<p>The harsh reality is that a family making 100k is going to have an EFC of ~25k. If this is more than the cost of attendance, you daughter is not going to get federal work study, nor is she going to get need based financial aid. </p>
<p>While your daughter may not be eligible for work study, perhaps she can find a non-work study job on campus (perhaps at the book store, dining services or with one of the vendors that supply services to the school).</p>
<p>Again, I agree with m2k, if she is good enough to get into the Honors college, she should defer a year, get a part-time job, so that she can save and defray some of her expenses and put together a new list of schools, and apply where she stands a good chance of getting merit aid. Her getting scholarship $$ sophomore year is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>I want reiterate sybbie’s point. The best chance to get scholarships is for incoming freshman. As a sophomor there is almost a zero chance to get significant scholarships</p>
<p>Since the school has no guaranteed scholarships, there is no way of knowing whether or not your daughter would have actually received a scholarship. With a household income of 100K, you are never going to be eligible for need based financial aid other than loans, because your EFC is higher than the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>I understand your desire for your daughter to attend college, but your financial plan is a train wreck that will leave your daughter with over 60k of non-dischargable debt (student loan debt is not dischargable through bankruptcy).</p>
<p>The direct cost of attending Northern Kentucky university is ~7938 (tuition) +196 (campus fee). The lowest cost meal plan and dorms brings the cost of to ~ 15,170</p>
<p>While you may want to provide your daughter with the luxury of having a “real college experience” of living in the dorms and having a meal plan, you cannot afford this. She needs to live at home. Even if you take out the max stafford/direct loans, you need almost 3k just to make the tuition work. </p>
<p>If you should max out your own Stafford direct loans for her first 2 years (provided that she maxes out her stafford loans), where are you going to find 30k to make the last 2 years financially affordable?</p>
<p>Perhaps she needs to start at community college where the cost of attendance is ~ 5600/year (tuition is $140/credit). While your daughter may not find this to be the ideal situation, the net-net is that this is what your family can afford.</p>
<p>OP, not to be mean but at $100K income level your family is in the top 2% income level in the US according to the the census. That is hardly “middle class”.</p>
<p>Your anger towards those making low incomes and getting help is misplaced.</p>
<p>I know that maybe technically the OP isn’t “middle class” by income. However, considering that the OP is a LPN, it sounds like the income is mostly her new H’s income, and they’ve both been financially devastated by their divorces. </p>
<p>Divorce can take a huge financial toll on families. Therefore, even those who may have or have had “upper middle incomes” during their prior marriages, may emerge with only their salaries and debt after the marriages end…and the debt is eating away at their incomes. And we don’t even know what the OP’s family income was during her prior marriage. </p>
<p>When people post about “life after divorce” in the Parent Cafe and other sections, there are two common themes…1) women who are doing financially well after the divorce because they have strong incomes and assets. They are happily rebuilding their lives, remodeling their new homes, dating, remarrying, etc. 2) women who are struggling because their “family income” is now gone. They earn a fraction of what their ex’s earn, and there’s little to no savings for cushion. And, the ex’s aren’t helping a lick with college costs and child support ends with HS graduation.</p>
<p>Right now, the OP certainly isn’t feeling like someone who has an upper-middle class income if after making debt payments, there is little to nothing left over. </p>
<p>No one should begrudge low income kids who get FA. However, after seeing some of the posts here on CC, there are a fair amount of kids who really aren’t low income who are getting aid that they shouldn’t be getting (families lying about who the custodial parent is, hiding assets, etc). </p>
<p>It can be very frustrating to those who are really struggling after a financial disaster (divorce, unemployment, under-employment, etc) who still don’t qualify for any help.</p>
<p>This is why she should not be digging her self and her daughter into even deeper debt to the tune of 60k. She needs to find some more affordable options.</p>
<p>I agree. I think a gap year so that the child can qualify for merit scholarships is the answer. And at that point, the mom will only have one semester of her own to finish.</p>
<p>CC isn’t necessarily reflective of the real world. I would imagine that while there surely are families gaming the federal FA system (just like there are people who cheat on their taxes, people who rip off their employers, people who lie on loan applications, etc.), most who are getting federal FA qualify for it through legitimate means. I also think that there is a tradeoff - the documentation requirements could be make even more burdensome than they are, which would likely catch some cheaters, but at the same time would make it more difficult for those with legitimate need to qualify.</p>
<p>Iron Maiden, you’re way off base on this one. $100,000 is not top two percent household income. Not even close. 20% of American households make that much.</p>
<p>It’s a good upper-middle-class living standard, but it’s not “rich.”</p>
