<p>No, I agree. This seems like an easy one. They can’t afford room and board so are steering her toward CC or the near-by U. If it was truly free that would be a different story, but unlikely.</p>
<p>I agree with Flossy above.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But apparently not in a way that the OP understands.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t they just say something “we can only afford to contribute $AFC [which may be $0]; anything else for your college you must self-fund, which realistically is going to be less than $ASC [limited loans and work earning expectations] after subtracting scholarships and grants”, instead of doing things that look to the OP like sabotaging the OP’s chances of getting scholarships?</p>
<p>OP may want to look for a full ride scholarship from this list:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html</a></p>
<p>Think they said 4k- ? I’m surprised by the divide in reactions here. And before we know much more than what OP wants.</p>
<p>@lookingforward: I think it’s more than parents being in a tight financial bind, although that could be it. Parents who could call the police on their child for going to an interview, forbid them to work or have extracurricular activities or get their license, don’t JUST have financial troubles. In addition, OP said they could contribute $4,000 but indicated they refuse to fill out the FAFSA (= unlikely to contribute to college costs, either through inability or unwillingness?) To me, those elements indicate something else than a family in a financial bind, that’s why I think OP should not forego that competition, AS LONG AS it’s very clear to OP that if that dream college is unaffordable, full-tuition scholarship or not, she’ll walk away from it AND as long as OP has a plan B such as local U’s honors college and flagship U.
(the capitals are for OP 
since students sometimes only see what they want to 
)</p>
<p>I also think OP should have several contingency plans.</p>
<p>OP, can you tell us what the universities would be?
Is it like Goucher vs. Coppin State, or is it Bucknell vs. Penn State or is it UMN Crookston vs. UMN Morris…?
And can you add details about your situation?</p>
<p>I agree with UCBAlumnus above: look at that full-ride list, see if you qualiy for anything, and apply ASAP. You may need contingency plans especially if your parents continue to refuse filling out FAFSA.</p>
<p>In addition, if they’re lower income, do you know why they wouldn’t want you to apply for financial aid through FAFSA? (You may have to fill out CSS Profile, too). Is it because they’re near bankrupcy? Because they’re trying to hide some income? Is it because they want to make sure you don’t attend school far away and can keep you at home? Have you asked them or are you inferring?</p>
<p>I don’t know why so many are jumping to the conclusion that this is a financial issue and giving the usual CC “go to Community College and then your State Flagship” song and dance. </p>
<p>If her parents want to save money by having her commute, why have they not allowed her to obtain a driver’s license? If she does attend the Community College, do they plan on driving her to class, or is there public transportation available into late hours of the night? </p>
<p>When the OP had to drop extracurriculars, was it to get a job? If so, where is her income going? If not, what were these ECs and how does the family benefit by withdrawing her? (Finances? Transportation? Keeping OP on a short leash?)</p>
<p>When and why did the parents change their minds between sister’s application to college and disposal of acceptance letters? </p>
<p>Dad just got a late-in-life (relatively speaking) Bachelors and is currently unemployed (even recent grads can take a few months to find work, though…) how is this part of the conversation? Did Dad attend the Community College with older sister (and therefore kept HER on short leash during those years?)? What is Mom’s educational background and/or what did she do at OPs age? </p>
<p>I feel like we are missing some pieces of the puzzle, and the OP isn’t going to be able to do much with the usual financial advice, here.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for OP:( Here I am, an immigrant who doesn’t know this stuff doing everything I can to allow my S to go to college. Good luck girl, I wish you the best:)</p>
<p>The OP said she “feels like” her parents would call the police if she took public transport to the interview. I did NOT see where the parents SAID they would do that.</p>
<p>I agree with lookingforward…too many missing pieces to speculate more on this situation.</p>
<p>The OP did mention in one post that her parents don’t care about the “prestige” of the college she attends…or something like that. In my opinion, she needs to resent her reasons for going to that particular “dream school” without using the word PRESTIGE. If she is only saying “my dream school has SOOOO much more prestige value than school B”, I can completely understand why her parents, who might very well be financially strapped to send her there, are not listening.</p>
<p>I still say make an appointment with your guidance counselor. You may think they are “flaky” but you may not know everything. I have heard my children’s opinion of adults in their school and sometimes they were right on and sometimes they had no clue. But you can’t discount the best resource you have. Or ask the head of guidance if you can speak to them or another counselor. I assure you that they want to help you and will know of resources that may help you. Tell them what you have told us.</p>
