Cold Parents during College Admissions

It looks like your AFC is $0, but your EFC (federal or each school’s) may not be $0. In any case, if the parent that you live with is unwilling to do financial aid paperwork, you won’t get any financial aid. Also, for colleges that require information from your other biological parent, if that parent is unwilling to do financial aid paperwork, you won’t get any financial aid.

If your parents are uncooperative, you need to make a merit-scholarship-seeking application list. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ lists some full ride scholarships that are automatically awarded if your GPA and SAT/ACT score are high enough. http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ lists some automatic and competitive scholarships if you make National Merit Finalist (or sometimes other National Merit status). http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html lists additional scholarships.

If the parent you live with won’t even fill in the FAFSA, then you may not even be able to get a direct loan or Pell grant. Then your price limit, after using a large-enough merit scholarship, would be only a few thousand dollars which you could earn from a part time job during the school year and/or summer jobs.