Help!!!

<p>hey guys;
I always assumned my parents would pay 4 college (my parents are fairly wealthy; combined pay- $250-300k per year); however, they have suddenly refused to pay 4 college for various reasons. I know that I will not qualify for financial aid if i apply. What are the other options that I are available to pay for college?
thanks</p>

<p>Joining the military, earning merit scholarships, going to community colleges (which tends to be cheap) on merit aid or while working, joining Americorps after high school and then using the $ to help pay for college. Check out fastweb.com and the tips posted at the top of this message board.</p>

<p>You are really between a rock and a hard place because of your parents unwillingness to finance your education. Your parents will still need their financial aid paperwok in order for you to be considered for merit money at some schools.</p>

<p>This means that you will have have to cast a wide net and look at schools that may be a tier down from the schools you were looking at. Perhaps at these schools you may be at the top of the applicant pool for merit money. Should you get a full tuition scholarship you will still have to figure out how to cover your room and board. Do you have an afterschool job? My adivice would be to get one and start saving.</p>

<p>what does your local city/state university offer you in terms of merit money? You should check in to that.</p>

<p>I would strongly advise that you sit down with your parents and talk about the reason as to why they do not want to pay for your education. Often there are other underlying reasons.</p>

<p>Do they not want to pay for you education all together? </p>

<p>Have they given you a limt regarding how much they will pay?</p>

<p>Are there only certain schools (state U, Ivy) that they are willing to pay for?</p>

<p>Are they waiting for you to become more of an active participant in the process and are looking for you to come up with ways to help pay for your education?</p>

<p>I'm not quite sure if I'm replying to the right thread, so if this seems out of place from what you guys were talking about, I'm terribly sorry. My name is Kristy, I've graduated high school already, and due to my age, I've decided to take a year off to "catch up" age wise. I'm a musical theatre major, and earlier I was on the musical theatre thread, but I lost it, so again I'm not sure where to post. I've taken into consideration several of the colleges/conservatories mentioned, (namely just Boston in the conservatory department), and I heard someone mention a school in CA. What other schools are over there, and which ones are better known for their theatre/musical theatre programs? And if this is the wrong place to post, can you tell me where to go so I can get the answer? I appreciate what you guys are doing, it's a great help. Thanks for your time.</p>

<p>Kristy</p>

<p>Hi Kristy,</p>

<p>welcome to CC. there is a musical theater forum. IF you click college discussions (to right hand corner) it will take you to the main discussion page. Under the heading College Majors, you will find the Musical theater forum.</p>

<p>Here is the link:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=501%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=501&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Cutiepie...what reasons are your parents giving you? Do they want you to go to college or not? Do they want you to take a post grad year? Do they want you to work your way through school? There must be some reason for this decision....if you find that out perhaps you can discuss this with them. Northstarmom gives good alternates...a community college while working will give you your core courses. Some cc's have relationships with four year schools and you can transfer after your two years. Also, there are programs at the community colleges that are two year programs, and you might want to research them.</p>