<p>OMG… lol… If your parents can’t afford your $1000 in tuition making $90,000 then they really need financial counseling!
Seriously, my dad has never made more than $35,000, raised 5 kids and my mom didn’t work. They still have a regular home and a lakefront vacation home along with boats and other toys. Why? Uh, they know what not to spend money on.
My husband and I made $16,000 last year and we have a daughter. We managed to pay our rent, our car payment, insurance and paid for my books because my financial aid didn’t cover it.
Your parents must be doing something terribly wrong to be so uncomfortable on $90,000 per year. Heck, we managed to SAVE $3000.00 despite our measly income.
I feel bad for you, for one, because you’re never going to make enough to survive if you follow in your parents footsteps. My dad never paid for my college and I couldn’t afford it around here without help. Because of their second home, I didn’t qualify for financial aid even though they were below the poverty line. I had to wait till I was over 25 to go to school.
Seriously, you guys are in a MUCH better financial position then most people are, the kids of construction workers and retail employees need the money because they have no other way to afford college. Your parents would just need to save a tiny fraction of their income.</p>
<p>Edited to add: We live in Florida, while some things do cost less than CA, my dad pays over $10,000 per year just in home owners insurance and taxes.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, vjhahn has fallen victim to unwarranted assumptions. I was born and raised in Richmond, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where my family still lives. Assuming that I don’t know about California cost of living is, well, simply wrong.</p>
<p>I say it again: I lived in the Bay Area on household incomes of ~$30,000 and of ~$90,000. Anyone who thinks you’re somehow better off with the former is misinformed, ignorant or ideologically blinded.</p>
<p>If a family making $90,000 doesn’t have $1,000 to spare for college, They’re Doing It Wrong.</p>
<p>Missed the edit cutoff, so I’ll make this a second post.</p>
<p>It really grinds my gears when someone whose family makes a good solid income says they’d somehow be better off if they were poor because of “tax breaks” or food stamps or whatever. I will go out on a limb and say that anyone who says such a thing, has never actually been poor themselves. That attitude is so far removed from reality, it’s not even funny.</p>
<p>polarscribe: I totally agree. Statements like those come from a complete misunderstanding of how the system works. It’s like the people who say they wouldn’t want to win the lottery because it will put them into a higher tax bracket and they don’t want to have to pay the tax. Or the ones who ask if they should take out a bigger mortgage for the deduction.</p>
<p>I so wish they talk this stuff in school. So the OP would want her family to make tens of thousands of dollars less so they can get the credit of $1000? I hope she’s not planning on majoring in economics, finance or accounting.</p>
<p>I really think it is different for everyone, poor or not so you can’t really make any assumptions here. Situations and circumstances vary. 90k is still pretty much nothing in California, and $1000 REALLY makes a huge difference for all of us. Not only is this coming from experience but I’ve had many people tell me, rich and poor, that the middle class gets screwed over ROYALLY, especially in terms of financial aid for school. My family is actually financially wise, my mum is an accountant and my dad is a business owner. If you think business owners got it,especially in California, then think again because most of the time our business barely covers its own expenses, and sometimes it runs on a deficit. That is the case for most business owners. I work, but it barely covers my food, car, books, and other expenses. The job I have is the only job I can find with my experience and such, and the only job that fits my situation.
Let me stress again that my family owns no assets, and has no savings. On top of the day-to-day payments, as well as state and federal taxes, we also practically support one of my relative’s family overseas. As a side note, let me also add that my family used to be dirt poor when we moved here, and I can say this: I find it outrageous how people can basically skip out on employment and live on handouts alone. It takes skill to do this, but it is easy. After a year or so of this we eventually got sick of the degradation and decided to pursue solid employment.
