<p>I have a serious problem. My mother refuses to talk about money for college with me, and insist that she will not pay a cent. She tells me that she will fill out the FAFSA but that I have "No right or need" to know her financial information. Is there anything I can do to get her to talk to me? She won't even fill out an EFC calculator. She takes me to visit schools that I may not be able to attend because of money and she doesn't even care. MY EFC will probably be about 15k so i'll be paying about 20.5k a year counting a max of 5.5k in institutional /federal loans included in the fin aid package. I have no idea what to do.</p>
<p>Mom probably thinks she will lose privacy about income.<br>
Does she have something to hide? Have her see your HS counselor. Have the counselor talk to Mom about how college works with FAFSA.</p>
<p>If your mother will not pay a cent, then you need to find places that you can afford on your own.</p>
<p>Since she will file the FAFSA, you will qualify for student loans. But if you do not land a big merit scholarship, your only option will probably be a commuting distance community college or public U.</p>
<p>Read the threads in this forum on guaranteed merit aid and competitive merit aid and see if you can find anything that will work for you.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Well, is it advisable to take out 85k in student loans if you receive a great education. I know a women who;s parents wouldn’t pay for anything or fill out the fafsa and she went to med school and became a docotr, and at the end she had 485k in loans. Now she amkes 300k a year, and is on here way to paying it off.</p>
<p>or is that just the ideal scenario and should i suck it up and co to an in-state public college?</p>
<p>You *can’t *borrow $85,000 on your own. The maximum federal direct student loan for a freshman is $5500 for the year. Any loans over that would either be PLUS loans that a parent must take out, or private loans that require a cosigner with good credit.</p>
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<p>As happymom already told you, read the threads in this forum on guaranteed merit aid and competitive merit aid:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-7.html#post15895768[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-7.html#post15895768</a>
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>The automatic scholarships are, by the way, just that - if you have the required GPA and SAT/ACT scores, you get the scholarship automatically. And many of these schools have rolling admissions, which means you could have your acceptance and guaranteed full ride as early as September of your senior year!</p>
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<p>No, that’s not correct. Your FAFSA EFC is not a magic number that tells all colleges how much aid they have to give you. Your FAFSA EFC determines one thing only: your eligibility for federal aid, in the form of Pell (and, on rare occasion, SEOG) grants and subsidized loans.</p>
<p>If State University X costs $30k/year, and the only aid you get are federal loans, then your remaining cost could be as much as $24,500 your freshman year. But your EFC was only $15k, you say? Too bad . . . unless the school commits to meeting 100% of student need, you’re on your own.</p>
<p>But what about all that financial aid you’ve heard about? Well, it’s out there, but you have to choose your school carefully. Private College Y, for example, might meet you halfway. Its cost is $50k/year, and it might be willing to give you $15k in need-based aid . . . but that still leaves a gap of almost $15k/year, after your FAFSA EFC of 15k and your federal loans of $5.5k. Most often, a student’s parents would be expected to borrow that additional $15k/year, using a parent PLUS loan.</p>
<p>And, yes, there are schools that say they’ll meet a student’s full financial need, but those schools usually don’t rely on FAFSA to determine that need. They use a different form (CSS Profile). And different schools’ calculations of what a family can actually afford to pay can vary dramatically. It might, at some schools, more or less agree with FAFSA . . . or it might be staggeringly different! That’s where those net price calculators come in handy. They can often give you a good estimate of how much aid you can expect from a Profile school. And, yes, if you’re very lucky, Private College Z, which costs $60k/year, might cover every penny of the difference after that first $20.5k . . . heck, it might even cover more than that!</p>
<p>Use [Princeton</a> Review](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/schoolsearch.aspx]Princeton”>College Search | The Princeton Review) to see if a school meets 100% of need. If it doesn’t, and instead meets an average of 60% or 87% of student need, for example, keep in mind that those numbers are an average - some students might get more, and others might get less.</p>
<p>I understand that none of this makes a darned bit of difference for you if your mom absolutely refuses to help . . . but maybe if she understands how much financial aid can vary from one school to another, she might change her mind. And the only one who can explain all of this to her (unless she’s willing to join CC herself) is you. (If you attend a public school, it’s highly unlikely that your guidance counselor would be willing or able to explain financial aid as well as you could, if you do the research.)</p>
<p>And if she still flat out refuses to help, then focus on the merit aid schools. If you get a good merit aid award, you won’t need to worry about need-based aid!</p>
<p>Well, is it advisable to take out 85k in student loans</p>
<p>No, it’s not. Who told you that? </p>
<p>The average student has 20-25k in debt when he graduates.</p>
<p>Besides, if your mom is being that difficult, I would bet that she won’t cosign loans either. YOU CAN’T borrow that much. YOU are limited to borrowing the federal limits, which are:</p>
<p>5500 frosh
6500 soph
7500 jr and sr</p>
