<p>I’m sorry too. My one son was seeing a really wonderful vibrant young woman who was ever so excited about going off to college in the fall. Yes, it was on her high school grad program where she was going, everyone was told, it was on her face book status, etc, etc. When I talked briefly to the mom at a function and someone started talking about the colleges, she seemed uncomfortable and barely answered anything directed to her. Well, the bottom line was that she could not come up with the money, and PLUS (parent loans). Their income did not qualify them for much if any aid, but the money was all earmarked for current expenses, and the family wasn’t even meeting them well or entirely either. So the girl found out in August that she was not going to this school that she had selected and thought was going to be her college for several months.</p>
<p>It happens all of the time. If your schools is one that wants BOTH parents’ financials, it’s not going to care whethere they are married or not. A lot of kids with parents not married for any number of reasons. FAFSA, which qualififes you for federal funds will only take your custodial parents’ financials’ into account, but the only guaranteed grant from there is PELL and unless your custoidial parent is very low income, you are not going to qualify for that. The max is $5600 for a zero EFC.</p>
<p>What you can do now, is just see what happens and if the money doesn’t show up, and you now know that this is a possibility, a distinct one, prepare for a gap year, because you can’t go if you don’t come up with the money. Simple as that. You can then spend the year working or doing other activities and combing through schools to see where you can get some merit packages and sticker prices that make it possible to go next year. It’s important to retain your direct out of school status because there is more money, a lot more availabe for such students vs Transfers. When you have some college courses under your belt and become a Transfer student, a lot of merit money may not be available to you at a lot of the schools.</p>
<p>Or you look for a school that you know is affordable, likea local state school and go that route. </p>
<p>YOU can’t borrow that much. $5500 as a freshman in your own name is pretty much it. If you mother applies to PLUS and is declined, $4K more for you. But any option you go beyond that $5500 is going to require parental participation. Can’t get it yourself. Cosigning really means sticking both of you as liable for a loan and yes, your mother or father will have to be on there too and go through a credit check and you get the loan based on THEIR credit, not yours, though your name as well as theirs will be on the loan. </p>
<p>THe problem with doing all of this and borrowing a lot of money, is that it’s not a one time thing. You gotta do it again the following year, and then again, again, again. And then you have to pay it all back when you are going to want to be focusing on other things in life. My kids have had a lot of issues but at least they were loan free. That on top a monthly payment to pay for college still, is a burden.</p>