I know someone who has no status yet earns a bit above the median income for a 3 person family, live in a great neighborhood, and their kid is getting full ride for a Uni. So, what really grinds my gears is that MY family PAYS for people like this… meanwhile, we’re also the same people to scrounge for cash for their OWN children. I’m not even asking for full ride, people. The middle class is pretty much handicapped by the government, and the result is we can’t personally afford my education, and at the same time I can’t even get approved for a grand, which again makes a world of difference for us!</p>
<p>I still want to know what happened to your $7k. How much are you spending on the car, books, etc? It seems like it should be more than enough if you’re spending it wisely. Also- why can’t you take out $1k in loans? </p>
<p>And no, it’s really not easy to live on handouts. I’ve done it and I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to do it again. And don’t start with the people on FA getting coach purses and such. That’s a dead horse and very doubtful unless you know the full story.</p>
<p>On $90k, we own a modest home, my mother drives a BMW sports car, we took European vacations and my undergraduate tuition at a WUE OOS public was paid. If you think that’s “pretty much nothing,” then you simply have no clue how the other half lives.</p>
<p>I remember when the Safeway plant shut down 20 years ago and my mother got laid off, we had to turn off the cable to afford the power bill. That is “pretty much nothing.” Although just having cable put us above quite a few people, but I digress.</p>
<p>On this thread:
Comparing, belittling, or insulting each other isn’t going to do much good. There are plenty of ways to inform without doing so. Hostility only raises defensiveness, and defensiveness is usually time wasted.</p>
<p>On getting the 1k back:
The best you can do is just make sure there are no errors being made, either on your part or on your school’s part. If your numbers are right both years, then maybe there’s something wrong going on with number crunching. Or maybe they just ran out of money. But you should find out.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar position. My family has lost 35k in income, but my school has responded by decreasing (though only very slightly) aid rather than increasing aid. I checked the numbers I submitted last year and this year, and I’m thinking either some sort of error was made, or my school just ran out of money.</p>
<p>Same tip that someone said to me: play nice. Don’t be aggressive, avoid sounding entitled, and try to be gracious with whatever decision they come to.</p>
<p>On cutting costs:
There are many ways to cut costs, so do all you can. It may mean cooking for yourself and being a savvy shopper (for example, buy books online vs. in the bookstore), but you’ll save money here and there. Even if you do get that 1k back, you should stretch it out as much as possible. If you want some ideas, I’ll copy and paste some in a PM.</p>
<p>Are you seriously complaining about $1000? Not trying to pick a fight or anything, but really? It’s a grand. Only 14% of your income, and barely over 1% of your parents income. Now your honestly telling everyone that you can’t afford to pay 1% of your combined incomes for college? </p>
<p>My tution in Florida is $173 per credit hour plus fees for some classes. My average tuition per semester runs around $2500, My scholarships ran out earlier this year and I still managed to make it happen, and I make 12k a year, my mom makes less than 20k and if I asked, (I won’t though) she would help me pay it in a heartbeat, whether she had to do without something for awhile or not. Now im trying to figure out if I can still get grants or not and I will have to start accumulating loans now to finish. </p>
<p>IMO you should quit crying to a forum and get another part time job for a month or two to make up for that $1000. If I can work 30+ hours a week (like many others) and still take 15 hours at a University, I am pretty sure that you can manage to do the same at a community college.</p>
<p>*On top of the day-to-day payments, as well as state and federal taxes, we also practically support one of my relative’s family overseas. *</p>
<p>So, in other words, your family here DOES have the money to help pay for college–but sends it (voluntarily) overseas to relatives. And now you are in effect asking for $1000 from the taxpayers here to in effect cover the the loss of this $1000 that you’ve voluntarily given away.</p>
<p>This is why a 90K or 80K or whatever K is a great policy. Families that make 90K and can’t figure out a way to squeeze 1K out (or even quite a bit more) are likely frittering money away on many VOLUNTARY expenses… cable, DSL, cellphones, eating in restaurants, video game systems, and sending money overseas, etc. You can’t tell the taxpayers that your family has zero discretionary income to help with your college–because it does.</p>
<p>In any case–have you filled out FAFSA for this year? I see no reason why you can’t get a small Stafford loan. What’s the hang up here?</p>