My parents’ household income is high enough (upper middle-class) where I won’t be receiving much federal aid money or any need-based scholarships. However, my parents insisted they are not helping me pay for college whatsoever because they don’t have the money.
How am I supposed to pay for college when I have no money and will receive little to no financial aid?
Merit based aid? Going to a school in your town part time and working? Going to a school with a co-op program (saving enough to pay for the first year before you start) and working 6 months of the year.
Take a look at some of these for merit scholarships
If you do well on your PSAT and get the to the NMF stage: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-an-updated-compilation-p1.html
What year are you in high school?
“However, my parents insisted they are not helping me pay for college whatsoever because they don’t have the money.”
Actually, they do have the money, they are choosing not to give it to you.
What reason have they given you?
What is their actual income?
Have you run net price calculators on a variety of schools and shown them the costs - do they realize that it’s almost impossible to ‘work your way through college’ the way it used to be in our day?
Did they give a rationale?
What are your stats - GPA, test scores - and what state do you live in?
Only 1% get a full ride, and it highly depends on test scores, plus, often, everything else (course rigor, ec 's, etc.)
Focus on automatic scholarships for stats from the yola list and complete those apps TODAY.
You may have to miss school a bit because deadlines are December first and you’ll basically need to devote every waking hour to that task.
Please provide your stats so we can help you.
Do your parents not want to pay because they don’t like the schools you are applying to or are they refusing to pay for even your in state option?
ETA…you are a Wisconsin resident. There are some lower cost schools in Wisconsin than Madison. Look for those. And look for places where you might get merit aid.
A previous thread says you are interested in UCLA. You need to ditch that school from your list. Out of state residents don’t receive any need based aid…and merit aid for OOS students goes only to the tippy tippy top applicants. And you won’t be able to establish residency there while you are an undergrad if your parents continue to live elsewhere.
There are some options.
You don’t need to go to a $60,000 or more per year college.
Here is my suggestion. Get the cost of attendance information for your instate public four year universities. This would include your flagship as well as any other public four year colleges. You need to have a conversation with your parents about what they hope you will be doing after you graduate from high school. Share these costs with them…these are your instate publics…and without considering aid or anything else…they will likely be less costly than other schools. Maybe your parents don’t know how much college costs now. As an example, my son went to Boston University…he graduated in 2007. When he started in 2003, the cost to attend was $38,000 a year. It is now $70,000 a year…or so. College costs have gone up.
Also, if you have been talking about $60,000 or $70,000 out of state public universities or private universities, maybe THAT is the cost your parents are not willing to pay.
What year are you in high school?
Actually if you say you are going to join the military they might change their minds!
Please clarify your situation. Will your parents not pay for college at all or they just won’t pay for you to go to California? Your financial situation hasn’t changed since September when you posted about applying to CA publics. They don’t offer aid to OOS students and you won’t be able to get residency there. If you were still filling out UC applications 3 days ago like your other threads suggest I can understand why your parents would be frustrated.
A lot of kids want to go OOS for college. If you tell us your stats and how much your parents will pay we might be able to help you find some options. Many students attend college in their home state because it’s less expensive and move OOS after they graduate. That’s a great option for families who can’t afford to pay a lot because the student gets a college degree but doesn’t start their adult life with loads of debt. What are you interested in studying?
What happened since you wrote this in October?
You say…your parents want you to go to UW Madison.
Additionally you go on about liking CA better and wanting to move there. You do know…you can move to CA without going to college? Find yourself a job where you can afford to pay all of your living expenses in CA. It won’t help you with college costs should,you decide to go to college there…but you CAN live there if you can support your living expenses. But it’s an expensive place to live.
What business do you have the knowledge and funds to start up without a college degree and/or 4-6 years more maturity/life experience?
The title of your post should be: “How to pay for college IN CALIFORNIA with no financial aid or help from my parents.”
Aint gonna happen. Your previous post tells us:
You are fully aware that your parents will pay for you to go to college instate, but you want them to pay for UCLA. That is a very expensive school given that you are OOS.
Even instate California residents can’t afford some of the schools.
My suggestion is the along the same lines as @coolweather: work.
If you plan on coming to California, by yourself, you are going to be working your tail off. Your rent, in big cities, in California, will run anywhere from $1500 to $2000 per month. That price doesn’t include utilities, food, and the needed transportation. Transportation in California is poor; that’s why everyone drives. We have high costs of fuel.
Unless you plan on living outside of the cities, in our rural communities, you will be working, at least 2-3 jobs, paying big time to support yourself. Savings? Very little, even our CC’s have become expensive. As an 18 yr old, without an education, finding jobs will be tough because you will be competing with all of the other OOS people, who have degrees and have moved to California. You will need capital if you think you have a business venture. I don’t know of too many companies who will sponsor a non-secure 18 year old without a degree or significant experience and returns.
What’s wrong with Wisconsin? Have you ever lived in Madison? Are you from a rural area?
As a parent, I want to understand a young person’s dreams and aspirations. At the same time, UW is a world class institution, with a very strong business school, and terrific networking and start up opportunities right there in Madison, as it is becoming a start up hub. If that is what is affordable – which is the biggest factor driving college choice for most families – not sure what the problem is. UW is roughly 60% Wisconsin residents, about 15% MN residents (I think those numbers are accurate), and the remaining students are from elsewhere, with many from either coasts. My UW student has many friends from east and west coast, so there are plenty of “networking” opportunities to look beyond Wisconsin.
What about tuition reciprocity with Minnesota, if you don’t want to stay in WI under any circumstances?
Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond. If anyone is still on this thread, here are my stats:
3.68 gpa (I’m not sure how gpa is weight in California, but I think my UC gpa would be higher than this(?)).
32 ACT
extracurriculars: two jobs, self-taught myself basic programming and web development, built a few iPhone apps and sold them on the App Store, run multiple websites, and founded an LLC for an online store business when I was 14 (which failed). I know these are random but I tried to pick extracurriculars that stand out.
As for my parents, their combined income is around $185-190k and they told me they can’t afford to help me pay for my college. I’m not sure if they are serious or if that is their sneaky way of making me choose a more affordable college since I will be paying for it myself. When I filled out FAFSA my Estimated Family Contribution was 049515.
At this point I am still hoping to go to Madison. In total, I applied to Berkeley, UCLA, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz just to see if I would even get into any of those schools. If I get into Madison, I will most likely go there and hope my parents can help me.
Well…as you now know…you won’t qualify for a speck of need based aid at any of those CA schools. You will just have to wait to see if you get any merit aid. Otherwise you will be full pay there.
Did you apply anywhere else beside a bunch of UCs and Madison?
I am sorry, but as a parent I cannot comprehend how your parents can make an excellent income and are not willing to help their kids out with college. What do they spend their money on if they cannot even contribute a few thousand dollars to help you out? If you commuted, would they be willing to let you live at home and pay for your meals/car etc…? Do they have any idea how much college costs these days?
Apply quickly to u Wisconsin Eau Claire /honors program and add umn Morris as well as Truman State and U Alabama too.
Time is of the essence because scholarship deadlines may be soon or passed. Get it all out tonight, hopefully even Dec 1st deadlines will still consider you for scholarships.
I, too, can’t comprehend how your parents, who make four times the average American income, aren’t willing to help at all. Do hey know how much it costs? Have they been to college in the US? Do they expect you to attend community college and commute from home? If you get into Madison or umn twin cities, will they pay for your food and housing there?