<p>That said, the OP needs to recognize that her family is in a better situation than most. Resentment against working-class folks is not going to earn you any sympathy.</p>
<p>My apologies typo. 20% is correct. But my point still stands. When you make more than 80% of the country that is not the definition of middle class.</p>
<p>The sad thing is if the OP hadn’t recently remarried, it’s possible that her D may have qualified for Pell Grants…or maybe the OP would have qualified for Pell Grants.</p>
<p>I didnt mean to offend anyone at all, I am blessed, I know this, times are rough, our wages certainly look great on paper, but the truth is we barely scrape by, I love to see young kids get financial aid, its the people in my age group, in my town, that I see reap in the financial aid, drop their classess, or never come to class and flunk out that I was talking about, I didnt mean to step on anyones toes, but people around here go to school for a living, but at least now with the new laws they cant do it forever. Thank you everyone for your advice, it has given me alot to think about, and the truth is we cant afford it, not at all, I guess Im just feeling really bad and not wanting to tell my daughter, I should have been saving her whole life, thanks for all of you who took the time to give your advice, its all very much appreciated.</p>
<p>I do sympathize that the family is trying to rebuild and that though the income is there, past debts and problems make it so that it cannot be used for college. I agree with those who have suggested that the student take a gap year and apply for the merit money. OP and DD should talk to the college about the likelihood of the D getting any such awards. ALso the student can work and earn money and maybe take a class or two (watch out about losing freshman standing ) at a community college to get herself primed for going away. As a lifeguard, she can also expect to find an above average paying job at school. My son was earning several dollars more than the work study kid s as a life guard at college and the hours were plentiful, his pick, and flexible. His cousin, who did get a work study award, was working a non work study job because she could not get the hours and a job that fit her schedule through WS until partway through the year, and even then worked more hours non Work study, since her award was tiny.</p>
<p>No need to apologize, OP. It happens a lot. Where it irks most people is when there is an assumption that there will be aid simply because the family "can’t afford " to pay with the definition of “can’t afford” often being, having tied up ones money in a lifestyle or way so that one cannot pay without changing it drastically, and not willing to do so.</p>
<p>There are people around here who will argue purple in the face that they HAVE to live in a million dollar house, HAVE to drive a $40K car, have to have that second home, take that vacation, pay for house/yard help in a way that makes it clear that they are oblivious and/or don’t care that most of the country do not have such assets and expenditures to cut back upon.</p>
<p>Thank you very much, we have worked very hard to try to dig ourselves out of the mess we are in, and have decided that to go way further deep into debt at this time doesnt make any sense. We dont have a plan yet, but were not doing that we know for sure. Thanks, I will be back, this site has a wealth of information for students and parents. I have learned alot. Kudo’s!</p>
<p>OP, be sure that if your D takes a gap year, she does NOT take any classes at any college. Some colleges consider a transfer student to be a person with any credits at all, others consider transfers to have 12 or more credits - she could take a course through the red cross or similar organization to do certified nurse assistant work, etc if she is interested in the field. Maybe she would make more doing that type of job than flipping burgers or working retail while she waits to re-apply. Lots of kids take a gap year, usually because they just aren’t sure what they want to do and don’t want to waste money. She can take the time to really research lots of schools in lots of areas, find schools with guaranteed merit scholarships for people with her test scores, gpa, etc, and then find a school that will be much more comfortable financially. Getting many offers from many schools will also let her have choices. For my D, she is attending a private U in New Hampshire that works out to cost less than our state U, which didn’t offer as much merit and grant money. You just never know without research and applying. Don’t apply early decision anywhere, because that will take away the ability to really compare financial aid offers, but do get applications in nice and early, Make plans and commit to getting your taxes done in very early Feb as soon as all your paperwork is collected so that you can File the FAFSA by Feb 15 (a common deadline) (you can always estimate based on this year’s taxes and then go make small changes to the FAFSA after your taxes are finalized, but either way, get the FAFSA/CSS Profile done in early Feb), and instead of feeling pressured and stressed, you will be in charge of the decision making process! Good luck. A year will go by very quickly if your D makes a job of job shadowing, interning, volunteering, working, maybe a little traveling to check out colleges she discovers, etc! Time well spent could be very exciting, eye opening, and make college that much better of an experience in the end!
Oh, and Out of state state schools will most likely NOT have as much money to offer out of state students as private colleges and universities will… just in case you hadn’t considered that and she begins looking at other state’s schools.</p>
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