Appealing Financial Aid? (Parents Won't Help Me Pay at All)

Paying for College
1

So my parents combined make about $100,000 a year (though it can vary considerably). The FAFSA estimated my EFC to be about $16,000. I was accepted to a number of schools that claimed to fill financial aid need but (not including loans) they would cost me roughly $25,000 per year. But even including loans it’s still significantly above the $16,000 I was supposedly able to pay. These colleges are Boston College, Hamilton College, and Franklin & Marshall College.

The problem is my parents have made it clear that they will not be helping me at all with paying for college, meaning I’ll end up swamped in $80,000 to $100,000 of student loan debt.

Now, my plan is to go into petroleum engineering after graduating, and I know this is a lucrative business. So maybe I can afford it, but I’m afraid to take that chance. I don’t think I can appeal financial aid at the aforementioned colleges but I want to try to appeal my aid at Hobart & William Smith Colleges.

What are the odds that they can give me $10,000-$15,000 more aid per year, especially if I tell them I will get no assistance from my family? Is a degree at BC, Hamilton, or F&M worth more if I do get more aid somewhere else? Will I be okay if I stick with petroleum engineering and commit to that field? (Ultimately I want to go into paleontology but if I have to do a few years in petroleum then I don’t mind.)

My stats for anyone who is wondering (if it even matters to appealing aid):
SAT: 1400
ACT: 32
AP: 9 (Physics 1: 4, Chem: 4, Lang: 5, USH: 5, Lit, Span, Bio, Calc BC, Psych this year)
GPA: 3.89 unweighted
EC: Theater (acted in 12 plays), club hockey for 3 years, newspaper head editor, black belt in Tang Doo Do, published 3 short stories, Assistant Instructor of Women’s Assault Awareness Program, tutor kids at a group home, piano.

2
  1. who will sign for those loans? You can’t take them out on your own. Your parents would need to cosign with you.
  2. Petroleum engineering – at Hamilton and F&M and Boston College don’t have engineering. You would need to take extra years of college, adding to that debt. H&WS doesn’t have petroleum engineering.

I’m guessing that you have heard of PEngineering but have not much idea beyond that what it entails, not enough to find colleges that have that program. Maybe consider going to your Big State U that MIGHT have a PE program and would cost less. Small LACs rarely have engineering. The only ones that do have it are Swarthmore, Smith, Sweet Briar, Union in NY. None of those programs are PEngineering. There might be one or two more, but I don’t think so.

If you want to go into paleontology, then go into paleontology at a college you can afford. Do your best there and the go to a good grad school. Best of luck to you.

3

You can only borrow about $5500/year. Unless your parents are willing to borrow $20k/year for you, which is unwise, none of those schools seem to be affordable.

Why won’t your parents help you pay for school? Colleges won’t give you more aid because parents won’t contribute. What do they expect you to do? Are there colleges you can commute to from home? Did you apply to any with guaranteed merit?

4

@Dustyfeathers

  1. Parents would sign but I would have to pay.
  2. I’m aware they don’t have them. I plan to major in geology for my bachelor’s and go for an eventual master’s in petroleum engineering. (Was suggested by a successful PE I know.) The petroleum engineers I have talked to said that you don’t necessarily need a specific petroleum engineering degree and typically geology/geoscience works as well. I have talked to Boston College’s geoscience department and they have said they have sent plenty of people on to careers in petroleum. I also will add I got into Colorado School of Mines, which definitely has it, but I don’t think I can afford to go there. To be fair, I sort of misspoke. I feel like I’d probably be a petroleum geologist instead of an engineer.
5

If schools regularly renegotiated aide because of parents not being willing (or even able) to help, everyone would do it. You would need clear documentation on a change in your parents financial circumstances. Or in your relationship with them. Also know that you can not take on 80K+ student loan debt without a cosigner. Even if your parents are willing to cosign for that amount that would be extremely unwise.

I think your best bet is documentation that your parent’s income is not consistent year to year, but getting a 10-15K bump still seems unlikely.

