<p>I have no idea what to do and I am very scared right now. I have accepted my offer of admission to DePaul university in the fall with a 10,500 merit scholarship. However, the cost of attendance is 45,700, and DePaul gave me NO financial aid period. Not even one single penny. My dad and I appealed and we talked to them on the phone, sent them an appeal email letter explaining how he is chronically ill with kidney failure and lives off home dialysis and how we can not afford college with high medical bills and a high mortgage of over a half a million dollars. I have no idea what to do. I applied to 11 colleges, but go rejected from 9, and waitlisted at one which I accepted the waitlist position at my state school. I would like to apply for student loans, however my parents REFUSE to cosign them. I am completely left on my own. I also have no job, so no source of income from myself. I tried applying for a sallie mae loan, but they rejected me saying I needed a cosigner for approval. I don't know what to do. Please help!</p>
<p>Have you considered community college? These are usually the most affordable options and generally have open enrollment. Perhaps if you do that for 1 or 2 years, you’ll be in a better place financially to pursue another a college at that time?</p>
<p>2015hopeful…You do have options, but DePaul is not one of them. Period. Unless your parents are willing to pay the $35,000 difference out of pocket, and since they’re not willing to co-sign loans for you I’m guessing they’re not willing to pay $35K per year either.</p>
<p>How realistic were you in the universities you applied to? You must have fairly good stats if you were accepted to DePaul, so what were the other 10 schools? Did you bother to apply to any financial safety schools (local or state U’s which you could commute to)? Did your parents file a FAFSA? What was your EFC? Based on a $500,000 mortgage and $0 FA I’m guessing the EFC was fairly high, but you’re at least eligible for un-sub Stafford loans which would probably cover tuition at a community college as rachelfran suggested.</p>
<p>I’m sorry about your father’s medical condition and that you find yourself in this situation, but you should’ve discussed the financial realities with your parents before you ever applied to any schools. If you can’t get things straightened out soon enough this year, I’d recommend taking a gap year, reassessing finances with your parents, and choosing different schools to apply to next year.</p>
<p>If you file the FAFSA, you will be able to take un-subsidized Stafford Loans. The limits are:
Freshman year $5,500
Sophomore year $6,500
Junior year $7,500
Senior year $7,500</p>
<p>You can’t qualify for more than that without a co-signer. DePaul is unaffordable for you.</p>
<p>However, the Stafford amounts are probably enough to pay for a community college that you can commute to, and may cover most of the cost of a public university that you can commute to. Do you have any near enough to make that work?</p>
<p>How much can your parents pay? Something? Nothing? You need to find that out because it will define what your financial baseline is. If you get off the waitlists, you can compare the different financial aid packages with this calculator: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>
<p>Wolverine86 suggests taking a gap year. If you do that, you probably shouldn’t take any classes at all, so you can apply as a Freshman. If your stats are good, you might qualify for decent merit-based aid. Look through this thread for ideas: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a> And for general inspiration about gap years see: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html</a></p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Your parents are right not to co-sign. Such debt would be life-crippling, you would not be able to make the payments, and your parents would be stuck with the results.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that you were poorly advised as to which schools to apply to. You applied to schools that you didn’t have the stats for and you didn’t have a financial safety school.</p>
<p>Schools like DePaul don’t have much aid to give. Since you didn’t get fed grants, that suggests that your EFC is too high for that.</p>
<p>You will likely have to go to a CC unless you get accepted to your state school with enough aid (which isn’t likely).</p>
<p>My parents are shelling out only $10,000. My parents have advised me about the schools I have applied to for a long time, I just did not listen to them. My dad thinks I should take a gap year then apply to a good school with good aid. But I don’t want to do that. Why can’t I just get ANY loan for around $20,000 a year? I do not care about being in debt after college.</p>
<p>My dad also said that I should ask my multi-million dollar relatives for personal loans that I can pay them back later. But I do not feel comfortable asking one of my relatives for $20,000 check.</p>
<p>2015hopeful, you might not care about being in debt after college, but those that loan you the money will care whether you can/will pay them back. There were horror stories about people in debt with large student loans that had a hard time figuring out how to make the payments. Going to a community college as what others suggest is a very good option. If you work hard and maintain good grades, you can transfer to very good universities after one or two years. You can go to the Transfer Thread here to see many successful stories. In the mean time, you will save a lot of money and make your college dream a reality.</p>
<p>I really do not need to go to CC. I am serious. All I want is a loan that I can pay back myself. Do you know if the MEFA loan requires you to have a co-signer if you have no credit history?</p>
<p>*Why can’t I just get ANY loan for around $20,000 a year? I do not care about being in debt after college. *</p>
<p>No bank is going to lend someone with no serious work experience or serious income 20K (or even sums much less). It is an unsecured debt (ie: if you don’t pay them back they can’t just take your house like with a mortgage or a car). That is why you need a co-signer. That is just how the banking world works.</p>
<p>There are student loans from the government, but notice two things. First, your “co-signer” is the Federal Government and the tax payers. Second, even they limit the student borrowers to about 5K a year on average for Subsidized loans. </p>
<p>*I really do not need to go to CC. I am serious. *</p>
<p>You might not want to go to a CC. But you probably can not afford your current college and therefore may need to attend a CC or an inexpensive state college.</p>
<p>*Do you know if the MEFA loan requires you to have a co-signer if you have no credit history?
