<p>My immediate family is a working-class, quintessential American family. We are loaded in debt. My mother owns a small travel agency, from which she has JUST started making enough to warrant a yearly salary. We cannot pay for higher education beyond community college, and they've made it clear that I'm going to be the one taking out the loans. </p>
<p>Basically, I'm on my own when it comes to paying for my education. Awesome.</p>
<p>Who else is like me and doesn't come from a super-privileged family? Can anyone think of any way to justify the rising tuition rates? I definitely can't. Am I the only student on CC whose parents are not paying for her education?</p>
<p>My mom is gung-ho about paying whatever it will be, but my dad is used to paying like a few hundred a year for my brother and sister at the local college rather than the university price he’s going to have to pay next year…</p>
<p>My mom can’t pay one dime, so I’ll be on my own, probably with massive loans. :(</p>
<p>I am really stressed about it. It would be so great to not have any debt especially because I really want to go to grad school. My mom is militantly anti-loan, probably because she’s STILL paying off loans from her 4 college degrees that she has never used.</p>
<p>I also have no idea why costs keep going up. It doesn’t make sense. Some people say it’s because of all these fancy new facilities but that doesn’t seem realistic to me. It sucks.</p>
<p>Surely if your families are unable to pay you’ll have a good chance at getting FA? </p>
<p>The cost is the only thing that makes me want to stay here in the UK. Lower fees and a very good student loan system would help a lot. Still have to decide.</p>
<p>I really can’t think of a single major that is worth $40,000 a year. Even more “useful” STEM degrees shouldn’t leave the students with $100,000 or more in debt. </p>
<p>College prices are ridiculous no matter what you want to do with them when you graduate. I t would be a dream for me to major in Musical Theatre, but there’s no way I’d be able to pay off all that debt when I graduate. I’m probably going to have to switch to something a bit more lucrative and much less interesting. Well, that definitely isn’t the worst thing that could happen, right?</p>
<p>Replacing my dream with reality is very, very hard. What are you guys planning on majoring in, anyway?</p>
<p>UKgirl- That isn’t always the case. A family may have a relatively high income, but a good percentage of their expenditures go to paying off loans and debts. Say a family of four brings in around $75000 USD a year (net income). My parents explained that despite other grievances which take a fraction of the family income, when applying for any type of financial aid, it’s the net pay that schools tend to look at when deciding if an applicant is eligible for aid. </p>
<p>tl;dr Even if you’re up to your eyeballs in debt, if you still bring in a sizable income financial aid is hard to obtain. I hope I wasn’t too confusing!</p>
<p>I am
It’s not that my parents can’t afford to pay, but I don’t think they’re willing to pay an egregious amount for any school. They did say they’d be willing to pay for the best, but watching my older sibling go through it, my parents have repeatedly said “go where the money is”. They got full rides to HBCUs (1st gen.) And my sibling will be attending one as well (almost completely full ride). Though I know they’re financially stable, it’d be a personal failure for me to have to ask them for a huge amount of money, or to take out a loan (huge no-no rule).</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. My parents don’t make very much, but they’re old and they’re cheapskates and I’m they’re only kid and they’ve saved for my college for a long time. I don’t know if it will be enough.
I think Ohio State will give me good financial aid if all other options become impossible for whatever reason. It’s not as good as the ones people on here usually want to go to, but still. Lots of opportunities, lots of new people, and I wouldn’t be upset at all if I had to go there.</p>
<p>Edit: I’m just going to leave that they’re/their typo up there to remind myself never to correct other people’s grammar in the future.</p>
<p>My parents are paying $50,000 a year (ish) for the next two years for private school. Even if they’d planned to pay for college before, they certainly won’t now.
I know debt isn’t ideal, but student loands kinds make sense. It’s more an investment in your education and job prospects.</p>
<p>Those of you who are saying “my parents won’t pay. It’s huge debt for me” need to realize that as a student, you are limited in what you can borrow. They may not be willing to co-sign. </p>
<p>My family is in the typical lower middle class problem. We make too much for FA, but make too little to even come close to affording college tuition xD</p>
<p>No financial aid for me… But I pretty much cannot afford to go away to what people call the prestigious colleges (Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Ivy League, etc), but I do not care! Teachers and students have verbally jumped on me for not going away, but I find myself very well suited to stay home and attend the closest university that is between 1/3 and 1/6 of the money I’d be spending at other schools.~~But well, I have easier competition and classes, AP credit abuse to almost no GEs, and a straight path to a very good and I believe will be fun job with my major!</p>
<p>As for my parents, they had to take jobs while going to school and paid for their own college, so they feel generous even paying for mine. And I thank them very much, because my life wouldn’t be as set if it wasn’t for them.</p>
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