<p>and, no one should borrow a lot with the “hopes” that they might become a highly paid doctor. Most premeds never go to med school. And even those that do and have med school debt find it very difficult to make those large loan payments early in their careers. New doctors aren’t making that much. </p>
<p>How old is that doctor? When did she complete her residency? that is a ridiculous amount of debt, even for a physician.</p>
<p>Also, you can’t go by what others did years ago. Loans were easier to get back then. Sallie Mae didn’t even require cosigners back then. Students could borrow a lot all on their own. That’s not true anymore. Now students need qualified and willing cosigners. </p>
<p>What are your stats? You need to find schools that will give you huge merit for your stats.</p>
<p>What is your intended career?</p>
<p>right now you have a good GPA and a 31 ACT. </p>
<p>The schools that you’re interested in require both parents’ info. You mention your mom, is your father alive? If so, how much will he contribute towards college?</p>
<p>If your parents aren’t going to pay then the schools on your list won’t work because you won’t be able to borrow to cover your “family contribution”. </p>
<p>How are you guestimating your EFC? Are you including savings and investments? home equity (for CSS schools)? Do your parents own a business? self-employed? </p>
<p>You need to protect yourself and apply to at least three schools that will give you HUGE merit for your stats…and by huge merit, I mean at least full tuition. Anything less will leave you with too large of a gap.</p>
<p>You need to test again to increase your scores. With a higher score you’ll likely get better scholarship offers from the schools that give them.</p>
<p>Tell your mother that if she will not pay a cent, then you can’t afford most colleges. With no idea as to what your family EFC and institutional contribution requirements are going to be, you have to look for schools that can cover your cost merit wise. You want to throw in a few just a lottery tickets, go on ahead, but you are getting advance warning that mamma don’t wanna pay, so don’t count on it. Look at local options and where you can get good merit money. </p>
<p>I’ve seen this happen a lot, and usually, it’s more a matter of mamma wants student to get as much money as possible, then mamma, and it’s often times daddy, as well in this sort of game, will pay as s/he feels like paying having covered the obligation with a blanket, “i’m not paying” right up front. So really, if you don’t want to be playing this game for many years, you had better find schools where you can deal with the money yourself, which means merit, which means schools where you are a top poohba, that they are willing to pay. If your mother comes up with suggestions and ideas, tell her that you cannot apply to schools where you don’t have a good shot of getting merit money, since she has made it clear she is not paying, and you have know idea where thing stand in terms of financial aid since she won’t share info.</p>
<p>Honestly, unless your mother is low income; (you can fool around with NPCs of various schools), you are likely to get an expected contribution that you,as an 18 year old, are not going to be able to pay on your own. The college process assumes that the parent will pay, as 18 year olds do not tend to be able to pay much. So if mama is out of the paying equation, you have to look at other avenues. Without a cosigner, you are not going to be able to borrow large amounts, so don’t even think you can borrow all of this, a very bad idea, even if you could. </p>
<p>The federal government only guarantees PELL up to about $5600 and that’s for a zero EFC, and then up to $5500 in loans freshman year, so it’s not like an embarrassment of riches awaits you after filling out FAFSA. You must have some idea as to what kind of money your family has available.</p>
<p>Is there a dad in the picture? If he’s not in the family, you will need to apply for a NCP waiver from those schools (and they tend to be the more generous ones that ask for this) if you are applying for financial aid using PROFILE. FAFSA doesn’t ask, but then I don’t know a single school that guarantees to meet need from FAFSA EFC alone.</p>
<p>That doctor could have $485K in loan debt if he/she took out loans for the full costs of a private undergrad AND private school of medicine. Having said that…it is absolutely ridiculous to assume that kind of debt. As noted, new doctors would likely have to live in their parents house to be able to afford the $5000 a month loan payment that kind of debt would require.</p>
<p>You need to have a list of schools that includes schools that are affordable. Is there a dad in the picture at all? What is his stance on college and costs? Are they married…if so, his financials are required on the FAFSA too. At some schools, even of they are divirced, you will be required to submit his financial info also via the Profile or a school form.</p>
<p>ETA…there is no “sucking it up” with regards to attending an instate public university. You can get a fine education at these schools. BUT they are not free either. Find out the cost of your instate public. If your mom REALLY won’t pay, then even the instate public may be financially out of reach.</p>
<p>Thumper is right. I live in a state with reasonably priced public universities, so that a college education is affordable to pretty much anyone. BUT…to go away to the state universities where there is the room and board expense is a whole other story. That’s another $10-15K in cost, and yes, you and your family are pretty much expected to pay for that. Loans that YOU can take won’t totally cover it. </p>
<p>So start looking at some local options. Talk to your GC about what schools have been good to your high school grads in terms of aid/scholarships, and look for some full rides or close to it. In our state, getting enough merit money to go to sleep away college is not easy, the odds are not good as the awards out there tend to be small amounts, and if you don’t have the need, you aren’t going to get financial aid to meet costs.</p>