<p>My entire life, my parents have been telling me not to worry about scholarships and financial aid because they assured me they could pay for it themselves.
As it turns out, they're prepared to pay roughly 5k a year from a 120-130k yearly income, due to fairly unrealistic perceptions of college costs. </p>
<p>I have a terrible feeling that I'm not qualified for any substantial financial aid or any need-based scholarships. Am I doomed to take out a lot of student loans?
My academic record and extracurriculars aren't so exceptional that I'm going to be able to cover my losses with scholarships, unfortunately. </p>
<p>Could someone with more knowledge and experience clarify this for me?</p>
<p>Your parents will definitely be expected to pay more than $5k/year. You can focus on schools where you might get merit, plan to attend community college the first couple years, work/go to school part time to make ends meet, go to a local U & live at home/commute …</p>
<p>Many, many students are in the same situation. Some choose to borrow a lot of money (if they even can do so), but the wise ones choose one of the above options.</p>
<p>With an annual income of $120,000 and one student in college, your parents’ family contribution per FAFSA will likely come to $25,000 or higher for the year.</p>
<p>You, the student, can take $5500 in student loans in your name. Any additional loans would need to be cosigner by your parents.</p>
<p>Is there a college within commuting distance of your home? Is there a community college with commuting distance of your home?</p>
<p>There’s no ‘normal’ that parents pay. Some parents pay $0 and some pay over $50K/yr and some of those paying $0 are making a choice to pay nothing - i.e. they might not be willing to forego the new Mercedes every 3 years, live in a less expensive house, etc. Parents don’t always pay just what the FAFSA indicates as the ‘expected family contribution’. Some are unwilling or unable to pay what the formula states and some are willing and able to pay more.</p>
<p>But none of that really matters to you anyway because you need to deal with your own situation including what your parents are willing and able to pay, if anything. You’ll need to discuss that with them frankly, make sure they’re aware of the true cost of various college options, they’ll need to make a decision on an amount, and then you’ll know what you have to work with. It’ll likely influence your college choice. They may need to be educated in the actual costs of various options and what scholarships/aid is generally available (or not). It may be a shock to them if they’ve kept their heads in the sand on this point for a long time. Keep in mind they may have other expenses you’re not aware of so don’t assume you know the whole financial picture.</p>
<p>Not all colleges cost the same and the quality of the college isn’t directly proportional to what the attendance costs. </p>
<p>Let’s assume your parents are willing to pay $5k/yr. You can then take a look at what your options are (generally ascending order of cost) -
- Go to a CC commuting from home then transfer to a 4 yr.
- Go to a local state U that you can live at home and commute to.
- Go to an in-state U you can live at.
- Go to a private U. Sometimes this option is less than the in-state U option if you get a lot of grants.</p>
<p>You can have a part time job while in college and earn roughly $5K/yr or more which can help also. The remainder of the cost can be in loans but knowing that, you can pick a less expensive option.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>We have the University of Washington in Seattle which I have been told is a wonderful school, depending on which field you’re interested in.
There are a number of community colleges but I’d like to avoid those if possible.</p>
<p>I suppose I can’t go to any of my other schools due to cost without loans, though.</p>
<p>I’ve been talking with my parents and they tell me they couldn’t have possibly saved anymore because living costs are far more expensive than I think.
I just don’t understand how they couldn’t have saved more. We have a family of four and two small dogs.
