Stuck in a bad spot and need some help deciding what to do

Hi! I’m currently a high school senior who is having trouble deciding what to do with her future because of money issues.
So i’ve always been a good student, ive taken 10 AP classes, all A’s/a few high Bs, but my class rank is only around top 20% because I go to a very competitive school.

I applied to around 9 colleges and got into all of them except 1, University of Texas(but I wasn’t planning on getting in anyway) I planned to go to UNT and study communications.

My parents aren’t going to help me pay for college, so I was planning on relying on FAFSA and loans. However, we got back the FAFSA papers and i’m not eligble to take out the loans because of money issues my parents had a few years ago. So I have a very small amount of money for college, and would basically have to take out all private loans.

My parents think I should go to the local community college and try and transfer to University of Texas, and live at home to try and save money, but I guess I just feel like I would be missing out. I know this probably seems obvious, but should I do that or try and go to a 4 year university and take out loans?

I just want to know if anyone has gone through the same thing. I can’t help but feel jealous when all my friends are going to 4 year universities and prestigious colleges with their tuition payed for by their parents when I can’t even go to a small college because of money issues that happened when I was a small child. I feel bad for being jealous. Has anyone gone through anything similar?

I personally cannot relate to you, but most of my friends are in a somewhat similar predicament. You should definitely check out the many private scholarships up for grabs. They will help out a lot. I’m not that great with understanding Financial Aid, but maybe there are other documents you can fill out such as the CSS that would give a different financial readout. I hope it all works out for you @blackkitteycat

I’m not sure what kind of financial issues your parents had, but you should be able to take out Stafford loans in your own name.

In addition, if your parents are not eligible for Parent Plus loans, you should be able to borrow a little more than the standard Stafford loan amount.

Most schools offer monthly payment plans if your parents can contribute a monthly amount, but do not have an entire semester’s worth of tuition available.

Outside scholarships can help make a dent as well.

These may or may not be options, but are worth exploring.

What kind of stats do you have? What’s the cost of your in state choices? Are any schools you’ve been accepted to in driving distance of home?

What you are experiencing is totally normal and you are not alone. There are so many kids out there like you. Life is full of monetary limitations. You will just have to find another path.

Yes you may miss out on certain life experiences by not residing at college but it will not limit who you are or what you accomplish. It is merely a different path. By attending CC and then finishing up at the state U, you will be able to save tons on bills. Living at home will enable you to get a job and focus on learning some work life skills that your friends are missing.

My son might be one who you are jealous of as I can pay for him to go to the state school. But guess what? He dreams of private school which we cannot afford. For him he feels the same as you. At times I know he is depressed about it. The wants never end in life. You just need to learn to deal with them.

What are your stats? You may be able to take a gap year, work to earn some money, and go someplace with guaranteed merit. You should be able to take your federal loans ($5,500 freshman year) regardless of any financial issues on your parents’ part.

Oh boy, who hasn’t felt envy! You are better than that tho, don’t let it eat at you.

Outside of loans, what are your resources? And savings, parents willing at all, any other FA? Any merit offered from any if your schools?

I am guessing you are in DFW or one of the major TX metro area. I would agree community college is a good choice for you.

Have you already gotten back your financial aid award letters from the colleges that accepted you?
You may want to meet with your college counselor to talk about adding options in the next couple of weeks that might give you merit aid.

I’m going to suggest you post your predicament in the Financial Aid forum (or maybe the mods will be kind enough to move it), so you can get some advice from the great experts who post there.

Stafford loans (which are in your name, not your parents’) are not dependent on your parents’ credit at all, so I don’t really understand what you are saying. If you are referring to Parent Plus loans, their ability to qualify would become apparent only once they applied, not from your FAFSA report, so again, I’m not following you.

You won’t be able to secure private loans without a co-signer, and it will be much harder for your parents to qualify as co-signers than it would be for them to qualify for Parent Plus loans, so it appears borrowing isn’t a viable option at all.

There’s no shame or harm in going the CC route and transferring to UT later. My four younger siblings all went to CC (for financial reasons) and after 2 years transferred and all graduated from UCLA and UCBerkeley, with one of them going on to a PhD at UCSD. You do miss the “college experience” for those 2 years, but in terms of education and your prospects, you still come out with a UT diploma like everyone else.

It’s best to finish college with little or no debt if you possibly can.

@intparent Yes, I can take out the 5500. But I would still need around 10,000 to go to any of the public universities around. My stats are pretty good, 3.5/4.4 GPA, 1270 on new SAT. I’ve been working for around a year and a half now and have some saved up, but still nowhere near enough.

@socalmom007 My stats are pretty good, 3.5/4.4 GPA, 1270 on new SAT, many extracurriculars. All the instate colleges are at the very least 10-12K, and those aren’t close to home. Close to home I have University of Texas, which I didn’t get into and is a lot more expensive.

@HRSMom My parents aren’t willing to help. Outside of that I have around 1500 that i’ve saved up from working, and the 5500 from the Stafford Loans. Only one in state college has given me aid and it was 1500 a semester and the college costs around 20K a year. I’ve been applying to scholarships, but I apply and then never hear back so i’m not sure. Thank you for the help!

@HillCountry Yeah, i’m in Austin

@MommaJ Yes, i’ve gotten the award papers back. And yes i’m able to take out the Stafford loans, sorry, I should have put that in the original post. It’s the parent plus loans that I can’t take out, which unfortunately are what would cover the majority of the cost. With the Stafford Loan and my personal savings I only have around 7k, since my parent’s aren’t willing to help. Thank you, I will post to the financial aid forum

@insanedreamer Thank you, that helps. It’s a dream to go to Berkeley one day!

Isn’t this the second post on the same day about the same topic?

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we got back the FAFSA papers and i’m not eligble to take out the loans because of money issues my parents had a few years ago
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??

Are you saying that your parents tried to apply for a Parent Plus loan and were denied because of their credit issues? If that’s the case, then you won’t get a private loan either because those will have stricter credit issues for your parents who’d be co-signing those loans. You won’t be able to get ANY private loans w/o a cosigner.

You can borrow $5,500 because you filled out FAFSA. If your parents were denied for a Plus Loan, then you can borrow $4k more. But, 9500 isn’t enough to pay to go away to college…AND…that’s a LOT to borrow as a freshman.

Maybe you should go to a CC for two years, work and pay for the classes with EARNINGS. But go ahead and take out the student loans for Frosh and soph years and BANK/SAVE that money, so that when you’re a junior and senior, you’ll have those funds AND the loan funds from junior and senior years.

BTW…don’t be surprised to find out that some of your friends won’t be able to go away to whatever pricey school they want. Many families can’t suddenly come up with $25k-60k per year for college either.

…since your parents money troubles are from when you were a “small child” why can’t they NOW help you pay for college…at least a little bit?

Since you live near UT-Austin but didn’t get in, go to a nearby CC for two years and then transfer to UTA and commute.

When parents can’t/won’t help pay for college, then commuting from home can be like a $10k+ per year contribution from parents.
.