<p>My dad is very controlling and wants me to not go to college at all. He wants me to stay at home and do home studies after high school. He makes over 100k so I think any help from the FAFSA is impossible and he wouldn't sign it anyway. I'm only a junior in high school now, but feel i must start my college planning now. I'm number 2 in the junior class currently and have a 4.5 weighted gpa. I have only one extracurricular club FFA (Future Farmers of America). I need help knowing how to pay for college without the help of my Guardian.</p>
<p>What type of “home studies” does he think you’ll be able to do? What does that even mean? What do you intend to study? You’re right that you probably wouldn’t be eligible for federal/state aid due to your family income. You can file FAFSA without a parent and be eligible for federal student loans, which are capped at $5500-7500/year. </p>
<p>You’ll need to take the SAT and ACT and look for colleges that will give you very significant merit money. These are going to be schools where your stats are much higher than their average acceptances. There are many threads on this board related to automatic scholarships (based on GPA and test scores) and competitive scholarships. If your parents won’t pay for those tests then you may have to pay for them yourself. Enlist the help of your guidance counselor if you can…they may be able to steer you to schools that will meet your needs.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a very controlled home situation and the question I would ask is if you believe you can live at home and actually manage or “be allowed” to attend college. And if the answer is “no,” it sounds like your first task is to plan how to move out and support yourself. College may have to wait a year to establish yourself and/or consider options like military service (which can be a quick route to self-sufficiency away from parents, though with obvious other obligations).</p>
<p>Most purely online colleges are not very well regarded–so think twice before going that route. You may end up with a lot of worthless credits that don’t transfer (even if it is an accredited online college.) </p>
<p>You need ONE of your parents to sign the FAFSA. Would your mother do this for you?</p>
<p>"You can file FAFSA without a parent and be eligible for federal student loans, which are capped at $5500-7500/year. "</p>
<p>I don’t know how this is accurate. I could never submit a FAFSA without my parents’ income information and signature/PIN until this year because I am turning 24. And I only got $1500-5000 a year in Staffords even though my family’s income and EFC were pretty low. </p>
<p>If your stats are that good, excellent, keep it going! You may need to lower your standards and apply to lower ranking schools so that you are more competitive and offered more aid. If you apply to top tier schools, keep in mind most applicants have similar stats as you, so you need to stand out to fair well with merit scholarships.</p>
<p>University of Alabama is excellent with merit aid! Look into schools where that may be an option. </p>
<p>Good Luck! My son’s father refuses to pay for college (he is a college graduate and his parents paid). It’s not easy, but keep at it.</p>
<p>Nova, the rules were amended in 2008 to allow dependent students to file FAFSA even if their parents refuse. The school must then make the determination that the parents have refused to provide information and have ended their support for the student and then they can award unsubsidized Stafford loans. This does not mean that the student is an independent student unless they meet one of the criteria for independent status. Obviously, this isn’t ideal but the option at least exists. </p>
<p>Stafford loans limits (sub + unsub combined) for dependent students are $5500 for freshmen, $6500 for sophomores, and $7500 for juniors and seniors. Perhaps you had other aid that prevented the school from awarding the full amount.</p>
<p>I had a $10k/yr scholarship, but that still left another $15,000 that I had to take out in private loans. </p>
<p>So I probably would have gotten more if my parents had not signed it, since they weren’t looking to help anyway? Well, that’s a shame. I wish my financial advisors had bothered to mention that.</p>
<p>you took out $15K in private loans per year on top of Stafford & Perkins loans or over all?
I think anything beyond $20K-25 K at graduation is too much to handle in debt, that is really going to impact the type of jobs you are able to accept- what you can afford for housing etc.</p>
<p>Ryan, the solution for you is to win the proverbial “full ride” merit scholarship. This is difficult to do. It requires two things
- Excellent performance in HS with great SAT/ACT scores
- Knowledge of which schools offer it and how likely you are to get it. </p>
<p>Two of the best known schools that provide substantial scholarships are Pittsburgh and Alabama. I think Kentucky offers some pretty nice scholarships too. </p>
<p>The key thread that you want to read is
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Another option is ROTC. </p>
<p>Otherwise, you have to go part time somewhere cheap while you work. It’s not easy to make enough money to live, let alone to spend on classes, but it’s been done. </p>
<p>Once you’re either married or 24, you can get financial aid independently. </p>
<p>I’ve recommended moving to Boston and going to Harvard Extension School before because it’s really cheap (Harvard Extension, not Boston), but if you’re a future farmer, Boston is definitely the wrong place for agriculture.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys! I’ll try to help out more so you can understand me.</p>
<p>“What type of “home studies” does he think you’ll be able to do? What does that even mean? What do you intend to study?”</p>
<p>Homes studies consist of doing nothing but chores around the house and probably reveiwing high school work.</p>
<p>"University of Alabama is excellent with merit aid! Look into schools where that may be an option. "
I live in Nth Carolina. I don’t know if moving out of state would cost more.</p>
<p>“Stafford loans limits (sub + unsub combined) for dependent students are $5500 for freshmen, $6500 for sophomores, and $7500 for juniors and seniors. Perhaps you had other aid that prevented the school from awarding the full amount.”
