that scholarships, federal loans, and financial aid can cover some of your tuition, but 99% of the time, it is not enough to cover all of it. Private loans ,as far as, I’m concerned require a cosigner with good credit.

What is one in a situation like mine supposed to do? Is there any chance at all I could somehow get a loan to attend virginia tech?

If not Virginia Tech, I’m open to JMU or GMU as well. Any scholarships or full rides I could possibly get there? Anywhere? I have a 3.7 unweighted gpa, 4.0 weighted. Mostly A’s all throughout highschool, except for my fluke sophomore year with mostly B+'s. With the 6 AP classes I’m taking next year, I should have a 3.75 unweighted and 4.2 weighted if I manage mostly A’s.

My last option would be to move in with my relatives in minnesota and attend the university of minnesota, if I get in. I honestly don’t really like Minnesota, and would prefer to stay in Virginia if at all possible.

I’m open to any suggestions you guys have. How should I go about my situation? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

If you are open to lots of options…read the suggestions in the links on this thread:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

3

Parents don’t have to pay for their kids college. But the colleges don’t have to instead of the parents, no.

If your parents are divorced and you live with your mother, then you fill out the FAFSA with just your mother’s information, and that will qualify you for Pell Grant if you are low enough income and you automatically are allowed to take your student loan of 5,500. If your mother is turned down for a Plus loan, then you can take an additional 4,000.

No you can’t get a loan for more by yourself. That is bad business for anyone as you likely wouldn’t be able to pay it back.

Run the Net Price Calculator using your mom’s numbers to see what you might have to pay at those colleges. For Minn, you will have to pay OOS rates unless you are lucky enough to get a waiver–ou can’t count on that.

Scholarships depend a lot on your test scores too. What are they?

Here is what you can borrow each year. You can borrow at the independent student rate if you mom is turned down but that is getting into a higher monthly payment than you make be able to make on graduation.

Dependent/Independent
freshman 5,500 / 9,500
sophomore 6,500 / 10,500
jr 7,500 / 12,500
sr 7,500 12,500

4

The net price calculators are not accurate for divorced parents. You could use it as a right estimate…but its accuracy for divorced parents…isn’t.

If you can live at home, and commute to a community college, you probably can cover your tuition costs with a Direct Loan, and earnings from a job.

Is your mom’s income considered low income? Do you qualify for any means tested benefits like free/reduced lunch or SNAP?

5

Don’t count on instate tuition rates if you attend a public university in Minnesota after moving in with a relative.

6

Will you be a high school senior this fall?

What are your test scores ?


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My last option would be to move in with my relatives in minnesota and attend the university of minnesota, if I get in. I honestly don't really like Minnesota, and would prefer to stay in Virginia if at all possible.

[/QUOTE]

That won’t work. You’ll be out of state for Uminn and you can’t afford the cost.

7

My mom was planning to move to Minnesota as well. We were all going to live with my relatives there.

My mom has very very little income by herself. I’ve never applied for reduced lunch because I pack lunch. Most of our money comes from alimony payments, which ends in 2 years I believe. If you’re talking about income without any alimony or child support, I’m sure it would qualify as low income.

I’m willing to attend community college if thats the only option I have. However, my mom seems pretty intent on moving to Minnesota, so I may have to live by myself and attend community college.

I know my parent’s credit is horrible. While my dad has a decent six figure income to be able to qualify for a loan, both of them have horrific credit from a foreclosure a few years ago. Furthermore, I think I’m more likely to win the lottery than have my dad cosign any loans for me.

I feel like crap right now. All of this just hit me in the face. I tried so hard to try and get into my college of choice, Virginia Tech, and now I feel like all of it was for nothing.

Is a scholarship to GMU out of reach? What would I need on my ACT or SAT?

8

Alabama

9

<<<
I know that for pre pharm or pre med, you don’t need to have a major


[QUOTE=""]

[/QUOTE]

???

You still have to have a major.

I see that you don’t yet have test scores.

Did you take the PSAT? how did you do?

10

Does your dad pay child support? Is so, then it will be unlikey for you to demonstrate abandonment. His income will be required data to compute your financial need. There are many kids where the father is COMPLETELY out of the picture—no communication and no known whereabouts. These kids must provide documentation of this situation. The fact that your father still communicates with you to tell you he will not pay for college, suggests that there is not abandonment.

Your state residency is typically based on your parents’ residency or on the state from which you graduated HS. Moving in with your relatives to attend school senior year would not help you unless your relatives legally adopt you.

As money is your primary challenge, you need to think beyond schools you are “open to” and focus on schools that have the realistic potential to offer you a lot of money. I think you need to concentrate on getting very high SAT/ACT test scores and focus on private & public schools that give generous merit aid. And you should widen the geographic scope considerably.

11

Why wouldn’t they be accurate, if both parents’ income and assets are included for schools that use both parents’ income and assets to determine financial aid?

Where inaccuracy is likely to occur is if one puts in only the custodial parent income and assets for the school that requires both parents’ income and assets. Of course, if the OP’s father who refuses to pay has significant income and assets, or refuses to do financial aid paperwork, that pretty much shuts the OP out of financial aid at schools that use both parents’ income and assets. Also, divorced parents may have spent the money originally intended for their kids’ college on lawyers to fight each other.

In any case, question for the OP would be, what are your SAT (CR+M and total) and ACT scores? You may qualify for automatic full rides and be able to try for competitive full rides if your scores are high enough.

12

There is nothing wrong with the comm college route. And it is very affordable in comparison to a four year college. Then you can transfer to a 4 year college but the key in transferring is to find out in advance what credits that college will accept. This way you won’t waste time/money taking classes that won’t transfer. Sit down with a guidance counselor at the comm college and come up with a plan. If you are on the honor roll at the comm college, then it is likely that you will be offered a scholarship at the 4 year college.

13

My dad and I have barely talked for years. I guess that doesn’t qualify as abandonment.

Let’s not talk about my PSAT scores :(. I did not do well enough for national merit.

If Minnesota is out of the picture, than I honestly have no other choices. I thought my relatives could cosign any loans for me to attend. Also, I would not have to pay for room and board (i would live near UMN, sorry I didn’t say that earlier).

14

OP, Virginia actually has a pretty good community college to 4-year college transfer program. Not quite as good as CA’s, but still quite good.

http://www.vccs.edu/students/transfers/

Depending on where you live in VA, you may have some quality CC options open to you as well - particularly if you live in NoVA.

15

Questbridge?

16

ACT or SAT?

17

URM?

18

I highly doubt that your relatives would cosign loans for you. That is too risky for them, and frankly, you shouldn’t even ask them. Cosigning loans is a HUGE risk for the cosigner.

You would still be charged OOS rates. You would need a car, etc, and tuition and books would be $100k for four years. Very unlikely relatives would cosign…that is too much.

And no one who is considering becoming a doctor or pharmacist should be borrowing much for undergrad anyway.

19

Full tuition (does not include room & board) Presidential Scholarship at Alabama does not require being a NMF

http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html

We visited the school and were really knocked down in amazement. Even our DS whom we dragged there unwillingly was impressed and surprised himself by saying he could see himself going to Bama.

The remainder of your expenses there could be covered by student loans + summer earnings + reasonable contribution by your mother.

20

<<<
than I honestly have no other choices.
<<<

That isn’t true.

You could start by commuting to a local CC. Are there any univs that you can commute to from your mom’s home?