<p>Both of my parents paid for their own college and expect me to do the same. Since my parents work fulltime and have money saved in the bank, I will not qualify for financial aid. What kind of scholarships/financial assistance/etc. can I apply for that will not base their decision on the money my parents have?</p>
<p>**Please do not make comments on how it is a parent's job to pay for their kid's college or anything to that effect. I understand where they are coming from and arguing with their decision will NOT help me. Thanks.</p>
<p>Federal student loans is probably your best option - $5500 freshman, $6500 sophomore and $7500 for junior and senior years. You can defer paying them back until after you graduate. Depending on where you want to go to school - this is not very much money. You may want to consider community college for two years while working and saving. Then you may be able to afford a state college/university for your last two years. The only other option you have is private student loans but I don’t know much about them. I’m sure someone will come along that can fill you in.</p>
<p>Choosing schools which don’t use PROFILE will help, as FAFSA is mainly based on parents income not savings.</p>
<p>You will be able to get unsubsidized loans. You may also find schools which will offer you merit aid- however for example a private school offering merit may still be more expensive than an instate public offering no aid except loans.</p>
<p>I am not sure if I can apply for FAFSA. My dad told me early on that he does not want to release our financial information. Are there any decent scholarships that dont ask for financial information?</p>
<p>Be aware that there are some schools that will only award merit aid if you’ve also submitted a FAFSA. If this doesn’t apply to the schools you’re applying to, then no problem. If you do find a school that would give you big money but which asks for the FAFSA, then sorry but I think your dad needs to bend on filling out the form. But no point worrying about that until and unless you find out it’s an issue. </p>
<p>I see that you’re looking at a NROTC scholarship, which is another path. So is attending a local community college, living at home, saving money, and then spending your last two years at a four-year institution. If your local public school is low-cost, see how that pricetag compares. You should figure on working part-time through the school year, and full-time during the summer. Some debt is acceptable, but a good rule of thumb is to borrow only as much money as you think you’ll earn your first year out of college.</p>
<p>While I understand that your parents put themselves through school on their own, it is much more difficult to do so today. The balance of grants vs. loans has changed significantly in the past 20 yrs. It is unfair of your parents to refuse to submit a FAFSA because this will severely affect your ability to get any kind of aid, need based and/or merit. You will not be able to get the federal student loans mentioned in post #2 with submitting a FAFSA. I really think that you should do some research on this and then sit down with your parents and explain the situation to them. Perhaps they do not understand the way things work these days, but without a FAFSA, your ability to finance your education will be severely limited.</p>
<p>These were the OPs stats as of April 2011. OP…did you retake the SAT? What are your current stats?</p>
<p>The best college scholarships come directly from the schools themselves. To get the most significant merit aid, you would need to be at the very top of the accepted student pool for a college. </p>
<p>If it were me, and I were you, I would discuss (politely) your post high school plans with your parents. You might want to find out what THEY think you will be doing after you graduate. If they say they expect you to be working full time and going to school one class at a time to complete college, that will be very different than if they say they want to see you enrolled in college full time.</p>
<p>You can then discuss finances. I hope that you did so prior to crafting your college applications. If so, you can show your parents the costs of attending the schools to which you applied. They may be surprised at the costs these days. They may not be. </p>
<p>You might also want to print out some financial aid information from one school…so your parents can see what it would take for you to even get a student loan in your own name.</p>
<p>Does your state offer any academic scholarships that don’t require you to complete the FAFSA? Are there any 4 year colleges/universities within easy commuting distance to your home? Are you stats good enough to qualify for a nice scholarship at an in-state university? My oldest son applied to a state university that was desperately trying to increase the stats of their students and his stats were high so they offered him almost a full ride scholarship. Start applying now for any local scholarships where you live. Every little bit will help even if you go to community college.</p>
<p>This is a last resort, but someone correct me if I’m wrong: didn’t the rules change about a year or so ago that allow you to get a Stafford loan (unsub) if your parents sign something saying they refuse to contribute. That way at least you won’t have to get private loans. It’s not much, but it might be a start. </p>
<p>Do they understand how much college actually costs nowadays? Don’t try to argue with them, but maybe sit down and show them figures. Many (too many) parents are SHOCKED at what college actually costs now vs whenever they went. It might sway them a bit.</p>
<p>Good idea romanigypsyeyes! It seems illogical to penalize a kid for their parent’s ignorance. If the parents refuse to contribute - the kid should still be able to get the federal student loans that HE/SHE is responsible for paying back. I mean, I understand parents wanting their kids to work for their education, but you can’t even get work-study without filling out the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Your only real option (unless scores went way up) is going to be a CC for 2 years and then an in state school. Anything else will leave you in tremendous debt. Even this plan will probably leave you with over $50K in debt depending on your home state and whether you can commute to a state school.</p>