<p>I’m with Thumper. It would be some remarkable guidance counselor that could figure out how to get a student with no financing or parental support into a “prestigious” dream school. If she can get herself to the competition and win there may be a problem worth discussing. But, if all this hinges on winning a scholarship to a school that she still can’t afford there’s not much to worry about until that happens.</p>
<p>Two things…</p>
<p>Have you done your homework on your dream school? By that, I mean, do they cover 100% of need based aid? If so, find a quick calculator to get a preliminary estimate on your EFC based on what you know about your parents salaries and assets. Many top tier schools will cover 100% of need based aid that isn’t covered by scholarships, and that includes full cost of attendance. For example, at my college, starting in 2009, if your family earned under a certain amount, you paid nothing and had no loans as part of your aid package.</p>
<p>Second, what prevents you from doing the FAFSA on your own? You need to collect certain information, and you need to submit your parents’ tax returns, but they don’t need to do much of anything with the actual form. There was no way my parents were going to fill out the FAFSA, but since I did it for them, there was no issue.</p>
<p>It doesn’t make sense not to apply for financial aid, nor does it make sense for your parents not to let you try to get scholarship money. Once you exhaust all of your options for financial support, you will need to take a look at what you have and what is feasible.</p>
<p>Chrisw…the parent needs a PIN to sign the FAFSA. Are you suggesting that this student apply for a PIN pretending to be their parent…and then signing the FAFSA with this PIN?</p>
<p>Also, most colleges now require the FAFSA filers to also link to the IRS retrieval tool…which means that this student will NEED to link to her PARENTS’ tax return. She will need their cooperation to do so.</p>
<p>AND some colleges also require signed copies of parent tax returns. Again…posey will need her parents to help her.</p>
<p>I don’t think it really IS possible for a student to completely do the FAFSA without some cooperation from the parents.</p>
<p>It depends on what the issue is.
If the parents just don’t want to spend time on filling FAFSA out, then Posey can do it for them and they’ll sign. If they don’t want her to go to college or don’t want to reveal their income or for whatever reason don’t want to come near the forms, then it’s another problem.
Again, I don’t think it’s just a financial issue (parents who don’t want to tell their kids they’re nearly bankrupt, for instance) although it may well be.
As someone said above, we need more details to be useful.
Although OP didn’t say parents told her they’d call the police, would your children imagine that their going to an interview on their own would result in your calling the police? Mine certainly won’t. If I were upset I may ground them or take away phone/screen privileges, but I wouldn’t call the police and my kids sure wouldn’t imagine I could do such a thing. I knew a family that didn’t need to say that to make it cristal clear to their daughter that they’d do such a thing if she strayed from the strict home-to-school-and-back allowed path/timeframe. Totally different situation. However, Posey seems to have leaft the threads so we’ll never know which situation we’re talking about.</p>
<p>Posey: can you tell us which colleges you’re talking about?</p>
<p>I will go another more severe path here, get a lawyer fast… I know of a family with a similar situation, the arguments about college turned ugly quickly, then abusive and ended with an arrest of a parent, I child’s dream shattered ( and a parent in jail) Of course this was evidence of other things no one knew about…</p>
<p>This seems like a mental abuse behavior and authorities should be made aware quickly…</p>
<p>What sister? Who said Dad is unemployed? He doesn’t have a job in his new arena, that’s all we know. Sheesh, how things morph. Mental abuse? Wait for OP to fill us in. She clearly wants what she wants- this dream school. We don’t know if any of this is rational.</p>
<p>JSS…a lawyer isn’t going to intervene and make the parents send a kid to a scholarship weekend. Your post is sure a sensational one!</p>
<p>Posey seems to have left.</p>
<p>I just want to smack her stupid, bitter father…all she is asking for is for him to fill out a form. Isn’t it our job as parents to bolster the generation behind us?</p>
<p>OP - contact the dream school, see if you can get help getting to the competition. People are surprisingly helpful if you reach out.</p>
<p>At worst, they could say “no, we can’t help you get here”.</p>
<p>But I agree, is this a “done deal” or are you competing against many others?</p>
<p>"I just want to smack her stupid, bitter father…all she is asking for is for him to fill out a form. Isn’t it our job as parents to bolster the generation behind us? "</p>
<p>Not if we are broke and can’t pay for their dreams. We don’t know the situation here but it certainly sounds like money is a big issue. Her parents are fine with CC or local U. So, it sounds to me like they simply can’t fund a sleep away experience. That happens.</p>