<p>I'm an exceptional student (4.0 GPA) and my parents make in excess of 150k per year, but they will not pay for college. Can I get financial aid even though my parents are not poor, or will I have to take out a student loan? If it matters I'm not a minority.</p>
<p>Nope. My older siblings had that problem but my parents just paid. Taxes don’t lie</p>
<p>They pretty much laughed when they saw 200K</p>
<p>EM, while you will not likely get need based aid, there ARE schools where you will get merit aid. Will your parents help you with college costs at all? Your GPA is great. What are your SAT or ACT scores?</p>
<p>And just to clarify, you cannot take out a loan for the full cost of attendance at any school, other than perhaps a community college. You simply can’t borrow that much on your own. (If your parents agree to cosign, then you can borrow as much as you want . . . although I wouldn’t recommend it.)</p>
<p>As indicated, if your parents aren’t willing to pay, then you have to apply to schools where you would qualify for significant merit aid.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that will give great merit aid to high-scoring, high-GPA students. But schools like the Ivies generally wouldn’t give aid (they give only need-based aid) to kids with as high a family income as yours, I’m sorry to say. You may have to concentrate on schools that give a lot of guaranteed merit aid, like Indiana University/Bloomington or the University of Alabama. There are a number of threads on this forum that discuss all the places that do that.</p>
<p>What are your test scores? </p>
<p>You will NOT get financial need-based aid that you need, but if you have high test scores you can get large merit scholarships from the schools that give them.</p>
<p>As a frosh, YOU can only borrow $5,500…not enough to even pay for much. to borrow more, you’d need qualified (and naive) co-signers…not likely your parents will co-sign</p>
<p>From your other posts, you show an interest in MIT and Cal Tech. IF you have the test scores for those schools, then you have the test scores for merit at other schools.</p>
<p>Cal Tech and MIT will NOT be affordable since those give NEED-BASED aid. they wouldn’t give you the money that you need.</p>
<p>I know that you may have your heart set on those schools, but you need to accept that those will not be affordable without your parents’ money. </p>
<p>Once you accept that then you need to seriously look at schools that will give you the merit that you need.</p>
<p>What are your test scores???</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>One other point: a lot of great universities not in the top 50 will give full tuition remission to top students to attract them (and their test scores/grades/etc) to their schools. Ifyou are willing to go to a lesser ranked school, you may see big numbers come in.</p>
<p>EM3700 will you parents not pay anything toward college?</p>
<p>I believe OP is a rising soph. It’s early in the game, but good to be asking.</p>
<p>The reason I asked was that MIT (I don’t know about Caltech) is reasonably generous with financial aid, and will give a family with $150K income some aid. Not 100% of course, but not as little as they might expect based on their FAFSA EFC. So if the OP’s parents can and will pay part of the OP’s college costs, a school like MIT might still be on the table. If they won’t pay anything, though, then the OP needs to concentrate on schools where a full ride would be available on the basis of stats.</p>
<p>Many parents don’t understand how things work when it comes to paying for college. There are so many stories circulating, many of them fish stories, about how big of an award a student might have gotten. In the telling, financial aid packages, merit awards, athletic scholarships and outside scholarships all get merged and confused.</p>
<p>Basically, at $150, you are not likely to get much in the way of financial aid. Yes, a few schools like Harvard Princeton, MIT might come up with something, but getting accepted to such schools is a long shot, and even there, you will likely have to come up with a substantial amount. Private colleges are running close to $60K at the upper end of the price range. Even a $30K award at such schools leave a lot more that has to be paid than most kids transitioning from high school to college can pay themselves.</p>
<p>The way it works is that it is up to the parents as to how much they can and want to pay for college, just like for high school. To go to the local district high school is pretty much free. Go to a Catholic or other local private school will cost. Go to a renowned independent school, it costs more. Go to boarding school and not only do your parents have to pay for tuition there, but for room, board and living expenses and transportation. This does not change at the college level. </p>
<p>Community and local state branch schools are reasonably priced, and yes, you likely can pay for them yourself. You commute from home, work part time (you are an adult after all) and you can take up to $5500 in loans on your own to pay for the expenses, So yes, you can likely do it on your own.</p>
<p>But if you want to go to a private college or live away from home, someone is going to have to pay for it. It is unlikely that most colleges will give you much financial aid since it is based on your parents income and financial situation. Some schools, where you are among one of their top students, may offer merit money. Your state may also have programs to help you pay.</p>
<p>I suggest you get a "How to Pay for College " book for them and let them know how things work in terms of financial aid.</p>
<p>
Let us know if refusing to pay for college (nothing?) despite having money works for your parents in terms of getting FA. A lot of us parents would like to know :).</p>
<p>*The reason I asked was that MIT (I don’t know about Caltech) is reasonably generous with financial aid, and will give a family with $150K income some aid. Not 100% of course, but not as little as they might expect based on their FAFSA EFC. *</p>
<p>Yes, MIT uses CSS Profile, but I have not found it to be especially generous. MIT actually was quite disappointing to a high stats AA male whose family didn’t earn much (maybe $80k per year/no savings) yet MIT expected a high sum…much higher than Columbia and Brown did. Columbia ended up being his destination, even after appealing MIT with the other offers. </p>
<p>The OP’s family earns MORE than $150k, but even with an income of $150k, the amount of aid a student would get would be quite small, certainly not enough for a student to cover if parents won’t pay much/anything. Getting even $15k in aid (which would be surprising), will still leave the student with over $40k to come up with…not likely when parents won’t pay. Even if the student could get the parents to pay a few thousand (maybe the amount they’ll save not having the student at home), that’s not going to make a dent.</p>
<p>The student needs to accept that schools that give all/nearly all need-based aid won’t work. Maybe apply to 1-2 “just to see”, but focus mainly on reaches, matches and safeties that will give very large merit scholarships. </p>
<p>I know it can be frustrating for a student who’s worked hard, got great stats to show for it, to learn that many/all of the tippy-top schools won’t be work out because of an unaffordable “family contribution”. However, it’s best to learn this stuff EARLY, so the student can mentally adjust, grieve a bit, and then come up with reasonable choices applying broadly and appropriately.</p>
<p>From earlier posts, OP just finished freshman year of high school…</p>
<p>Plenty of time to work the parents about paying for college…</p>
<p>True ^^^</p>
<p>I’m surprised that the parents have made such a decision this early.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you guys. Didn’t expect you to read my previous posts! I am hoping to get into MIT but given circumstances I might have to settle for merit aid. Are top schools likely to give out athletic scholarships? I’m a runner but haven’t ever been exceptional as I much prefer reading, though school is easy enough that I could dedicate a lot more time to it without hurting my grades. My parents won’t give me any money because they don’t think it is worth it when I could go to a school closer to home for free. Also, I am indeed going to be a sophomore this year.</p>
<p>Where do your parents think you can go for free?</p>
<p>Probably DU or School of Mines. I should at least get a sizable merit scholarship.</p>