Most public universities would run at about 10-14k a year (tuition and room&board). I could probably attend a community college and rent a room somewhere, but then all the work i put into high school kind of seems lame.</p>
<p>Sry for grammar! I wrote all of my post really fast.</p>
<p>Homes studies consist of doing nothing but chores around the house and probably reveiwing high school work.</p>
<p>??? So are you saying that once you’re out of HS, your parents don’t want you to seek any kind of career or professional work? What do they do for a living?
*
"University of Alabama is excellent with merit aid! Look into schools where that may be an option. "
I live in Nth Carolina. I don’t know if moving out of state would cost more.*</p>
<p>Not if the scholarships were enough. What are your stats?</p>
<p>Besides, you need to move out of that house…toooooo controlling and toooo (sorry) nutty.</p>
<p>Maintain those grades, throughout your senior year. Take your SATs. Make sure you do well with them. And you could possibly get a scholarship. And what type of job does your father have that has him making $100,000/yr without being a college grad? Cause I need his secret.</p>
<p>He wants me to work for him when i hit like 20-something.</p>
<p>Not if the scholarships were enough. What are your stats?</p>
<p>I expect to score around 2050-2100 on the SAT (I got like 2075 on practice). 4.5 GPA.High School Junior. Number 2 in my class. Can’t recieve federal aid because my family is not needy.</p>
<p>Is it really possible to get a full ride to a out of state university. I’ll take any if it is. I don’t care about prestige or tiers. As lon as there are a good amount of people there and the aid is good.</p>
<p>Ryan, Yes, it’s possible to get a full ride to an out-of-state university IF the university offers them. Alabama gives those scholarships to out-of-state students. Read the thread that was posted and you will see how someone was able to get her kids full rides with test scores that most people think wouldn’t get anyone big merit money. </p>
<p>Alabama would probably be one of your best choices but you might also see if there are instate options that have big merit money. The most important thing for you this year is to keep your grades up and study for your SATs. </p>
<p>By the way, look to see if AP courses will shorten your degree a bit. The state schools tend to be good about giving credit.</p>
<p>Emerald - I did not attend my $30k college for 4 years. Started at a CC. My total debt, Staffords included, is roughly $65. I have a very low paying job at the moment and I can handle it all. I am living at home yet - if I really tried, I could afford to move out and live 100% paycheck to paycheck, but I am applying to graduate programs next year so I need to save that extra money instead. I knew with a BA in psychology I wasn’t going to find much of a job after undergrad. But I was very well prepared for grad school with the school I chose to graduate from, and I do not regret it. My state school did not have some of the opportunities I had there. </p>
<p>Also, I’m applying to PhD programs which are fully funded, so there will be no more loans to worry about, thankfully!</p>
<p>Oh, and the above includes credit card debt from books and travel expenses, which I am paying off quickly since it is interest-free. Not all of that was for tuition. And I commuted all 4 years as well.</p>
<p>You are in a tough spot as many kids are who have parents who own a business and ‘want’ the kids to go into the business. You “say” he wants you to go to work for him when you are “20”…maybe you can compromise and promise hiim X number of years work if he helps you go to college for 4 years, the difference between 20 and 21 or 22 isn’t really all that much. You never know you might grow to enjoy the business when you are older. We also have a friend who struck a compromise to go into the family business when he turned 30. He went to college, did his thing through his twenties and went to work for the family business at 30. He did what he promised. </p>
<p>I do feel for you. My son has a friend who went to work for his father’s business right after high school because that is what his parents “demanded” and is now 22. His father just told him he will pay for him to go to college if he would like to. My son graduated from college and his friend is just now going at age 22. Time has a way of changing things sometimes it really does.</p>
<p>Finally you can do some hard work with the help of people here and try to find a path to college for yourself. All I’m saying is think about all the possible scenarios…compromise, a future promise and cutting the ties.</p>
<p>I have soooooooooooooo much sympathy for you. You’re obviously a fantastic student, and although my mom is about as crazy as your dad, she also doesn’t make much, and I was never as driven in school as you are. It makes me SO mad that situation like yours exist! Anyway, since you live in North Carolina, you’re very lucky. UNC’s known as a public ivy, and it’s cheap! (Almost 5 grand less than my mediocre-at-best school…) and even so, at my in-state school, the valedictorian (and the salutorian?) get a free ride to their in-state college. Your situation is VERY unfortunate, but you should be fine! Good luck. : )</p>
<p>OP, you mentioned belonging to FFA. Is your dad a farmer?</p>
<p>His attitude is similar to that of some of the farmers I know (not all, not even most), who think that farming is the only life worth living and that anyone who aspires to do something else is getting beyond themselves.</p>
<p>One farmer I know farms thousands of acres; he bought his land in our area after he sold his farm in the expanding Chicago suburbs for millions of dollars, tore down a perfectly serviceable farm house, and built a huge mansion. He has four kids, middle school and younger. He has declared that when each of his kids graduates from high school, they’re going to go to Joliet Junior College to study agriculture, then come back to help him; he plans to build a house for each of them.</p>
<p>I asked him once, “What if one of your kids wants to go to college and study something else?” His answer: “They’ll get no help from me, and they’ll be very disappointed when they read my will.”</p>