*</p>
<p>I know very little about MEFA but a quick glance at the website points to co-signers every step of the way. The students that would not need a co-signer are likely those who have significant incomes, income histories and/or collateral. No–MEFA is not going to lend an underemployed college student with no credit history 20K or even 2K.</p>
<p>If your rich relatives won’t help you out, then you will need to come up with a plan B that works within your money and borrowing limits. It may mean a gap year or applying to CCs and state schools.</p>
<p>No bank or company is going to give a loan to a 17/18 year old with no job and no credit history. Your parents are willing to pay $10,000 a year, and you can borrow the stafford limit of $5500, so you need to find a college that will accept you at this time and will be affordable. You need to accept responsiblity for getting yourself into this situation, since you did not listen to your parents when they tried to advise you about what colleges to apply to. </p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Why should Depaul pay for you to go there? They have given you a nice discount off of the tuition. On top of that you can take up to $5500 in loans in your own name. You can start looking for work now, several jobs at nursing homes, baby sitting, elderly care, burger joints, tutoring, so you make some money. Hopefully you and your parents have SOME money to put towards this. You weren’t expecting a full ride were you? Why should anyone pay your room and board and necessities? Why would you expect such a thing? </p>
<p>Can you commute to DePaul? That may be doable with what your parents are willing to pay, your loan, your scholarship and what you can scrape up. </p>
<p>No, I don’t know anyplace or anyone that will give you an unsecured loan. Your own parents won’t do it and they love you, so how the heck can you expect anyone else to take the risk. Your dad can take out PLUS, defer the payments till you graduate and draw up papers for a loan to you for the amounts and trust you will pay them. Heck, if he passes away, the loan will be gone. Cruel thought, but being pragmatic here. But if he doesn’t want to take the chance on owing the money, you are being crueler pushing the option. </p>
<p>His suggestion to take a gap year sounds good to me. Since you now know you aren’t going to qualify for financial aid most likely, you might as well earn the money. This time put some realistic choices on your list.</p>
<p>I’m sure you don’t care about debt now, but the fact remains that you cannot get a loan of $20K/year without a co-signer.
