Hello.
My family is too rich for financial aid, and too poor for college. From my financial aid award, I only received loans. I have applied to many scholarships but have received none. My family is expected to pay a lot for college, but they cannot. Actually, they refuse to help at all. They’ve even refused to cosign on the loan that I’ve received from my school. My father is present in my life and his information is in the FAFSA, but my father is horrible to me. I don’t want to get into any details, but there’s no way that he will be of any help with college. My mother has no money. After hospital bills, and other debts and fees, she has nothing. She didn’t even have the money to pay a $600 fee for the university, and I had to pay $250 for another fee with the little money that I had saved up. FAFSA does not understand the personal financial struggles that families go through. At this point, I might withdraw my application because there’s no way that I can afford over $20k a year.
Also, I cannot live at home, so I will be living on campus. Like I said, I have issues within my family that make it an unsafe environment.
The school is in state but it is too far from my town to commute every day.
Sounds like you picked an unaffordable schools. It can be tough when parents don’t help. If your parents are divorced or not living together, your state schools are likely your best option because they are usually FAFSA only so the father’s income isn’t reported. Some people pick schools they can commute to because living expenses can be more than tuition. Some people have to start at a CC and finish by working their way through. You can borrow your student loans without a cosigner. Parent cosigning is just like their own loan and many can’t or won’t do that because it isn’t feasible. Your student loan can be 5,500 freshman year 6500 sophmore and 7500 jr and sr.
@disastrous Are your parents divorced? If so, who do you live with? Is this a FAFSA only school? How did you think you would pay for a school that costs $20k+ per year?
Your father is actually doing you a favor by not co-signing loans that would add up to more than $80,000 after four years of college. You need a better plan to pay for college. You may need to take a gap year to apply to affordable options (if there are any) or go to community college.
Why is “paying for college” only being looked at right now? Did your parents mislead you this past year and make you think that they’d be paying? If not, how did you think college would be paid for? With co-signed loans? That would have been a horrible idea…too much debt.
I feel bad that you’ve made deposits to a school that you cannot attend.
You’ll need to take a gap year and apply to schools where you will get HUGE merit for your stats. What are your stats?
If your stats are not high enough for HUGE merit, then you’ll have to commute to your local CC and then transfer to a univ that you can also commute to.
I hope that rising seniors look at this thread and make sure that they have their financial ducks in a row when they are applying to colleges so that they know from the “get go” that they have affordable schools.
I applied Early Decision to St Mary's College in California and received a letter stating that the office of admissions completed an initial review and determined that a review of my seventh semester grades, new SAT scores would be helpful before making a final decision and that I would be notified with a final decision in March. Did I just get deferred to regular decision?
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Ok…you applied ED to a school that is not hard to get into, yet you were deferred for grades and scores.
That suggests to me that your stats may not be strong enough for merit at other schools if you do a gap year. Going to a CC would likely be the best route.
How much were you thinking about borrowing and what is your career goal??
Since you applied ED, didn’t that REQUIRE your parents’ signature??? If so, what were they saying at the time you applied ED???
this thread needs to serve as a warning to younger students. When there are red flags waving (parents not paying, don’t get along with a parent, don’t have strong grades for the school) do not just forage ahead as if somehow there will be some tuition fairy out there or some crazy loan that will rescue you. Not only are such loans extremely risky and life damaging, but most parents will not co-sign them anyway.
My father has never been in the picture when it comes to paying for college. He lives with me, and my mother for those that were asking. My parents are not divorced. Over the last year, my mother has been excited looking at another college that is far more expensive than the one I am attending. When I decided to attend a CSU, my mother was disappointed but I felt that it was a much more affordable option. After paying for cancer treatment, and other hospital bills, plus various other expenses, money became tight. She only started freaking out about money once she had to start paying registration fees.
Actually, until the end of my junior and beginning of senior year, I did not think that I would be attending college. So I tried to get my “ducks in a row” as best that I could, with no help from parents.
I spent hours talking to my financial aid counselor, who seemed to think that the FAFSA would help a lot.
For the other commenters, I don’t have any other relatives.
I spent hours talking to my financial aid counselor, who seemed to think that the FAFSA would help a lot.
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What info did the FA counselor have at the time you talked to him/her? Did they have your submitted FAFSA? Did they know your parents’ income and whether you qualified for a Cal Grant???
Do you qualify for a Cal Grant?
What aid did you get?
What is your FAFSA EFC?? Unless it’s below 6000, then it makes no sense for a FA counselor to think that “FAFSA would help a lot”. BTW…FAFSA doesn’t do anything for anyone. It’s just an application. It would be the FEDS that provide grants if you have a very low EFC.
The EFC was 40000, and the only thing that I got from FAFSA was different types of loans.
My parents make 100k, and I do not qualify for Cal Grant.
My counselor was surprised that my family would not cooperate with me filling out the FAFSA and when I tried to fill out a school scholarship, she said that I was not eligible, and that my EFC was the highest that she had seen.
At the end of the year, I showed her the loans very confused, and she just said that I should accept them.
Also, every family friend that I talk to tells me that loans are just something that’s apart of college, and that everyone ends up paying back.
With an EFC of $40k, and an income of over $100k, whatever FA counselor you talked to was either a complete IDIOT or you completely misunderstood her/gave her wrong info.
While the standard $5500 student loan each year may be “a part of college life” it is NOT TRUE that borrowing most/all costs is normal because people can’t pay big loans back. the incomes of newish grads are too low to pay back big loans.
I am sorry that you were misled by your mom (have no clue what SHE was thinking), by the FA officer (that makes no sense), and by people who are just blindly telling you that loans are a part of life (when they aren’t considering how much you need to borrow).
The TRUTH is that most people do NOT go away to college for the same reason you can’t. Not enough money. Most people commute to a local public univ or start at a local CC.
I am saddened that you wasted money with deposits. I am also saddened that when you were posting last fall that you didn’t post over here where adults could have advised you better.
Note to younger students…post in the FA or College Selection forums. Do NOT just mostly post in the Chances or other high school forums where you get other naive advice.
How would this help? Just “taking” ROTC doesn’t help financially. My understanding is that you have to apply for ROTC scholarships during the Summer/Fall of your senior year and that they are becoming more difficult to receive…and equally important…more difficult to KEEP. Many/most don’t even begin until AFTER the first semester of college…if then. Even with a FULL ROTC scholarship you still need to pay for room and board.
An EFC of 40K makes no sense with a total salary of 100K. We make 50% more than that and have the same EFC.
The only way that makes sense is that your family owns their house and it is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, that they can’t or won’t access for your college.
Resign yourself to going to a CC, or wait until you are 24 and can go to college independently.
The OP’s story reminds me of a major roadblock to “income equality” - without support of immediate family members or the local community, it is very hard to get far.
I will not be able to live at home because my father will be kicking me out after the summer ends. My only option is either to leave the Bay Area (which is an expensive area to live) considering I live right next to SF, or to leave California entirely.
Yes, my family owns their house. We live in an expensive area in the Bay Area, so yes the house is worth a lot, it that helps clarify the EFC.
Are you saying that, at the end of the summer, you will not be able to live with your parents, and therefore they will not be able to legally claim you as a dependent?