Hi, I’ve made a thread before asking how to take care of FASFA/ other financial aid stuff by myself, since my parents have never gone through the application process & are basically too busy to help. I’ve since realized that I can’t do that stuff on my own and need them to somehow contribute. I don’t think they understand how complicated the whole “getting to college” process is and how many steps there are. They think you just fill out an online form, click submit, and you’re automatically in college. Anyway, does anyone have any tips on how I can get them to understand how important this is/what they need to do? I’ve told them multiple times but they just don’t “get it”. It’s been giving me awful stress/anxiety and I need them to at least get on board with me here.
I’d ask them to schedule an hour or two a week to work with you – Sunday afternoon might work. Be prepared with what you want at the time of your appointment – help running NPCs, answering questions to help with the family section of the common app, filling out FAFSA, working on CSS profile, gathering and sending tax documents.
If that doesn’t work, see if your GC can help. Maybe talk to them about your issue, and ask if you can meet with them and your parents to talk about your college search. Ask them to help prompt your parents on the part of the process they need to be involved with.
Will your school guidance department be offering an informational night for families this fall? If so, maybe you can get them to attend. Or yes, get them to go to a meeting with your guidance counselor. HTH
https://www.susqu.edu/admission-and-aid/tuition-and-financial-aid
^I found this college’s FA page helpful. It shows their costs and ways to cover these costs (federal/state grants and scholarships/grants from the college, student loans, and student employment).
In the middle of the page they have a recorded Financial Aid 101 webinar you can watch.
As a student your ability to work while in college full time will be limited, most on campus jobs limit students to 20 hours max, but they are usually good about letting you work around your class schedule. This is so that you are able to focus on your studies.
So any work study or other on campus job should be considered to pay for your expenses during the semester, like spending money and maybe books.
In summers you can work more and that money can contribute towards your school costs.
Running net price calculators at different colleges might be helpful to see what aid you might get from the college with your family income and assets. Some schools have good NPCs that are pretty up to date and ask about grades and test scores, and give merit estimates. Some are very basic and way outdated.
I agree, goimg to high school financial aid night is a good idea. Hopefully your parents will go.
Basically you will need to find out and show them how much a school will cost and how that can be paid.
You will need their financial information for this, and one of your parents will need a FSA ID to sign the FAFSA with you.
Thank you all, I feel a lot better and as if this might be less difficult than I thought. They’ll definitely go to financial aid night and will then be motivated to help me out, but I know they’ll fail to follow through later on (this is what happens when I bring it up to them). A follow up question:
- They know nothing about financial aid (they still don't understand what FASFA is) and I only know what I know from researching every day for months. Is there a way/resource I can use to get them caught up to speed in a much shorter amount of time? Like a website/ article etc?
Yes there is a webinar (video of a power point presentation with recorded audio) at the link posted in the comment above. It is very informative and directed toward parents. It goes slowly enough for people who are unfamiliar with the process to get caught up. Scroll down the page linked above and play the Financial Aid 101 Webinar
Here is an article if they prefer print
https://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2017/01/08/2017-guide-to-college-financial-aid-the-fafsa-and-css-profile/#cae7bb14cd43
The single most important question you need to ask your parents is how much they CAN pay annually for,you to attend college.
Where is this thread about asking how,to take care of financial aid by yourself? All I see is the one where you were inquiring about Oregon.
You say you think you are Calgrant eligible. Even with that…you will have to pay if you want to live in the dorms. Is there any school to which you can commute in CA. Or can your family pay the cost for you to live on campus?
The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, filling it out with student and parent information, income (from prior, prior year, i.e. FAFSA for 2018/19 school year would use 2016 income), and assets (as of the day you submit it), will give you an EFC. Based on that EFC the government and state agencies can award grants (if EFC is low enough), and student loans (for everyone, but subsidized loans will depend on financial need).
Your parents probably will feel overwhelmed by this at first. The costs can seem impossible.
If you are in California, then it is best to look at your affordable instate schools first, to see if there are any nearby, or if you can go to community college first, and then go to an UC, or go to a CSU.
If you qualify for Calgrant, I believe the income limit may be $80,000, but I’m not sure. Hopefully someone can confirm.
It can help pay for tuition. There are also fees, and room and board, if you live on campus. Those can be another $15,000.
Alternately, if you have high GPA and test scores, some OOS schools might give you merit enough so it is affordable. The key is identifying the schools where your stats would give you a good chance of merit.
Susquehanna, my daughter’s school! Love, love, love this school. Not surprised they have such helpful information. They do everything with excellence. OP, they offer a LOT of scholarship money. My D was an A/B student and got a good bit of aid from them. She’s a sophomore now and very happy there.
I thought OP meant problems getting parents to provide the info needed to fill out NPCs and the Fafsa. Basically, this https://fafsa.ed.gov/help/before003.htm for both the student and parents.
OP, are they willing to give you that info? You could then run a few NPCs and show them it’s somewhat less complicated than many think. Of course, the NPC tool isn’t accurate if there’s self employment income. But for many, it’s a good first look.
And how much you’re likely you get in aid depends on how much the college can afford. Not just what your family needs.
They’re willing to give me the info and say they will pay my tuition, but the problem is that I’m afraid they don’t realize how much it actually costs and will back out last minute. I’m planning to go away to a state school. I couldn’t commute even if I wanted to (weird living situation-long story).
Have you run NPCs then? That’s the first look at possible aid. Then you can say, Mom and Dad, could you pay this (the remaining cost, after FA?) And then, if they get sticker shock, you have a problem.
If you have access to their financials you can run the numbers yourself. Do you have a vague idea of their gross income that you can post? (eg, >such and such a decile) And if they have significant assets/second properties/divorce etc? Not specific but yes or no.
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Instate for California, I suspect there would be a strong case for CCC first. Are you sure you have a realistic idea of what your options are? You have asked your parents how they see this playing out?
@Sybylla They make about $100,000 combined, but they’re divorced. They have joined custody but I live with my mom who makes $60,000. I have a more realistic view than them, whenever I ask about how they’ll pay for college they say something along the lines of “just pick wherever you wanna go go and don’t worry about it”… and I’m like uhh it doesn’t quite work like that. Lol.
Are they remarried at all?
No they aren’t, which I heard is helpful as far as getting financial aid. Is that true?
The net price calculators might not be so accurate since your parents are divorced.
I believe you are from CA. You will qualfy for the Calgrant which will help some. Your parents would need to come up,with money for room, board, etc.
You can also take the Direct Loan…$5500 your fresh,an year.
If the OP is a California resident looking mainly at California public universities, that should be less of an issue, since they are FAFSA only and do not require non-custodial parent information.
Why not get the information from them, run the net price calculators, tell them the results, and find out what their reaction is to the results?
If they are divorced, you need to check each college’s financial aid pages to see whether it uses the non-custodial parent information, so that you can put the correct information into the net price calculators. If a college does not use the non-custodial parent information, use only the financials of the parent you live with. If it does, see if the college has any special instructions on using the net price calculator; if not, be sure to include both parents’ financials, but be aware that the net price calculators are often less accurate for divorced parent situations.