Is there anything I can do, or am I stuck?

Paying for College
1

<p>I finally sat my mom down to fill out FAFSA4CASTER... I definitely expected a lot more from the government than they said.</p>

<p>Here's pretty much the run down of how things are lookign for me:
My parent's have been divorced for 7 years; my dad's supposed to be paying about $600 a month in child support. He has not paid once until a month ago after my mom took him to court.</p>

<p>My mom's income is a little bit under 90k, and my dad's is '0'. (He does trading and stocks, and stuff. But everything's so complicated with him being an immigrant and all this other jazz, so pretty much his income and everything is zero, but I can't file under him because he has no files...).</p>

<p>So FAFSA4Caster put the EFC around 18k. And I know my dad isn't willing to pay one penny towards college. My mom can't afford it, either. She's got 3 teenagers, and a toddler with autism, and it wasn't until recently that we got state-paid care for everything. Everything else has been out of pocket. My mom literally had less than $500 dollars in both savings and checking combined. </p>

<p>So basically, my bottom line is, will I really be stuck with having to pay this much money, and how much do you think I might be able to negotiate with colleges?</p>

<p>I really don't want to limit my dreams becaues of money. I've worked so hard these 4 years of high school. And I don't want my parents to use this as a reason to not let me go out of state.</p>

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<p>If you’re talking about OOS private colleges, they will look at both parents. They look at income and assets, amd if your dad trade stocks he must have some assets. </p>

<p>If you filled out FAFSA forms correctly, that EFC is pretty much the minimum any school will expect unless there are unusual circumstances like high medical bills. Profile schools will generally want even more because they look at things like home equity.</p>

<p>Bottom line, hard to pay less than your EFC unless you have good stats and focus on merit aid schools.</p>

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<p>This initial dose of reality is pretty hard to swallow, but better to find out now what your estimated family contribution is so that you can narrow down your college list to those that you and your family can afford. </p>

<p>If you have excellent grades and test scores, there are many colleges that will award a combination of need and merit awards such that they become affordable. Some might even give you a full ride. Check out this thread for more details:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Just to clarify, the FAFSA must be filled out using the income and assets of the parent with whom you live. If you live with your mother, you must use her income on the form. FAFSA is used by nearly all colleges, both public and private. Not all private colleges require that the Profile form, and of those less than half require the non-custodial parents to fill out the non-custodial parent version of the form.</p>

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<p>Hmom5 is right, though, that it’s uncommon for you to end up paying much less than your FAFSA EFC regardless of how good the aid package is, or what school it comes from. Grant aid, either based on need or merit, will generally reduce (and sometime eliminate) the amount you or your parent would have to borrow above the EFC. There are certainly some schools that offer excellent merit aid to attract top students, but it will be important for you to do some research to dig them up. If your application is a strong one, you could end up well taken care of, but do be realistic about what the FA landscape is likely to be.</p>

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<p>This is true, but it’s important to note that none of the Profile colleges that do not require the second parent’s info meet full need nor do most of the FAFSA only schools.</p>

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<p>First, I want to clear up a possible misunderstanding that I’m inferring from the above quote.</p>

<p>When FAFSA figures a family’s EFC, the government doesn’t “make up” the difference with a nice fat check. For instance, if college cost is $50k per year and EFC is $20k, then the government doesn’t “make up” the difference by giving you $30k. Usually the “difference” (in this case, $30k) is made up with low interest student loans, and your family is supposed to come up with the EFC $20k. Some ivies and other top schools have huge endowments which allow them to give some free money, but most colleges don’t. In your particular case, that would mean about $50k per year in loans and perhaps some work/study.</p>

<p>In your case, since your mom won’t be able to pay the EFC and your dad won’t pay anything, your only real option is looking for merit money. What are your stats?</p>

<p>Please understand that you may want to go out of state (as many kids do), but the realities of your financial situation may not allow for that unless your scores are high enough to get you a lot of merit money. </p>

<p>I don’t think many of us here on the forum would ever recommend that you take out student loans for your entire college costs since that could easily leave you in debt of $200+K when you graduate.</p>

<p>I was wondering from your screenname…are you living in the south? there are several southern colleges that are quite generous with merit money.</p>

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<p>rajincajunfire -</p>

<p>Now that you know what the colleges/universities will expect your family to be able to pay, there are a few questions that you and your mom have to answer:</p>

<p>1) How much can your mom afford to pay out of pocket?</p>

<p>2) How much debt is your mother willing to take on for your education?</p>

<p>3) How much debt do you and your mother think is appropriate for you to take on for your education?</p>

<p>4) How much money can you realistically earn during vacations and through part-time jobs during the school year that you would then be able to use for your education?</p>

<p>When you have those figures, you will know how close you can come to meeting your EFC, and you will be better able to develop a workable plan for paying for your education.</p>

<p>You wrote, “I really don’t want to limit my dreams becaues of money. I’ve worked so hard these 4 years of high school.” Well, the simple hard truth is that just about everyone has to limit some of their life dreams because of money. Nationwide the single largest group of traditional age college students is the one that attends community colleges and works (either full- or part-time) to pay for their own educations. The second largest group of traditional age college students attends their (relatively inexpensive) home-state public U. A fair number of those are also working full- or part-time to pay their own way. If you find that these options are the only ones that you have to choose from, you certainly won’t be alone.</p>

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<p>2) How much debt is your mother willing to take on for your education?
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<p>I have a feeling that the answers to those questions are going to be:</p>

<p>1) She can contribute very little (if anything) since this single mom has to support her other children.</p>

