<p>I have decent enough grades to go to possibly JMU, GMU, VTech, American U., and George Washington U. But I do not have good enough grades for merit or most academic scholarships.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I can't even afford to go to these schools... My dad, who has not been to college (my mom hasn't either so im first gen -im white, asian, part hispanic), thinks its impossible to pay for college for we live almost pay-check to pay-check.
He although makes about 140,000, which I think wont qualify for fin aid (I think he pays 3,600 mortgage, and over 25,000 taken out for taxes, maybe more).</p>
<p>My parents do not have drivers licenses, and I do not even have my permit yet- and when I do get my permit I would have to wait 9 months since I am under age (I am 16, senior, age in my county is 19 for drivers license).
Soooo it would be hard for me to even commute to NOVA community college- about 30 minutes away. GMU is about 30 minutes away from my house.</p>
<p>So my parents want me to go to GMU or NOVA, and use public transportation or possibly get a car, and not pay for room and board, but do not understand the time and experience I will be losing from doing room and board. (Both colleges I prefer NOT to go to)</p>
<p>My parents say to find a job instead of going to college or join the military (my dad was in the military). But I am not ready for both of these, and want to go to college and learn languages and do a major and have the experience of college</p>
<p>I don't know what to do or how to convince them. What should I do? I want to major in IR and specialize in Turkish and Arabic.</p>
<p>Sounds like the BIGGER problem is that they can’t afford to pay what colleges will expect them to pay even if you qualify for a small bit of aid. That’s the big problem.</p>
<p>I don’t know what to do or how to convince them</p>
<p>You can’t convince them to pay what they can’t pay. So, accept that.</p>
<p>now…why do you think that you have the stats for those schools, but you don’t have the stats for merit to go elsewhere? That may not be true.</p>
<p>What ARE your stats? And what is your career goal?</p>
<p>My career goal is to be in diplomacy or a foreign officer. I want to specialize in languages- Arabic and possibly Turkish or Farsi or french. </p>
<p>I have a 3.6 trending upward gpa wieghted (bad freshman year), top 100 high school, some challenging courses, and 1800 SAT, retaking it again + ACT, and an extremely large amount of extracurriculars. First gen, part hispanic/ pacific islander.</p>
<p>$3600 mortgage payment on a $140k salary? For comparison purposes, our household income is almost twice that, and our mortgage is less than half that. We live in the same area. Nothing you can do about it, but I feel for you. Good luck.</p>
<p>Well, you have to deal with the realities of your situation. You’re looking at top school (or transferring to top schools later) and your parents will be expected to pay $35k+ per year. If they won’t do that, then those won’t be affordable (and transfers get WORSE aid!).</p>
<p>You need to figure out which lower tier schools will get you where you want to go. </p>
<p>How much WILL your parents pay each year??? If you don’t know ask them. If they’re saying that they can only pay $5k per year or so, then you REALLY can’t even consider those top schools at all.</p>
<p>yea my mom only works part time, and my dad only works full time.
I thought 3,600 for mortgage wasnt that much, most of my friends parents pay 5-10 grand for mortgage I think. I think we live in a really expensive area, which drives up our taxes for education and housing and the area.
my dad says they cant even afford 5000 a year for college, I might get some aid from my grandfather (who might be able to pay 500-1000$ a month) and older aunt (who has a good amount of money in savings bonds).</p>
<p>Well, most people aren’t paying $10k per month for a mortgage…that would be $120,000 per year. lol</p>
<p>anyway…you need to NAIL down how much your grandpa or aunt could contribute for ALL FOUR years. One time gifts of money won’t work for all four years. </p>
<p>Once you know how much your relatives can help with, then better decisions can be made. You need this info. You need ANNUAL amounts.</p>
<p>Don’t assume. Your aunt may have several other nieces and nephews that need help or she may need her money for her own retirement. Your grandfather may also have plans for his money…and have OTHER grandchildren to consider.</p>
<p>if i didn’t have my grandfather and aunt contributing, and just had lets say 5,000$ from my dad, would I have to rely on loans? </p>
<p>Even if I wanted to go to these colleges, the total cost of attendance for example VTech- which is 20,000$+, or GMU- 25,000$ is 20,000$ over what my parents can afford.
