My parents told me they will not pay the EFC, What do I do?

Paying for College
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<p>I don’t know if the OP is still reading this, but if so, here are some things that might help.</p>

<p>I know a couple of kids who researched and found colleges that have tuition benefits for employees. Often you have to work some period of time before you are eligible, which may be as long as a year. You also can’t go full time in most cases. Still, they got jobs at schools, worked and went to college about half-time, year round. I can’t tell you which colleges do this–so don’t ask me. Do some research. Since Purdue is on your list, I googled it and found this link. <a href=“http://www.purdue.edu/dfa/feeremit/staff.php”>http://www.purdue.edu/dfa/feeremit/staff.php&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Now, of course, you have to apply and get the job in the first place. You won’t have a typical college student life, of course. </p>

<p>A friend of my D’s took a job as a live-in nanny. You need to have a clean driver’s license in most cases. It’s not easy work and it helps if you have experience with kids. She worked Monday-Friday. She lived in and thus had no expenses for room and board or rent. On weekends, she worked for events related to her high school EC. Everyone in the EC knew her story, so they hired her whenever they could. I think she worked 2 years and by the end, she had enough money saved to pay for at least a year of college.</p>

<p>She applied to a LAC and explained her situation. She lucked out. There was a single mom faculty member who wanted someone to live in. Kids were 10+ and pretty independent, but she didn’t want to leave them home alone when she had to travel and didn’t want them cooking. College waived the normal “freshman can’t live off campus” rule for her. She lived with the faculty mom and kids and went to school full time. Again, got a part time job coaching the EC, which only took about one afternoon a week and gave her pocket money. Since she didn’t have the expense of room, board, and dorm, her savings covered two years of college. Mom moved on, but worked out a similar deal for her with a different faculty family. She was the oldest of 7 kids, and since some of the younger ones were in CCs or college by that point, her EFC was lower than it was her first year. College was more generous than it usually was with fin aid, since she was doing well in school and had finished 2 years by that point. </p>

<p>We had another kid a long time ago on this board who joined the Coast Guard Reserve. Apparently, that makes you eligible for in-state tuition at many public Us. It has its risks, which aren’t to be taken lightly, but that’s how he did it. </p>

<p>I’m not suggesting any of these are right for the OP–only that this is how 3 kids who had the problem solved it. </p>

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<p>Aside from going to a school with a GPA/SAT(or ACT) automatic scholarship, and for which you can afford the balance, the best you can do is community college. As others mentioned, the education and professors will likely be the same or even better than your in-state universities. It’s a great way to have an affordable two years.</p>

<p>One priority should be studying to raise your test scores to give yourself the most options. You’ve gotten a lot of great help here, it’s just hard to hear as it is a harsh reality. Colleges expect parents to pay for their children’s education according to their income, savings, etc… Many parents are unwilling or unable to do this. </p>

<p>Doesn’t Oregon have a program which allows high school students to dual enroll? If your senior year schedule allows, you may want to try to take a course or two there and then you’ll be able to see for yourself how the community college is and get some credits.</p>

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<p>I don’t think CC is an absolute neccesity.</p>

<p>NJ publics are tuition-free if you join the NJ National Guard, and Guard pay should cover room&board. Obviously, you do risk being deployed.</p>

<p>The 5 service academies (Merchant Marine and Coast Guard as well) are full-ride.</p>

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<p>The funny thing is most parents do not want to pay the EFC.
The sad thing is most parents are actually paying more than the EFC.
If you want to pay less than EFC, you either need to have a lot of merit aid or joining the military service academies like PurpleTitan said.</p>

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<p>I dont know if this is true. Since most kids commute, that probably means that a whole bunch cant pay their
efc.</p>

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<p>Many students go to CC and transfer to UCI but the catch is that most are in-state residents. This child doesn’t want to go to CC; he definitely does not have the stats, money or grades that are competitive enough for our UC schools. The differential fee of $23k will be due and he’s already said that momma and dadda aint paying JACK. OP, if you’re dealing with reality and still reading: the State of California is hurting for money and will not give OOS students any money. You can’t afford our UC fees of $55,000. Go to community college, or go flip burgers.</p>

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<p>Are you more afraid of you taking out, let’s say, $100K of loans, rather than your parents paying that $100K straight? Because I think that is silly, <em>IF</em> you are 100% sure they would co-sign for all of your loans, it is identical except they want you to pay first, but if you can’t, they’ll still have to pay or ruin their credit score.</p>

<p>It’s essentially the same thing - you rise and fall with them either way. Not paying the EFC <em>and</em> not co-signing is very different.</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids I don’t know what you mean. But parents are paying more than EFC if the school do not meet the needs. Also, the loan amount is above EFC which is also out of pocket money in the future.</p>

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<p>@3shrek5me You say that Oregon (in state) schools don’t have your intended major. What is your intended major?</p>

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<p>OP, lots of GCs are not very savvy about financial aid. They know something about getting kids into college, but many do not get into the financial side at all. The one thing you might ask your GC for is a list of what local scholarships students from your high school have gotten for the last few years. There might be some ideas to scare up a few thousand dollars there. But likely they will be one year and not very large scholarships. But it can help.</p>

