<p>More and more I'm reading from students who claim that their parents wont provide financial information and will not help with with tuition, fees or room and board. Most of the posters seem to be from upper middle class students. Is this something that is new? Are posters being truthful? Is it that the parents themselves were able to put themselves through school, so they don't think that they are obligated to help with their children's exorbitant college costs? </p>
<p>It’s hard to say, Aunt Bea. I would hope that some of these students haven’t really discussed college financing yet with their parents. It is also possible that some of these parents have higher incomes, but also higher expenses. </p>
<p>And remember, some of these students are talking about schools in the $60,000 a year range. Some parents just won’t or can’t fund the costs to attend schools with these costs. And there ARE less expensive options, fortunately.</p>
<p>My parents simply refuse to pay for any of my tuition. Their reasoning seems to be that “so and so” didn’t need financial help and she payed for school on her own. Also, they often justify their lack of help by telling me bluntly that it’s not their responsibility. I love them to death but they are really leaving me out to dry. For the sake of context, my parents are lower middle class, my target schools are Florida State and U of Fllorida (8k a year). </p>
<p>Parents are not obligated to pay for you. The world isn’t fair. I know kids at my University who’s parents pay for a high-end luxury apartment, full tuition, their vehicle, gas, food, you name it. Then there are kids working 40+ hours and going to school full time to afford the costs. Is it fair? Not at all, but that’s life. </p>
<p>Don’t expect people to hand you things in life. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you can pay only $8,000 per year total net price (including room, board, books, etc.) after scholarships, then that is within the range of self-funding through direct loans and some student work earnings.</p>
<p>Also, if they won’t pay, but have a low enough income and are willing to complete financial aid paperwork, then you may still get enough financial aid (which may be the case if you can get an $8,000 per year total net price).</p>
<p>However, low income (or any level of income) parents who refuse to complete financial aid paperwork are basically shutting their kids out of need-based financial aid until the kids reach age 24, serve in the military, or get married.</p>
<p>Maybe some parents aren’t presently fulfilling their tax-reporting obligations, so they “can’t” fill out the FAFSA forms.</p>
<p>I know someone whose parent won’t provide the information because they’re not going to the school of their parent’s choice, so I wouldn’t be surprised if plenty of parents are using FAFSA as leverage.</p>
<p>I realize that I am not obligated to pay for my children, but even with state schools, I don’t see how my three children could do it on their own.</p>
<p>Because they have none. I know from the outside some of my relatives sound rich $3M+ house near the beach, 3 or 4 expensive cars and luxury brand this and that but nothing was saved for college. So the top 2 kids took the scholarship route, the last kid didn’t get any scholarship at the lower tiered UC so took one of the top UCs as consolation price. The bottom line kids don’t really know how much their parents can afford.</p>
<p>^that doesn’t seem to explain it since the parents can co-sign a loan for the whole nut. </p>
<p>They refused to cosign, they have to cosign for medical school and that’s all they did. You can’t also assume people wants to borrow loan. They are not on CC so lower tiered UCs are fine with them.</p>
<p>Sometimes responsibility is a matter of opinion. Although my post sounded a bit bitter, forcing me to to pay on my own has given me the motivation to save up and choose a cost efficient school. In my case it worked out. I’ve always wanted to go to school in Florida and it just so happens I qualify for in-state tuition. However, I feel like looking at my situation ignores the many kids who have dream schools with out of state expenses which climb to the 20-40 k a year range. It’s also important to note that the government expects the “family” not just the child to pay for college expenses as seen here at <a href=“What To Do If Your Parents Can't or Won't Help Pay - Finaid”>About Finaid - Finaid,
“The federal government and the schools consider it primarily the family’s responsibility to pay for school. They provide financial assistance only when the family is unable to pay.”
