<p>There have been a number of posts, this year as every year that basically say that the student's parents cannot or will not pay for college. Maybe the parents won't even fill out the forms or can't because they haven't filed tax returns for a while. No nearby school options. No transportation. Bad area for jobs.</p>
<p>Well, the first thing is that a college education is not required or guaranteed. Once you are out of highschool or turn 18, which ever is the earliest, you are an adult and it's up to you to support yourself. If you have some skills and attributes that can get an organization to sponsor you such as joining the military, getting a college aid/scholarship package, Americorp, a job, good for you. But it does not happen automatically. If you have parents who are feeding you, providing space for you and taking care of some of your needs and wants, lucky you. They don't have to ddo so once you are an adult. They are only doing so because they want to do so.</p>
<p>There seems to be an expectaion that if you want to go to college, that it's your right to go. Nope. Unless you have some attribute that a college wants and will offer to pay you for it, you gotta pay the college. You also have to come up with transportation and living expenses while you go. None of this is automatic. </p>
<p>College is not the must do next step. Because you can't get aid on your own financial until you are age 24, married, have a dependent, are a veteran or removed from your parents as a minor for cause by court, it's up to your parents what they decide to pay for you. If they can't or won't, no one will make them. They don't have to do so.</p>
<p>Attitudes and norms are vary across our country. It is useful to remind our 18 year old ‘kids’ that parents are not legally bound to providing for their college education nor to continue to feed and clothe them.</p>
<p>That said, in our area, most families’ DO support their adult children in school. Of course, each family likely weighs HOW MUCH they can help. We value higher education and contributed savings, current income and small parent loans.
DS in paying off Stafford loans. For our family, our plan works.
Many families can contribute more than we can. I also stand fast on retirement savings having a strong priority. </p>
<p>DS recognizes our help and has made us proud by his accomplishments.</p>
<p>To add to this excellent post: There are a few students who are unable to obtain parent info for their FAFSA because there are extenuating circumstances. I have talked with students whose parents beat them, held guns to their heads, abandoned them … if you have this type of situation, you may be able to get a dependency override so that you do not have to get parental info for the FAFSA. Know, though, that whether or not the override is approved varies by school … and you will be required to lay your family situation out for the aid officer to see … and I mean really lay it out. You will also be required to provide supporting documentation of the situation. In other words, it isn’t easy to be considered independent for this reason, but it is possible if your situation is really bad. You may still struggle to cover costs … you may only get a Pell grant and loans at the independent level ($9500/year as a freshman), but it can go a long way at an affordable school.</p>
<p>The above does not apply to students whose parents don’t want to pay. Mean parents are different from abusive parents. (Not to say that those who don’t pay are necessarily mean … their kids might think they are, though.)</p>
<p>While this does appear to vary family by family, for instance on my side of the family, for several generations at least, parents all helped their offspring pay for college, along with help until they got that first job offer, while on my husband’s side, this varied greatly, consequently there are lots of only HS diplomas, CC degrees, beauty school, etc…however, I do think that parents who intend to cut the cord at 18 and offer no support for college, have an obligation in my opinion to make sure their child is aware of this way before they turn 18. It is not right for a parent to have pushed for good grades, ECs etc… all with the “you’ll need it for college” reason or a parent to have entered into any discussion about college without making sure their child knows they do not intend to help. Finding out the fall of your senior year does not allow a child to do the necessary research to uncover possible alternatives. The same goes for those parents who will only contribute a fixed number of dollars (whether by choice or necessity), the students deserves to know that beforehand. IMO, parents have the responsibility to ensure their children have these facts by the start of high school. I see way too many posts by these students in their senior year, and this should not happen. Whether you can, will or won’t pay is the parent’s choice, but let your child know, so they know where they stand.</p>
<p>Aside from the fact that some parents won’t pay or won’t provide FA info, the more common situation is simply that families do have “determined need,” but the colleges don’t have the funds to give you.</p>
<p>The most common problem I see is with kids’ whose EFCs are beyond Pell. For a number of them, the only “aid” they get is a $5500 student loan …at a number of schools, those who aren’t Pell eligible don’t get W/S, they don’t get Perkins, etc. Those aids are often for the Pell kids at larger schools. </p>
<p>So, kids with an EFC of - say $6000 - will often get nothing but a $5500 loan. While that’s often fine for a CC or maybe a local public, the kid who had his sights on going away to his flagship which has an EFC of $20k-30k is really often out of luck. His family likely has modest earnings, hence the $6k EFC, so they aren’t in any position to cover any gaps…they often can’t even cover their EFC.</p>
<p>My S goes to a local public — lives at home — and it’s more than $12,000/year for a full load of classes. If the family had an EFC of $6000, they might qualify for a small grant. Most likely, though, they will need to come up with $5000-6000 in addition to the max loans. My S’s friends whose parents don’t help pay are going to school part time & working to pay the tuition bills.</p>
<p>There are kids who have issues with their parents and they think that upon age 18, they can just leave home and let the college financial aid system pay for them if they go to college. They see it happening in some series, and think it is an entitlement. They have no idea that their parents’ financial information is required to get much money unless an extreme situation exists and even then it is not easy to get th determination. Just claiming that you are abused and neglected at home isn’t going to cut it. Once you are 18, the answer is to leave, and your parents don’t have to give you a dime and the state or any services are not going to step in and take care of you once you are an adult. </p>
<p>So a kid who has an EFC of $6K or whose parents refuse to fill out FAFSA does have a problem if commuting to a local state school is problematic. And in some areas it is. My MIL lives in an area where you have to have access to a car to go to college. The community college is about a half hour away by car and there are no public transportation options. If a family’s car(s) are totally booked up by the owners using them, that is a problem. My one cousin is up and at work by 6 AM. He drives a full hour to work and back, the opposite direction of said college. His kids are not going to get rides from him to the CC. But this is not just an issue for going to college. For them to get jobs it’s a problem too since there is no extra money for a car and having none pretty much eliminates the places of employment.</p>
<p>It’s not as though college is the only thing that costs money when a kid becomes an adult. In many cases, a car is essential for the kid to be looking for a job and then working at one.</p>