<p>My son's best friend was accepted EA to Brown. One of the conditions was that each of her divorced parents would pay $7500 per year towards her tuition,room & board, et al. All other costs were included in a grant from Brown. The father had agreed to this when he completed the papers. Now he is refusing to pay his $7500. The mother cannot afford to pick up the other $7500 portion. She works two jobs and has two younger children and provides the best that she can. The father and the girl have had an estranged relationship since the divorce and now has decided that he will not pay for his daughter to get the education that she has strived her entire life for. Brown financial aid office has been no help. The girl is at her wit's end and is thinking about throwing in the towel and going to Community College. I am sure there is a solution and am hoping someone out there knows the quickest way to fix this problem. I am sure she could get Sallie Mae to loan her money. Somehow I want to make sure her hard work the last four years are not dashed by the horrible actions of her father.</p>
<p>A similair thing happened to me 25 years ago when I went to school the first time. I ended up borrowing through federal student loans the balance I needed. I graduated with near $20,000 in debt and paid it off in 6 years post graduation. There are loan options available for her, but her best chances of paying them off are if she is majoring in something very employable like accounting, nursing or engineering.</p>
<p>How old is the student, which state does she reside in, and did her father sign something obligating him to pay the $7.5K?</p>
<p>I don’t want the answers to these questions, but if she has not yet reached 18, if she is in a state which requires support for college from non-custodial parents (some do), if he signed something indicating he will pay… any of these would make me at least consider talking to someone knowledgeable in divorce/support/contracts, if you get my drift.</p>
<p>In the meantime, it looks like a loan is the way to go here. If she gets nothing from her father, her debt load will be… more than I think a student should take out, but not terribly so. $30K over the four years is on the high side, but not too onerous. Perhaps she can find ways to lower that over the four years (scholarships, summer work, etc.), now that she knows what she’s up against.</p>
<p>Too bad someone couldn’t have wrested $30K from her father up front!</p>
<p>You are good to help her, and I hope she finds her way out of this predicament.</p>
<p>And it seems to me the two younger kids should re-evaluate their options . . .</p>
<p>Following up on Owlice’s suggestions, if OP’s son’s friend is also in SoCal, she might want to contact the Harriet Buhai Family Law Center, which is located in Los Angeles and provides free legal services to low income people dealing with family law issues or domestic violence. Their phone number is (213) 388-7505. If they can’t help, perhaps they can refer. It would be good if this girl at least knew if her father had a legal obligation to honor his commitment.</p>
<p>this situation stinks … but I’m not sure at all why the only options are Brown EA or community college. At this point it may require taking a gap year but she could reapply for schools focusing on schools which provide excellent merit aid … and since she was an EA admit at Brown she should be an excellent candidate to receive merit aid from a very good school. Her plans may be delayed some … but she should still be able to work out a way to go to a top school.</p>
<p>PS - while it stinks for her and her Mom Brown and other schools determine aid on what they consider parents are ABLE to pay an not what they are WILLING to pay … so the Dad’s decision to pay or not pay is not a concern in financial aid calculations (except in extreme circumstances).</p>
<p>The student might consider taking a gap year. My hunch is that if Dad has reneged on promises to pay, and since the student was admitted to Brown, she would have a good chance of being admitted elsewhere and a good case to present to HYPS whose FA tends to be a tad more generous than Brown. Also, with a gap year, the student could earn a bit of money toward her COA.</p>
<p>Mom should probably discuss this with Brown’s fin aid department.</p>
<p>It probably comes up often, in this world of divorced parents.</p>
<p>This occurred with us. Ex hubby has the resources to pay all 4 years, right now, out of current year income. (as opposed to cashing in all the savings). He will not pay a dime toward college. Several schools considered this, several did not. </p>
<p>With respect to the agreement - Even if its in writing, it is most likely not legally binding if the child is over age 18. Ex and I had to go back to court over a different matter - and when I discussed this with my attorney (who assured me that ALL DADS WANT TO HELP THEIR KIDS, DON"T WORRY ABOUT IT hahahhaa) , he told me that even if we put it in writing, it wouldnt be enforceable, so don’t bother. </p>
<p>Caveat - I am not an attorney. OP should have her mother contact one to find out if there are possibilities of pursuing it legally.</p>
<p>The reality is that when it comes to schools that give their own institutional aid, it is usually given based on what the parents can afford to pay, not what they want to pay, who backed out etc. as if this were the case, there would be long lines of people refusing to pay for their kids education because some one else would be picking up the tab.</p>
<p>I agree with others that the D should look into taking a gap year (maybe do americorps) and then applying to FAFSA only schools where she would have a chance of getting merit aid. Her getting the $$ to pay for Brown this year is just a temporary fix as she would have to live 3 more years in the same hellish situation.</p>
<p>Dave:</p>
<p>are you sure that the kid was not offered a Stafford (either subsidized or unsubsidized) as part of the finaid package? If so, adding in a PLUS or other loan would be just too much debt for an undergrad, IMO.</p>
<p>Staffords have been upped to an addtional $2000 starting this fall --up to $3500 subsidized and an additional 2000 unsubsidized for freshmen. Still loans, but a bit more protection than a PLUS and neither parent would have to co-sign. Does she have a work-study grant in her FA, or would working a job during a year be able to go towards the $7500?</p>
<p>If she has not been offered a Stafford yet, she can take the $5500 and then work for $2500 during the year, which would make the nut. </p>
<p>Personally, I hate to see students take a gap year because of $$. It’s just too darned hard to get back after that, in my experience.</p>
<p>I’d hate to see THIS student take a gap year. Good aid from a great school that she presumably wants to attend, and missing $7.5K. If she were missing $20K/year, that’d be another story, but for $7.5K? That would be sad, indeed.</p>
<p>But it’s $30k and counting for four years. Gulp.</p>
<p>addin on to countingdown’s post…</p>
<p>If mom is denied a plus loan then student will still be able to borrow an addition $4000 (up to $6,000 ) as an unsubsidized stafford loan. At this rate she will have a minimum of 30k in undergrad debt.</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Loans | Student Loans](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Student Loans - Finaid)</p>
<p>I am not a big fan of students being saddled with so much educational debt. Just the other day my D was telling me about her experience with the exit interview process to get a recap of how much you have borrowed over 4 years and what the payments are. She said she was watching students and they were coming out the office (including some of her friends) she said they were sick when they came to the realization of how much debt they had accumulated.</p>
<p>Brown doesn’t have Early Action.</p>
<p>It will likely be more than an extra $30k over four years, as costs will go up 5-6% a year. (And loans may already have been part of the package.)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the great ideas. We will talk to the Mom and the girl and give her all of this information. Again the folks at CC have a wealth of knowledge and are willing to share. I certainly hope that she can work this out as she was so excited to be accepted to Brown.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of lots of debt, either. I think $20K… okay, that’s okay, if it’s necessary. Doable. I’d advise very strongly against $40K. But this… well, I think it really depends. Does the aid package include work-study? Her summer earnings? Does Brown give credit for APs, and if so, is she eligible for any credit? Are there scholarships in her field for college students, and would she be a strong candidate for them? Can she get a break on housing costs by being an RA?</p>
<p>I don’t know that she would necessarily have $30K in loans. Yes, she might. But she might not. She may be able to do several things to mitigate that, to lower the amount she’d have to borrow.</p>
<p>I think I’d look at all of those things before taking a gap year or going to community college.</p>
<p>If Brown does not have Early Action then it must be Early Decision. She received her acceptance in December 2007. Sorry for any confusion.</p>
<p>Dave, is there any chance of her dad coming east? I’d like to slap him if so.</p>