I</p>
<p>“In 1979, when the minimum wage was $2.90, a hard-working student with a minimum-wage job could earn enough in one day (8.44 hours) to pay for one academic credit hour. If a standard course load for one semester consisted of maybe 12 credit hours, the semester’s tuition could be covered by just over two weeks of full-time minimum wage work—or a month of part-time work. A summer spent scooping ice cream or flipping burgers could pay for an MSU education. The cost of an MSU credit hour has multiplied since 1979. So has the federal minimum wage. But today, it takes 60 hours of minimum-wage work to pay off a single credit hour, which was priced at $428.75 for the fall semester.”</p>
<p>The Myth of Working Your Way Through College - Svati Kirsten Narula - The Atlantic</p>
1 Like
<p><<<<
they have to cosign for medical school </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>???</p>
<p>parents dont cosign for med school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When did it become an entitlement for kids to “go away” to college?</p>
<p>@GMTplus7 Imagine a kid who works their tail off in the classroom and hits the books hard every night to go to a great school. She also earns relatively high test scores and maintains a high GPA. Only problem is she lives in Montana, a state with poor instate college choices. Is she not entitled to “go away” to a better college out of state? It becomes an entitlement for kids to “go away” to college when those kids earn the right through their academic success. The real problem, like @206377 pointed out, is the cost, not if their entitled or not to go. </p>
<p>Honestly, I only ever see this here on CC and I suspect a fraction of them aren’t totally aware of or aren’t telling the whole story. We know some families living at the poverty level who CAN’T help pay for college but are offering support in all the ways they can manage… like keeping a roof over their head while they do community college or a commuter university. We know families that put down a budget in advance (ourselves included.) We know people going to “crazy to us” lengths to pay for school. We know many full pay families too. We don’t know ANY families in real life that are simply refusing to help their child pay for college. The one kid we know that makes this claim isn’t telling the exact truth. His parents would pay for him to live at home and attend the local state school (which really is what they can afford) but he chose not to even apply there. To him, they won’t pay for college… in truth, they won’t pay for the one he wants.</p>
<p>I don’t think everyone is lying. I’m sure it happens. I wouldn’t use this site as a marker for the norm or for what the current trend is though.</p>
<p>@SimplyOverdone: Well, if that kid in Montana is smart and works hard to get good test scores and grades, he/she can try to get merit aid (there are some elite universities in this country with full-tuition scholarships, though they’re obviously hard to get).</p>
<p>But whether you agree or not, this country doesn’t believe that someone is entitled to a great school just by doing extremely well academically, because the US hasn’t set up a system like France or many Asian countries where doing terrifically on one test can get you in to the best school in the country at minimal cost regardless of what part of the country you are from (I’m not sure you want that system, BTW).</p>
<p>In any case, I don’t believe that kids should bust tail in HS to get in to some dream college. They should bust tail to give themselves the best education they can in HS so that they can succeed in life later on, no matter where they go to college. In other words, the education itself is the reward, not the means to a reward. And you know what, if they have that attitude, they will succeed in life, no matter where they go to college.</p>
<p>@SimplyOverdone,
</p>
<p>Parents are not the tooth fairy. Only the tooth fairy operates that way: you put a tooth under your pillow; you get reward money, guaranteed.</p>
<p>Child busting tail to achieve “relatively high” academic performance does not obligate parents to immolate themselves financially to pay for out of state. The real world rewards for RESULTS, not just for hard work; otherwise, bricklayers would earn more than accountants.</p>
<p>If child is truly an outstanding academic achiever (as opposed to a “relatively high” achiever), the merit money doors swing wide open. </p>
<p>@PurpleTitan,
They should also bust tail to win merit money.</p>
<p><<<<
When did it become an entitlement for kids to “go away” to college?
<<<</p>
<p>We see it here on CC, kids with modest stats and a beer budget declaring that they hate all the schools in their state and therefore they must go away (OOS) to college. And even when they arent insisting on going OOS, they are insisting that they have to go to a school where they can dorm…even if their majors/career goals can be fulfilled quite well locally.</p>
<p>There was a time when kids could take out Sallie Mae loans for full COA w/o cosigners (then way too many defaulted and that was changed). However, perhaps the years that this went on led the way.</p>
<p>As Calif goes, so does the nation, and the UCs are pretty-much meeting need for modest income students, so that has enabled kids to skip past their local CSU or UC to go away (when their chosen majors did not require such). </p>
<p>If we are going to argue that X child should be funded to go to (non-local) Y college because he/she is very smart, then why do we ignore that a gazillion smart kids are stuck in crappy K-12 systems?</p>
<p>i think the allure of living away from parents rules, parties, etc, on someone else’s dollar (while working minimally or not at all) is very appealing. it’s a nice gig if you can get it.</p>