Even NOVA Community College is 10,000$ incl. room and board- which is 5,000$ too much.</p>
<p>In earlier posts you said you had 2070 SAT and that your parents paid $6000/ month mortgage. Have you actually sat down and helped them run the numbers for FA? It doesn’t really help you to have people giving you advice based on random numbers and stats. Perhaps you can come back with more concrete facts and everyone can be more helpful then…</p>
<p>The way it works, is that until you are 24, married, a veteran, have a dependent, or fit some other category (check them out yourself) you are dependent on your parents’ financials for college with just a few exceptions. Parents are considered the ones to hit up for college costs. Just like they are the ones pretty much who determine where you go to high school. Where you live determines your high school unless parents are active in getting other alternatives such as private schools, boarding schools,etc. So they drive the college choices as few 18 years old, newly graduated from high school can afford to pay for their own choices. So what your parents are willing to contribute will determine a lot of your choices.</p>
<p>Just letting you live at home, the three squares and the cot, is worth $6-10K a year. You can borrow up to $5500 a year on your own. That will pretty much cover local state options. The way a number of cousins went to college, was taking public transportation or getting rides in the morning to the college, and staying there until they could get a ride home. They had no cars to drive themselves and the parents could not alter their work schedules to accommodate the college schedules. They found on campus jobs, studied on campus, joined campus activities, and spent all day on campus most days. That’s how they got their degrees. In some cases, it took them longer than 4 years, as some of them found jobs that took up more time so they went to school part time.</p>
<p>Most college students get their degrees that way. Working part or full time and going to school part time.</p>
<p>And yes I do plan on getting a job, preferably a paid internship, but willing to do anything.
But I am only able to borrow 5,500$? cause that will only pay off GMU local (but cant do room and board) and Community College. I would be heavily relying on public transportation, since I don’t have a car and could be unreliable especially on the weekends.</p>
<p>I didn’t know counties could dictate driving ages though…</p>
<p>Yeah, I noticed that too. 19 seems awfully old to be the age for getting a driver’s license. So an 18 year old, a legal adult, is too young to drive?</p>
<p>Also, since OP has threads going in two different CC forums based on the same post, I would think that he should have enough advice by now to get things figured out.</p>
<p>its not the county, sorry its the state.
once I am 19 I can get my drivers license without a permit, so since I dont have my permit I have to wait 8 months to drive by myself (and since both of my parents are not licensed drivers I cant even drive at all during those 8 months until they get their licensees)</p>
<p>If your parents aren’t driving, then they must get around by public transit or on foot. How long are their commutes? If they’re spending half an hour or more on public transit each way to work, of course they think it would be no big deal for you to have that long a bus ride to college.</p>
<p>Despite what you see in the movies, more college students live at home and commute, than go away to a college. Right now it may look like all your HS pals are headed out of town, but come September, a whole bunchof them will be at NOVA, and more will join them there second semester after deciding that their first choice out of town college is a bad match.</p>
<p>yea my mom walks and my dad takes the metro- 45min + commute. </p>
<p>You are somewhat right happymomof1, but out of the 500 students at my highschool, most have private cars, and I would say all of them besides me have parents who have cars. And most of their parents wouldn’t allow them to go to NOVA or GMU.</p>
<p>It’s not getting your license that is an issue. It’s the cost of a car. You have to buy one, insure one, maintain one, pay gas and parking. A very expensive endeavor. Find a college on the metro or on any public transportation line. </p>
<p>My son was sure that most everyone at his college prep school were going away for college. True, the majority did. But now two years later, he’s finding out that a lot did not, and many who did are back local. Many of them will do just fine. Many are enjoying college lifet that way too, and there pitfalls to going away to school too. Not just saying this for your sake; I’ve said this many times before. </p>
<p>My brother has a degree from GMU and wants his DD to go to law school there, if she can get in. Nothing wrong with GMU.</p>
<p>I know several George Mason graduates. From what I can tell they got great educations. The absence of snotty rich kids from from your high school is only an added bonus.</p>
<p>Now, it’s ****ed up that your parents don’t value education and sent you to kindergarten too early. But that’s not reason to stop yourself getting a great and affordable education that happens to be sitting practically on your doorstep.</p>