<p>Has anybody been able to find a way past the obstacles that arise from coming from an upper middle class family where you are not eligible for financial aid but your family still cannot shoulder the costs of college? I literally know dozens of people (myself included) in this predicament, and was wondering if anybody had any advice on how to pay for college?</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I think I may have posted this in the wrong forum!</p>
<p>Mods, this should be moved to the financial aid forum.</p>
<p>There is a way to deal with the issue. You’ll want to search out schools which offer merit aid to students at the top of their applicant pool. This means looking at schools which will be considered safeties or a low match for your statistics. </p>
<p>A few links to get you started (better to go to the end of the threads, since some schools that may have offered merit aid in 2005 may have cut back since then):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a></p>
<p>After you’ve done a little research on your own, start a new thread on the Financial Aid forum, giving your GPA, testing scores, and some important factors that you’d like in a college. A female student interested in science will want to consider different schools than a male student willing to go to a small LAC. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Slithey – I disagree. This topic fits here as well as FA.</p>
<p>OP, here are ways to make it work that I have observed (including how my Dad did it) WITHOUT MERIT OR FINANCIAL AID –</p>
<p>1) Attend a semi-expensive In-State Public Flagship and save money by living in a one bedroom off-campus apartment with two roomates. This will make room/board about HALF what dorms cost. (e.g. UCLA). Total annual cost approx. $20,000</p>
<p>2) Attend a community college while living at home for the first two years. Total annual cost $8,000 (this includes the student’s share of food. laundry costs, etc.) e.g. Santa Monica College</p>
<p>3) Same as 2) above, living at home, but at a semi-expensive Public Flagship like UCLA … Total annual cost approx. $16,000</p>
<p>4) Attend a Public University less expensive than a Flagship. e.g. Cal State Fullerton. Total annual cost living in an apartment: $15,000. Total annual cost living at home: $11,000 (this includes student’s share of food, laundry expense, commuting, etc.).</p>
<p>Lastly, any of the above can be done over more than four years. </p>
<p>-Go to school full time for a year, then take off a year to work.<br>
-Go to school half time, and work full time (this is how my Dad did it).</p>
<p>Then there is the whole Financial/Merit Aid discussion apart from my points above… that would indeed be better discussed in the FA section of this Board.</p>
<p>Flying, the disappointment you see comes from middle class Parents failing to inform their children early on in their high school years about what their family can realistically devote to college education. Many times this is failure to reveal stems from an unhealthy form of pride… how can respectable members of the community, hard working, find themselves in a position where the Public Flagship is a stretch or out of reach? And Private college is not even up for discussion? Hint: Credit Card debt.</p>
<p>OOPS, never mind, I just noticed from OP’s other posts that OP is in Canada.</p>
<p>I have no idea how it works in Canada.</p>