I think that meeting with a financial aid officer together with your parents and their financial records at a college you wish to attend would help your parents understand the finances involved. Your parents are not the only ones scared of student loan debt. But, if they had to choose betwen a small amount of loans or no college at all for you, what would they really do?
Don’t ignore your parents. Try to help them get educated about college expenses and financial aid so you can lead them down the path to a great college for you! And, get your college applications done, including at least one college that your parents will support.
I don’t care if the OP’s parents are furious. They haven’t educated themselves in the process, and the OP has the stats to get some really good deals at great schools. She should get some offers on the table from schools that offer strong aid, and see if her GC or more knowledgable relatives/friends can talk some sense into them once she has actual FA packages in hand.
I’m pretty sure I have read that Dennison is generous with merit aid lately (trying to compete for top students ) and also trying to increase diversity. Also, with your stats, St. Mary’s of Maryland might be a safety???Though I don’t know anything about their merit aid, but they might really want a student like you. I have heard St. Mary’s is strong in biology and environmental science (campus literally on the edge of the water of the Chesapeake.)
Before OP can have actual FA packages in her hand it will take some efforts from the parents to supply all finaid paperwork required by multiple meet full need colleges. I do not see how this is possible without their full cooperation. OP should negotiate, compromise and be ready to present reasonable financial plans now.
The OP can’t present a plan until she has financial aid offers. It doesn’t sound like the parents are averse to filling out the paperwork, they just have unrealistic expectations. She can work on that (hopefully with help from GC and others).
Sometimes to break the cycle of poverty, a kid needs to do something that isn’t what their parents did. If she applies to any school her parents want her to, they are going to fill out the FAFSA. If she can get them to fill out for one Profile school, then the paperwork is done.
When we name schools we feel are ‘generous,’ we should realize this OP needs the maximum ride.
If her parents are prestige-driven (and don’t really know what makes for a strong choice,) she can work on showing them why colleges XYZ are right, for her academic interests, as well as FA. It’s something she should be doing, anyway.
^this, educate the parents on the merits of the schools of interest. They’ve heard of Brown but not Midd or Bates, so you’ve got to tell them about the “Little Ivies,” etc… and use all the Rankings publications to your advantage.
You should also be able to find data on educational expenditures per student compared to the “rack rate” tuition, how much financial aid students get at different institutions, the level of indebtedness of students from different institutions, the loan default rate for students at different institutions, etc…
Use these data sources and others to compare the colleges you are interested in to the ones your parents know about, to show that your choices are just as meritorious as the ones that they have heard of.
In terms of getting your parents to agree to doing their basic part on the FAFSA and the CSS/Profile financial aid applications, that shouldn’t be a problem so long as you do apply to one or more of the colleges that your parents want you to (e.g. Brown, U.Chicago, etc… are Profile schools as well as Midd and Bates). The problem may come in that many of the Profile schools requires different supplementary materials for the Profile application.
Sorry, it’s kind of difficult to reply to every single one of you. As an update, I got my parents to talk to my counselor at school. They seem to be a bit more at ease with the applications. I’ve decided to apply to one of the schools my parents keep talking about just to appease them. I’m still going to apply everywhere I can, but I think my parents and I have come to an agreement to consider this when I know which schools have accepted me. Thank you to everyone for all of the advice!
