Can I crowdfund for my college tuition?
I’ve seen several kids try. One girl reached her goal of raising 1200 dollars (big family.) The rest didn’t even come close to their ridiculous 30K goals. They were lucky to break 200 bucks.
Crowd funding works best for smaller amounts with people in tight communities. Say a family who lost a parent to cancer and heavily involved in a youth soccer league. It also works with politically relevant, dramatic stories with national coverage. It doesn’t work for the average teenagers trying to fund college.
Short answer: no.
Unless you have a very unique, very compelling story and a very engaged, very generous network… not gonna happen.
I think it depends on your goal. If you have a full ride to Harvard and all you need is help affording the flight there from your remote village in the Philippines, maybe (although it makes more sense to look for small scholarships or even ask the school for help in that case). If your goal is to raise $30,000, chances are most strangers aren’t going to be particularly interested unless you (as CourtneyThurston points out) have a unique and compelling story (and maybe not even then).
Why should we pay for yours instead of our own? 
Motivating people to donate to things – even really wonderful things – can be ridiculously difficult.
Yes, of course you can. The chances of getting much are pretty slim though. Just had most of our kids home for a family event and the topic of crowd funding came up. We all agreed (ages 19-60) that we hate the concept of asking other people- including total strangers- for money for something that only benefits you. We make financial and life decisions based on our resources and I can’t imagine asking others to fund something that I want to do but can’t afford. Really tacky as far as I am concerned but I am sure many will disagree. (There are exceptions such as helping a family with extraordinary medical expenses, etc.)