That doesn’t seem like much. I have a friend who has a family of four with three dogs who can manage to pay for college with a lower income (100k or so). </p>
<p>Is this just high schooler ignorance on my part? It just doesn’t seem plausible to me that they could only save 20k with their income over the past 20-25 years or so.</p>
<p>MOST (read that again…MOST) families do not have college savings for their kids. And there are additional families who have a small savings for college. You are not the only student whose family didn’t save a substantial amount for college costs.</p>
<p>You need to discuss this with your family. If you have an affordable option within commuting distance, you likely could pay the tuition with the $5500 direct loan, $5000 from your parents, and earnings from a part time job.</p>
<p>Are your stats here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1471521-please-chance-me-stanford.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1471521-please-chance-me-stanford.html</a> ?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Look here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250</a></p>
<p>If your parents put in $5,000 per year, and you get a Stafford loan for $5,500 per year, you can cover up to $10,500 per year. If you save $3,000 over summers and add to that, you can cover $13,500 per year. This puts most of the schools listed in that thread within financial reach, since your stats will automatically pick up the big scholarships listed there. You may want to consider one or more of these for safeties.</p>
<p>Of course, there are also competitive full ride merit scholarships to apply to at schools like NCSU, Georgia Tech, UNC-CH, and Duke (you may also want to check whether Washington publics have some). You can also check the net price calculators at exceptionally generous financial aid (but admissions reach) schools like Stanford.</p>
<p>$100,000 per year is not “lower income”. But since you know that your parents are only able and willing to contribute $5,000 per year, you know now to make your application list appropriately.</p>
<p>Though GGD was very diplomatic, I hope you figured out that the 5K your parents are willing/able to help you out, is 5K they do not owe you.</p>
<p>To the OP, if what is posted above is accurate, I think you have underestimated your academic work. Agreed, there are a number of schools that would offer you significant merit aid.</p>
<p>Are you currently a junior? If so, you need to target some of those merit schools. If you are a senior, you might want to consider a gap year…and then next year target those merit schools.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the informative advice! 
This definitely gives me a better idea as to what I should apply to next year.
I will talk with my parents and try to apply to many, many scholarships and hope that covers the difference.
In the meantime, I’ll try looking at more realistic options for college.</p>
<p>As for the lower income bit for my chance thread, I honestly wasn’t aware of my parent’s income until yesterday.
My parents are just so frugal that I always assumed that we were on the lower end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>Depending on your household expenses, $5000 might be all they can truly spare, although Seattle is an expensve area, many people do live larger than they can comfortably afford.
How long has your parents income been that high?
For instance our income is a bit lower, but it was about 1/2 that for the previous 20 years.we live in a 110 yrold 2 bedroom/1bath house,in a semi-industrial neighborhood, dont really take trips or vacations, dont have large savings or unusual expenses, our cars are 10,20 & 50 yrs old.
However, we also committed to meeting EFC as much as we could.( both kids contributed from summer jobs).
If you are taking AP courses at high school, high test scores from AP tests should either earn you credit/ place you out of lower level courses at the UW which should save money. Even if you aren’t taking AP courses, you could self study for the tests.</p>
<p>Also look here for other choices.
[Western</a> Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.wiche.edu/wue]Western”>Save On College Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE))</p>
<p>I am already self-studying 4 AP tests; I am planning on taking roughly 15-20 overall.
My father got a new job as a machinist at Boeing four years ago, after a decade or two in a company that overworked him and paid very little. That may have been part of it.</p>
<p>Because of my financial situation, does this mean that the top 20 colleges are absolutely not an option for me?
This kind of destroys my every dream that I’ve had for the past four years, to be honest.</p>
<p>I will talk with my parents and try to apply to many, many scholarships and hope that covers the difference.</p>
<p>With your parents’ income, applying to “many many scholarships” isn’t going to help you. Those will be for small amounts and only for frosh year. </p>
<p>You need to apply to the SCHOOLS that give large merit.</p>
<p>IF your parents are so frugal, where is their money going?</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know where it’s going. If I knew the answer to that, or rather, if they would permit me to know the answer to that, I sincerely doubt I would be asking about all of this on this thread, don’t you think?</p>
<p>So, I cannot and should not apply to any exceptionally prestigious school like Stanford or Princeton because of my financial circumstances?</p>
<p>None of these are an option for me at all whatsoever? This is really the main question that I’m concerned with. </p>