<p>You will not find anyplace else with better knowledge of college financial aid than the collective wisdom out here. And if you have a REALLY tough question (nuances the like of which you have not expressed so far), we would pull out the big guns and refer you to @kelsmom. :slight_smile: I know you WANT there to be a way to either get someone else to pay your EFC or you to be able to borrow the full amount without involving your parents. You want a silver bullet, but one does not exist. You have heard the suggestions out here of what kinds of things people do (CC, getting high test scores to go to places with guaranteed full scholarships, attending in-state and taking gap years/semesters to pay if necessary are a few choices).</p>

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<p>Simply because the student commutes does not necessarily mean that the parents cannot pay their EFC. It could be that the student does not have high stats, so there are not that many admission options that are more desirable than the local school, or which meet need or offer merit so that a parental contribution of the EFC amount would be sufficient (in addition to student contribution from direct loans and work).</p>

<p>Also, parents of commuter students may be paying more than they think, since many think of having the student live at home and commuting as “free”, without considering the student associated living expenses buried in other parts of the household budget (food, utilities, car or public transportation costs – often estimated at aroung $5,000 per year, but probably highly variable from one family to another).</p>

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<p>“”“@mom2collegekids I don’t know what you mean. But parents are paying more than EFC if the school do not meet the needs. Also, the loan amount is above EFC which is also out of pocket money in the future.”“”</p>

<p>Since most kids do NOT go away to college, and most kids commute to a local CC or state univ, their costs are usually about $3k-15k per year. There are many, many families who either have higher EFC who are paying less cuz their kids are commuting, or their parents are paying little/nothing and the costs are being paid by student loans and a part-time job. </p>

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<p>True. But the point remains. I dont think most american parents are paying more than their EFCs.</p>

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<p>I don’t have direct data. But the national median family income is around $60k that gives an approximate EFC range of $4k-$8k. While the national average cost for a 2 year public college is $18k ($24k for 4 year public) in 2011-2012. That suggest unless the need is met by the school, the student/family is likely to pay more than the EFC.
<a href=“2014 Guide To FAFSA, CSS Profile, College Aid And Expected Family Contribution”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2014/01/31/2014-guide-to-fafsa-css-profile-college-aid-and-expected-family-contribution/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>By the way, my D can be commuting but not because I cannot pay the EFC. Fortunately, the local in state flagship is need met. We are actually paying around (or slightly less than) the EFC without loan because of scholarships. Again, the loan amount is in additional to EFC and it is actually out of pocket cost. I factored that in when I am saying the cost is higher than EFC for most.</p>

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<p>What living situations are assumed?</p>

<p>A CC in California estimates $12,300 for commuting from the parents’ house (with well padded room and board and misc. expenses that many parents do not consider when looking at college costs, probably because they are hidden in other parts of the household budget) and $19,302 living on one’s own: <a href=“https://www.deanza.edu/financialaid/coa.html”>https://www.deanza.edu/financialaid/coa.html&lt;/a&gt; . Just tuition and books are $3,246.</p>

<p>A likely situation is that the $60,000 income family has a student graduate from high school and goes off to CC. The FAFSA EFC may be $4,000 to $8,000, but the family directly pays $3,246 in tuition and books, so it appears that they are paying less than FAFSA EFC. However, that does not include continued but hidden home costs associated with the student like food, utilities, transportation costs, and misc. costs (clothing, medical and dental services, etc.) that could raise the actual cost to be higher than FAFSA EFC (but lower than $18,000).</p>

<p>Note that the assumption that living at the parents’ house is “free” somewhat distorts the economic decisions relating to college attendance. Many parents are more than willing to let the student live at home for college (including use of a car or parents paying for bus passes) but would not offer that amount of money toward living expenses at a college away from home (they may not even know how much that is, due to it being scattered about various household budget categories, if they even track their household budget closely enough).</p>

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<p>@billcsho‌ </p>

<p>You are assuming that most parents are the ones who are paying those costs. I would bet they are not. Often when a kid is commuting to a local CC or state school, the student is paying a chunk/all of the costs with a part time job, scholarship money, grant money, and/or student loans. </p>

<p>Someone who has an EFC of about 2000 and commuting to a Calif CC is getting BOG waiver so no tuition, is getting about 3500 in a Pell Grant, and maybe a 5500 student loan. If tuition is free, and the student has 9,000 in FA to cover transportation, books, and meals, and maybe $5000 per year from a job (summer and school year) then likely parents arent paying their 2000 EFC. </p>

<p>I still say that most parents in America are not paying their EFC. Think about it. EFC is based on past, current, and future earnings. It expects that parents have saved for college and that parents will borrow for college. That just isnt the norm. Most parents havent saved, and many/most cant/wont borrow for college for a variety of reasons: cant afford to borrow, have too many kids to borrow for each, cant qualify, personally opposed to the idea. Since EFC isnt based on a reasonable % of current income, most cant pay it.</p>