A couple of days ago when I finished up applying to colleges, my parents dropped the bomb on me by saying they cannot pay for college. After reading through many of the threads here, I noticed that many of the replies talked about financial aid and assistance programs/scholarships that are available to families that cannot afford college. The only problem I face now is that I do not qualify for any of these, because my parents make a lot of money a year (It’s not that they can’t pay for it, they just don’t want to…). Because I live in an affluent family, I do not qualify for any scholarships/ financial assistance whatsoever (Which sucks because just because my parents have money, doesn’t mean I have money). Is there any other way I can pay for college? The schools I am applying to cost around $40,000 a year. I have a 3.1 GPA with many honors and AP courses, and scored a 30 on ACT (32 superscored) and a 1290/1890 on SAT (only took it once). I would love to go to my top school all 4 years, because most connections form the first year, but I guess I could go to community college the first 2 years. Also, I live in New Jersey, and have 3 siblings (Who will all be in college at the same time) if that helps at all. Thank you for the help!
Will your parents pay anything at all?
Although I am not positive for sure, I"m guessing that they would pay some money (Ex. If the tuition is $40,000, they will most likely pay about $20,000). Although this sounds great, the idea of graduating with $80,000 of loans is terrifying.
The good news is that average tuition at state schools is less than $10K a year which makes it much more doable.
The average tuition at Rutgers is $26,000, so I guess that isn’t bad at all (New Jersey is expensive). I’ve applied for all of the scholarships i could, but I doubt I will get any of them.
You need to have a meeting with them. Find out why they did not prepare you for this. For instance, you could have worked this summer and saved something that would help. Find out why they think college is not worth going to. You could arm yourself with some information like:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/
And are you sure that with 3 in college you won’t qualify for need aid? In any event break out your college costs for the year and figure out what the monthly payment would be or at least the payment per semester. Look at the COA and see where you can save money. (Usually living off campus and making your own meals can save the most.) Calculate your own student loan amount (5,500 freshman year) and take 1/2 of that off each semester. Figure out you can have a p/t job and make 100 a week. Figure you can get a summer job and make 3k to contribute. Maybe it will help to show what you can contribute. Then find out what they will commit to paying.
Don’t worry, no one will lend you 80k, you can only borrow this much on your own:
Freshman 5,500
sophomore 6,500
jr 7,500
sr 7,500
That is out-of-state. See http://admissions.rutgers.edu/costs/TuitionAndFees.aspx
14k? What a bargain.
Is that your weighted GPA? If so, then you won’t qualify for many scholarships.
Ask your parents how much they WILL pay EACH YEAR…particularly when all 4 sibs are in college at the same time.
They may not be able to pay $80k per year ($20k each) when 4 are in school.
How about a Historically Black College or University?
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ says that a 3.1/30/1290 would give you big scholarships at:
Alabama State (full tuition)
Arkansas - Monticello (full tuition, full ride if top 10% rank)
Howard (full tuition)
Louisiana - Monroe (full tuition + $5,000 for housing)
Full tuition may still leave housing, food, books, etc. costs that are just out of range of federal direct loan plus a reasonable amount of work earnings. Louisiana - Monroe may be in reach with the $5,000 for housing added to full tuition. Can your parents contribute even a few thousand dollars?
Louisiana Tech has a full ride if you retry the ACT and/or SAT and score high enough (32 and 1400 CR+M), or if they superscore the ACT (you may want to ask).
If you are interested in small LAC’S, check out Colleges That Save Lives. Some CTCL schools will probably accept you and offer merit aid for your GPA(if that’s an unweighted 3.1) and ACT score.