<p>Hopes of being able to go to one of my dream schools has motivated my entire high school career, and to discover that I, regardless of how well I’ve done in school, on the SAT, with my extracurriculars and everything I’ve done up to this point since freshman year has been completely and utterly pointless is honestly mortifying. </p>
<p>I could easily have gotten in to UW by trying a lot less.</p>
<p>Subterranean:</p>
<p>Take a deep breath!! None of your hard work has been pointless! You have kept your options open-maybe you just need to give other options a fair shake. There are so many great colleges out there. What is your definition of a dream school? Why does it have to be ‘top 20’? Rankings are way overrated.</p>
<p>We are from your neck of the woods. Good stats! How about your PSAT? National Merit status will earn you many more scholarship options. S’13 is still getting some of that mail!</p>
<p>S’13 has very high stats but the very first thing he did was find an academic and financial safety that he loved and applied. He (and D’10) both chose U Alabama, (thanks mom2) heard back in the early fall and would have been very happy to attend. Neither of them wanted to go to UW but they have many friends that have loved their time there as well. They worked hard so they could go out of state instead.</p>
<p>Some families in WA have used the GET program (guaranteed tuition) to save for college over the years. WSU gives full tuition for NM and U Idaho gives full ride. WSU also has other merit scholarships up to full tuition, as does Eastern. Overall the WA schools are expensive and stingy.</p>
<p>Our kids also applied to places that have very good need based aid (which apparently won’t help you if your folks won’t meet EFC) AND good merit aid. It is a lot of work but D’10 had around 750k in merit scholarships to fine schools and her stats were probably not as strong as yours. S’13 has a competitive full ride to UNC Chapel Hill right now as well as the generous UA offer and some early admissions to schools that you would probably say are worth attending. </p>
<p>My nephew is in the same boat as you. Income of 120k with very good stats. Parents don’t want to pay EFC either. Really, who does? At least they listened somewhat, and he has the full ride to Idaho in his back pocket along with a full tuition safety. He has probably applied ‘beneath’ himself by only applying to one top 20 school (which I know they won’t think they will want to fund even if he does get in next week). He has focused on top regional schools (geography helps) and lacs at #25-75ish (helps to be a guy) for scholarship contention. There are many, many top schools out there that are not ‘top 20’ universities. </p>
<p>The bottom line is, relax…you have time to come up with a solid strategy. Have your parents run a few net price calculators.Maybe it will open their eyes and they will consider helping out more? At least they might help you find other good merit options. Start reading all of the very informative threads about scholarships on this site. If you educate yourself this spring, you should have a solid potential list come fall. It is a lot of work but we figured it was more than worth the time and more productive than wishing for the moon. (Although there are some very upper end places that give merit-D was awarded full tuition+ at Vanderbilt…which has lured many away from Ivys.)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>You have a LOT of options. So called “top” schools would actually be very affordable for you given many of them are income based and you would likely see a net cost in the $12,000 range at HYP, etc. You have $11,000 of that covered, you can easily come up with the other $1000 over the summer or during the school year. There are probably 500+ other schools where you would earn merit awards and end up in a similar financial situation. Spend some time on the SAT site (college boards), search for the size school you want with the programs you want and then visit their websites to see what they offer for merit aid. You can also search for the Common Data Set for ________ college and that info is there if they publish it. Plan on applying to 10 schools or so and be realistic about finances. Your stats are very high so find schools where you would come in the top 20% or so academically (so 20% or fewer kids have a 30 or better ACT). Your GPA is just fine with those test scores.</p>
<p>The other consideration is what else will you have on your application-are you in sports, music, etc.?</p>
<p>If you have the stats to realistically apply to HYP type schools, then you also have the stats to garner significant merit aid elsewhere, as noted above. Start looking at that list of schools that offer guaranteed merit awards.</p>
<p>I think HYP are pretty much the ONLY schools that will allow the OP to get away with $12K for a cost. Other schools are not as well endowed to support aid at that income level.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad–I have 20 schools on our spreadsheet that say otherwise and about 100 more that we looked into that would have netted the same results or less. There are PLENTY of schools around the country that are well enough endowed to attract top students at very little cost to that student. There are also 50+ pages on the “schools known for merit aid” that say otherwise as well. Then look at the schools that give automatic full-tuition to students with stats like that and the OP will have PLENTY of schools to choose from…my kid’s stats are good but not that good.</p>
<p>We are talking strictly merit aid and federal loans. We don’t qualify for financial aid anywhere, even the Ivy’s…</p>
<p>SteveMA,</p>
<p>How much $$ do you want for a copy of that spreadsheet and list of 100 more!</p>