<p>2) mom isn’t willing to take on debt for OP’s education - again, since she has to support her other children, and she wouldn’t be able to take on debt for those kids’ education either.</p>

<p>That’s just my gut feel, but maybe the OP will answer differently.</p>

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<p>Mine too, but until she and the OP sit down and talk about this in person, the OP won’t be able to begin to figure out where to start. The toughest part of this whole process is getting real about the money. Way too many families spend too much time in denial.</p>

<p>I myself spent about 2 years in denial. Fortunately because I’d run the FAFSA calculators early on, that denial was over by the beginning of Happykid’s junior year in HS.</p>

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<p>Oh, I hear ya! :)</p>

<p>I can’t tell you how many parents I’ve spoken to that have never looked at the total cost of attendence…they think prices are going to be just a little bit more then when they went to college! My neighbor almost had a stroke when I told him how much Vandy costs (he wanted his DD to go there or to UIUC as an OOS student!). They wouldn’t qualify for aid, and they don’t have any college savings, so $55K a year is not doable in any way. They are now looking at our flagship state.</p>

<p>My SIL promised her four kids that she would pay for Notre Dame if they got accepted. When I informed her of the cost, she quickly withdrew her promise.</p>

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<p>To the OP: You have a situation that is complicated by the fact that your parents (at least your Dad) is seemingly dishonest and a cheat. (Hasn’t paid child support, doesn’t file tax return…) Although you don’t say so, it is possible that you do have some sort of relationship with your father, and that he has assets and or income. Possibly, once you have college admissions and financial aid awards in hand, you will be able to negotiate something with him. You said something about your parents’ wanting to force you to go in-state – anyways, sounds like a complicated story.</p>

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<p>It’s so sad that there are deadbeat dads out there that won’t pay child-support. Since this dad has recently been hit with a court order to pay back-child-support (which he meanly avoided for years), I really doubt that he’d be willing to open his wallet for his college kid. Men like this don’t care about anyone other than themselves…that’s why they don’t give it a second thought when they don’t pay support. They aren’t worrying if their kids go to bed hungry or not. They are also very careful to either not have assets or to hide assets. </p>

<p>Don’t forget, his mom has the first crack at this guy’s assets since she has the new court order against him.</p>

<p>The OP can never make a college choice based on anything that this dad might say because the dad can’t be considered reliable. he could agree, but then reneg.</p>

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<p>OP, I note that you give your location as Phoenix, so you do have at least one very good cheap option: living at home and attending ASU. Tuition and fees are less than $7,000 per year for AZ residents, and if your stats are high enough, you can get into Barrett Honors College and receive some fairly generous merit aid.</p>

<p>ASU may not be your out-of-state “dream school” but you will get an excellent education, none the less. And Barrett provides exceptional opportunities for top students.</p>

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<p>What are your stats? It looks like you’ll be needing merit money since your family can’t afford its EFC.</p>

<p>Do you qualify for the AIMS scholarship?</p>

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<p>I really don’t understand parents who don’t pay child support. Do they really think their former significant other made the baby on their own?</p>

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<p>The problem is that such parents don’t “think”. They don’t spend two minutes thinking about how the children’s expenses are being covered. They are often too busy either pursuing their “new lives” (which “requires” all of their money), or being “vindictive” to their former spouses. </p>

<p>These people need to be threatened with jail as soon as they miss 2 or 3 payments.</p>

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<p>Sorry, it took me so long to reply, but thank you all for the feedback, it really means a lot. My stats are pretty good. I’ve got a high GPA, I’m ranked 4th in my class, I’m in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, I’m the President of NHS & FCA, and played sports. My test scores aren’t spectacular by any means, I’m awful at testing, but they’re not ‘bad’ either.</p>

<p>1) How much can your mom afford to pay out of pocket? Not much at all. When I ask things like this she always says ‘nothing’, but if push comes to shove, probably not more than $2,000. And that’s not even a lump sum, probably over the span of a year. </p>

<p>2) How much debt is your mother willing to take on for your education? None. She would rather me go to community college than her take out money. She was telling me not to long ago about how when she first left my dad, she was supporting the four of us, and her niece on $8 per hour salary, and she never took out a loan or credit card. She’s right now in debt supporting her mom who lives in Nigeria.</p>

<p>3) How much debt do you and your mother think is appropriate for you to take on for your education? My mom doesn’t see it as an investment as much as I do. She honestly thinks nothing. I wouldn’t mind taking up to $10k a year, depending on where I go and how much I think I’ll be making as a career.</p>

<p>4) How much money can you realistically earn during vacations and through part-time jobs during the school year that you would then be able to use for your education? Around $5,000.</p>

<p>Worried_mom mentioned ASU; that’s my pretty much my safety school. My (half)brother’s at Barrett right now, and almost everyone from my school who does IB gets a full ride, or close enough there. But I’d honestly rather be in debt (minor debt, nothing major) and go out-of-state than stay in Arizona. We’ve got one of the worst education systems in the country, and almost everyone who goes to college here ends up living here.</p>

<p>I’ve also got a list of some schools from my counselor that treat IB kids really well and give them a lot of merit scholarships, so I might start looking in that direction. Columbia’s my dream school, and they give pretty good financial aid, but that situation is more about getting in XD. NYU’s a close second, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about their packages, and that’s kind of leading me away.</p>

<p>Yeah, my dad really is a prick. I don’t think he even fully comprehends that he’s screwing over his own children. In his opinion he’s a wonderful father and all this jazz.</p>