Tomorrow, the NACAC will release their survey results of schools still accepting applications for Fall 2011. Take a look and see if there are affordable options. Otherwise, consider CC. The only stigma attached to going to a CC is the one you place on it yourself. Or listen to Dad, take a gap year & apply to some better (affordable) matches.</p>
<p>We discussed what we were willing to pay for school at length with our daughters and they applied accordingly. Every match & safety school was one we could afford with or without merit aid and one they’d attend, to boot.</p>
<p>Community college may be your best bet –> many schools have programs with community colleges where additional aid is given. </p>
<p>During my senior year in high school I wanted to go to NYU and got in, but I was denied fin. aid because my dad’s retirement plan was to make an income off of rental properties and on tax files and fafsa, these monies come up as additional yearly income. At the same time my mom was very ill and could not work (she did pass away soon after). I am now applying again to four year schools to finish my undergrad.</p>
<p>I hated the idea of cc. Absolutely 100% hated it, but a good portion of the students there were in the same boat as I. CC may seem like the worst, but in actuality, it may be your best best. I would at least look into it.</p>
<p>Maybe you should start listening?</p>
<p>2015hopeful–I see from previous posts you’re from the Boston area, and as far as community colleges with an eventual transfer to a university, your options are almost endless. This is a good thing–you do NOT want to go in debt into the six figures by traveling to Chicago to go to DePaul. It’s an expensive city in which to live.</p>
<p>Take advantage of one of the best college towns in the country & work your way up.</p>
<p>* My parents have advised me about the schools I have applied to for a long time, **I just did not listen to them. **My dad thinks I should take a gap year then apply to a good school with good aid. But I don’t want to do that. *</p>
<p>Ok…HARSHNESS alert!!!</p>
<p>You’ve already proved to be stubbornly headstrong without good common sense. At this point, you should be crying “uncle” and admitting that your foresight skills and decision-making skills are very weak. So, why are you persisting on your continued path of poor decision making? Where have you shown that you have the insight to make such decisions?</p>
<p>* I do not care about being in debt after college. *</p>
<p>More proof that you lack foresight. You WILL care that you’re drowning in debt after college. You WILL care that your co-workers can afford to live in nice places, drive nice cars and have nice clothes…while your money is going to pay for silly debt.</p>
<p>I’m glad that your parents are going to save you from yourself and not co-sign. Some one has to be the adult, and your parents are doing the right thing.</p>
<p>Part of becoming an adult is realizing that you can’t just do what you want to do. Bills have to get paid; reasonable choices need to be made.</p>
<p>/harshness</p>
<p>Now…you have 2 choices…</p>
<p>1) Gap year (don’t take ANY classes) and reapply. What are your stats? What is your likely major? Where did you apply and get rejected? Can you retest for higher scores for next year’s app season? </p>
<p>2) Start at a community college. That is only an immediate solution. Transferring later will likely result in poor FA packages. </p>
<p>I vote for option 1.</p>
<p>^lol, mom2collegekids.</p>
<p>I couldn’t have said it better myself. </p>
<p>She’s right … those are basically your only two choices. DePaul is NOT a choice, because you don’t have the money to pay for it.</p>
<p>If you take option 1, you can carefully consider everything that you failed to consider this first time around. Apply to schools that are safeties and matches, and that offer good merit aid for your stats.</p>
<p>If you take option 2, you can complete a great deal of your core courses for a relatively small amount of money. (Be pretty sure that you can transfer them later to the 4-year school(s) you think you’ll eventually attend). My kids have a few very good friends doing option 2. We’re very impressed with their work ethic! They complete huge amounts of coursework each semester, including summers, and they hold down jobs to earn their way. It’s something that a lot of students have to do these days, college costs being what they are. In my opinion, it is a VERY impressive way to put yourself through college!</p>
<p>Wishing you the best. I know it’s disappointing. But it’s your reality at this time, and there’s no getting around that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Your parents do not want you to wind up where they are. Debt takes away choices, everything from where you can live to helping your child more with college. </p>
<p>I know it’s difficult but try to understand where they are coming from. Or if you cannot understand it, at least know that they are doing it because they truly believe it is the best thing for you. A lot of us parents here at CC refuse to co-sign loans. Excessive debt is to be avoided and until you’re old enough to understand that, your parents are protecting you even if it doesn’t feel that way.</p>
<p>I rarely say this but sometimes a kid comes along who needs a “do over” of the application process and I believe you may be that kid. When 9 of 11 school reject you plus having no financial safety shows a lack of understand of the application process. You have a wonderful resource here to help you come up with a new list of schools to apply to if you want to share your information. </p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck. I know you are in a difficult spot, but the sooner you accept reality, the sooner you can move on.</p>
<p>*my GPA will be around a 3.2 or 3.3 UW …[I’m going to] retake the ACT for a 36 (I only have a 26 now), *</p>
<p>Another harshness alert… :(</p>
<p>I saw the list of schools you applied to. Completely unrealistic based on your stats. </p>
<p>* Bryn Mawr, Northwestern Medill ED, Tulane, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Uchicago, Smith *</p>
<p>The fact that you were advised to apply to different schools, but chose to do it “your way” (which proved to be a failure) and that you’re still not listening is not a good sign that you’ll have a successful outcome.</p>
<p>You have relatives and a parent that work/have worked for very good colleges, yet you chose not to listen to people who know SOOOOOOO much more than you do.</p>
<p>Is your scholarship from DePaul for $10,500 or $18k? you have posts with different amounts.</p>
<p>Frankly, I wonder why you’ve started this thread asking for “help”. Do you really want “help”? Are you finally willing to listen?</p>