I’m sort of on my own here. Neither of my parents went to college, as they both got stable, well paying jobs right out of high school (which I guess was pretty normal in the 80s). I’ve always just handled everything school related on my own, like signing up for APs, registering for SAT/ACT, getting myself into extracurriculars, making college visit appointments, etc. They’re super supportive emotionally & are always willing to write a check for whatever test/leadership activity/prep book I need, but now that I’m a rising senior & the whole process is starting, I’m getting overwhelmed because my parents know nothing about how it all works and I’m realizing that I might not be able to do it all by myself. I know I’ll have the applications and testing parts under control, but as far as financial aid & tuition and all of the otherwise “grown up” stuff goes, I’m extremely lost. And once I commit to a school I have no clue on how to take care of insurance stuff, housing, etc. I’m trying to learn via the internet but it is a lot of information to take in such little time. Another thing is that I don’t think they understand how expensive it is. For the past 5 or so years I’ve been politely reminding them of the costs and they just say that they’ll take care of it when the time comes. I really doubt they’ll be able to just produce $10,000+ out of nowhere, but maybe they’ll surprise me. Lol. I’m just stressed & scared of having to settle for a school I don’t really want to be at because I didn’t have many resources. Any suggestions on how I can get help on this stuff? This site is a lot of help, (way more than my school/counselor) but If I only relied on this site and google I’d never leave my computer. Lol
First,do your FAFSA and see what your expected family contribution is. (you can do an estimated version of this). Once you have a ballpark EFC, then go to your target schools financial aid pages and see if you can find an “actual cost calculator” that gives a good idea of what you’ll pay after gift aid. With these two figures…you’ll have a place to start a conversation with your parents about expense, loans, etc.
@MaryGJ thank you! As far as the actual application, am I able to just get the information I need from both parents and fill that out on my own? It’d just be a lot easier for me to since 1. My parents are divorced & not friendly so relying on one to get tax/marital/income info from the other makes me a tad bit nervous. And 2. They’re both very busy and while they’d definitely be willing to do it with no problem, I’ve done most of the research and do not want them to rush and skip over anything
I see that you already have started another thread which has provided a few good ideas regarding specific universities to consider, including in-state (for you) California schools.
You should run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) for a few schools. You will need to input how much your parents make and how much they have in savings, so you will need to get some info from them and might want to do this with a parent. See what the NPC estimates that you will need to pay (and then see if your parents are okay with this).
You can find the NPC by googling "net price calculator ".
“I really doubt they’ll be able to just produce $10,000+ out of nowhere”
I am sure that you have noticed that the cost of college can in some cases be a LOT worse than $10,000. Most students end up going to their in-state public universities because this allows them to reduce the cost, and particularly to minimize loans. Starting at a community college and transferring is another possibility that some students use, either to further reduce costs, or in some cases if the student would not get into a college that they want to attend, for example because their high school grades are not high enough.
@DadTwoGirls The NPC would be really helpful as you said. I’ve tried it before but it’s been difficult to gather up all the necessary info needed so I end up just estimating most of the inputs, which ends up not being very helpful at all. However, I was able to gather 3-4 CSUs through a NPC that seem affordable. I’ve thought about the JC route too, and obviously I’ll go if absolutely nothing works out, but I’d like to avoid it. This probably sounds unreasonable as I know there are amazing JC’s & education is education, but I really don’t think I could bring myself to go a JC after working so hard to get to a 4 year. Thank you, I’ll try to sit my parents down to use the NPC again & hopefully get an accurate result this time.
Also, you need to know about the CalGrant program since you are in California. A good number of California students are eligible for good funding from the state for the UC’s and CSU’s through the Calgrant program. Read up on what a Calgrant is and how much they will pay: http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=48
Some California High Schools automatically send your grade verification to the Cal Grant program.
The application period opens in January and the information is required before March 2 of every year. Your parents provide their 1040 and information from state forms. This information will be estimated if they haven’t filed. More information is provided on the website. http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=48
To fill out the FAFSA, you will only need the financial information from the parent you live with most of the time. If you decide to apply to some of the CSS schools, the non-custodial parent will have to provide that information.
Does your high school have college night? Take your parents along, have them listen to the financial aid presentations and what you will need. Ask your GC for help. The tuition and financial aid stuff is hard. Ask your custodial parent to help you and go through the FAFSA application together. You’ll need tax returns from 2016, bank account balances, the amount that parent receives in child support, etc.
You just have to take it one step at a time and answer the questions as they come up.
@twoinanddone Thank you so much! My district has financial aid night, but I checked and realized that it isn’t until after FASFA applications become available. My goal is to get all of my information gathered long before that, but we will still go. Also talked to my GC this morning, she admitted that she “isn’t too experienced” with financial aid business (Umm, what??) and that if I forwarded my questions to her she’d look them up online and let me know (again…what??). I emailed a different counselor to see if she’d be willing to help me, so we’ll see. Should I be gathering all of the tax return, child support, etc. information now or is it better to just wait until school starts to do it?
“However, I was able to gather 3-4 CSUs through a NPC that seem affordable.”
I think that there are some very good choices there.