<p>So as a rising senior, I am really lost on how to pay for college. With 4 kids in my family and not the best relationship with my parents, I really don't want my parents to help me very much. Yes--weird but I do not want to put them in debt (guilt thing).</p>
<p>So what do I do? Where do I start? Obviously, I will have to take out alot of loans but I don't know where to take them out from (the govt, private places), if I can sign independently, when I pay back, and where I can find a place with all this information.</p>
<p>So more or less, I don't know what the hell I am doing. Slightly panicking? Kinda.</p>
<p>even if you plan on paying for college yourself the amount of aid you're going to get and how much you're expected to pay will be based mostly on your parents income and their financial info...you should go to collegeboard.com or finaid.org and use the EFC calculator to see what you might expect to be paying...you'll eventually have to fill out the FAFSA and maybe the profile depending on which schools you apply to but that is not available until January 1st and you most likely won't get your financial aid package until after your acceptance letter in the spring.
so for now i would suggest applying to a lot of scholarships and also looking for schools with merit based aid and when the time comes in the spring when you finally know how much you;ll have to pay you can look into loans.</p>
<p>but really the first thing you should do is talk to your parents about it...</p>
<p>I see from one of your other threads that your grades and ACT are good, so it would really be practical for you to look for merit scholarships at lesser-known colleges.</p>
<p>And BREATHE. You are way too young, and it is way to early in the game to panick about anything.</p>
<p>Now the one who should be panicking is the person in the other thread that missed the FAFSA Deadline, applied late to colleges, and doesn't know how they will pay. THAT'S the one who should be panicked!!</p>
<p>You? Assure that you have a couple financial sfeties in your college list. Oh yea, and run the numbers as rma suggested.</p>
<p>Look at the sticky above for colleges offering merit aid. Find some schools on that list for which your stats put you at the 75% or above and apply for scholarships there.</p>