<p>This assumes your parents will let you live at home and will cosign for private loans.</p>
<p>Roman is correct. I have also read that there is a rule where if a parent refuses to provide the financial information, the student can file FAFSA without parent info and be eligible for unsub federal loans only. It does require that the parent write something stating they refuse to provide financial information. I am not sure how the mechanics of it work though.</p>
<p>The federal student loans ($5500 freshman year, $6500 sophomore) would at least make a CC affordable for the first 2 years if you live at home. #rd and 4th year they are $7500 which is not likely to cover the full cost of a 4 year school, even a state one. OP, you need to have a discussion with your parents about the fact that any loans other than federal student loans will require them to cosign. Your SAT score does not sound high enough to garner much in the way of scholarships. If you go the CC route, try and do very well at CC and hopefully you might get some sort of transfer scholarship to a 4 year school (though they don’t tend to be as high as freshman scholarships)</p>
<p>Since it doesn’t look like your scores are high enough for enough merit to leave you with very little to pay unless you’ve retested and have gotten better scores…</p>
<p>Your best option is to start at a community college and pay for that with summer earnings.</p>
<p>Hopefully, if you do VERY well at a CC, then your stats will be high enough that some school may offer you a large merit scholarship OR your parents will then understand that it’s much more difficult to put yourself thru college OR you can commute to a local state school (and pay with earnings).</p>
<p>Do look into the possibility of getting a Stafford loan without parents’ information. However, if you do so, try to graduate on time or close to it. Otherwise you could end up either maxing out of loans or having too much debt. </p>
<p>I know that you say "it is what it is " with your folks, but hopefully at some point they’ll “wise up” and realize that things are very different now. In the “old day,” the tuition at public univs was a LOT less because tax-payers were HEAVILY subsidizing the cost. Now, there is MUCH LESS subsidizing going on, so tuition rates have increased at a much higher pace than inflation. </p>
<p>Just to give you an idea…when my brother went to a CSU in the 70’s, his tuition was $56 a semester. He could earn a semester’s worth of tuition in a WEEK at a summer job.</p>
<p>OP, First, I want to compliment you on not trashing your parents. I agree with what has been written here and hope they will help a bit. In the meantime, here are some more ideas: </p>
<ol>
<li>Take the ACT. You may do better on that than the SAT and it may open up some possibilities for you.</li>
<li>If you’re willing to consider ROTC, have you considered the service academies like West Point or Annapolis? I suspect your scores are low (but your gpa isn’t) but, again, consider taking the ACT.</li>
<li>If you end up going to the local community college or instate public, look to see if they accept CLEP or AP exams. CLEP tests aren’t very difficult and you may be able to self-study and get a bunch of credits for the cost of testing fees.</li>
<li>Some areas allow high school students to take community college for free if they’re dual-enrolled. Talk to both your school guidance counselor and the community college about this and see if there’s any program. </li>
<li>If you will be looking for a job, see if there are any jobs available at the local 4-year school or community college. Even jobs like security guard or clerk may have tuition reimbursement. (Sometimes, you have to wait a year for the benefit to kick in but it can mean that a certain number of courses-- maybe only 2 per semester-- will be free. Still, that and some testing may get you through college for very little.) </li>
<li>Look into the work colleges. (This may or may not be helpful, since they may require a FAFSA, but maybe if your parents understand that you would be paying your own way, they will help. Plus, it might be worth a call to these colleges to ask their advice.):
[Welcome</a> to the Work Colleges Consortium! | <a href=“http://workcolleges.org%5B/url%5D”>http://workcolleges.org](<a href=“http://workcolleges.org/]Welcome”>http://workcolleges.org/)</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, also talk to your guidance counselor about other opportunities to earn credit while in high school. Some high schools have classes taught during the regular school day that have been approved for community college credit. Those courses may not transfer to lots of private 4-year schools, but they definitely do transfer to the community college and, subsequently, to several 4-year instate publics. (I have seen this done two ways: 1- vocational clasess that also carry community college credit in that vocational area, 2- community college courses that are taught on the high school campus.)</p>
This is incorrect. Pure merit aid almost never requires financial data. Of course, there are other reasons to submit a FAFSA (if you want very expensive unsubsidized loans, for example).</p>
<p>My younger son has two friends who are doing this…</p>
<p>They didn’t want to do ROTC. Instead, they joined the Marines and they go to school full time. They do some kind of training in the summer in California, but they are full time regular students at Alabama during the school year. The Marines pays for tuition, room, board, and books and gives them a stipend for a “salary” to pay for their cars and personal expenses. This is different from ROTC because they are already considered “active duty.” They don’t have to do any of the ROTC stuff during the school year. They are just regular students.</p>
<p>I’m guessing the other branches do the same?</p>