Do you have options you can afford? Anything where you could live at home?

6

The fact that your parents can afford to contribute but refuse to is your problem, not the colleges’ problem. You need to look for affordable options. At this point in time that may mean community college for a year.

Petroleum engineering/paleontology? Do you even understand what the careers involve?

7

@austinmshauri I got a pretty big merit scholarship at H&WS but not much financial aid. That’s why I was kind of hoping I could get lucky and appeal.

I’ll also mention that I’m a finalist (of 10) for a full-ride scholarship through a video contest so I guess I can just pray that will pull through.

I think I’ll attempt to apply to another state school as backup but I swear it seems like so few of them have geology programs. In hindsight, I wish I had known earlier I wasn’t getting any help and thought a little bit more about prices. I applied to a lot of full aid schools hoping that would be enough because I thought that would be the best option at the time.

8

@MusakParent I’m desperate not to live at home. My parents are hoarders and living in that house is super emotionally damaging. I wouldn’t wish the situation on anyone. My parents hadn’t really told me I wasn’t getting help until it was too late. They don’t really talk to me much about that and I went through the college process pretty much alone.

9

If you can make Hamilton work, note that it appears in this Forbes article with respect to it being worth its cost:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliesportelli/2017/04/26/10-expensive-colleges-worth-every-penny-2017/

Wishing you the best of luck.

10

Allosaurus, Petroleum is a great, high paying career during the peak years of oil, and a terrible career with nobody hiring and experienced engineers getting laid off when oil is down. It is the very definition of a cyclical industry with booms and busts, and high quality professionals doing things like getting real estate licenses (I know a few) or heading to coding academies and boot camp places to get certificates (I know a bunch) or trying to recycle their skills into another industry.

Be careful of overextending yourself. If you knew ahead of time what the market for oil, natural gas, and downstream energy products looked like 5 years from now, you’d already be a millionaire and wouldn’t need to worry about getting a job to pay back your loans. NOBODY knows that far out; that’s why experienced petroleum engineers and energy traders learn how to diversify and hedge their bets.

Diversification for you might be becoming a civil engineer (a lot less volatile) or mechanical engineer (many more industries hire ME’s than PE’s). Hedging your bets might be to find a university with an engineering program you can get admitted to AND can afford with just the federal students loans. If you do really well, your parents may come around by sophomore year and you can consider transferring- but you won’t have a boatload of debt already hanging over your head.

Think like an engineer… and be methodical about your options right now.

11

I’m sorry you’re going through this. Right now it sounds like you can’t afford any of these schools. It would be absolutely lethal for your future to get $100K+ in debt and then pay for a Master’s after that. Are your local public schools an option (many have rolling admissions)? Another option would be to take a gap year, work – move out if you have to – and reapply next year to more affordable schools.With your stats you could consider schools which offer generous automatic scholarships based on GPA and test scores, schools such as University of Alabama.That would be one way of getting a Bachelor’s degree without financially handicapping yourself for decades.

12

@merc

I’m not sure that data is relevant today. in 2018, Hamilton changed its formula for determining need based aid when it joined MyinTuition. Prior to that, Hamilton did not consider home equity as an available resource. MyinTution does. As a consequence, the net cost for Hamilton students will increase by approximately 5% of their parents’ home equity.

13

Do you have an affordable acceptance…because it sounds like the schools on this thread are not affordable for you.

14

If your parents are only going to help you borrow you need to find more affordable schools. You may need to take a gap year to find colleges that offer guaranteed merit. Are there schools you can commute to from home? That might be an option. Another route is to attend a community college then transfer to a 4 year school. Colleges won’t give you more aid because your parents won’t pay, so you need to focus on finding affordable options. Good luck.

15

Definitely don’t go 100K into debt for a degree that will require another degree to even start a career that might or might not make enough to pay off the loans. You won’t be 100K in debt by the time you start paying - it’ll be more like 160-170K because you’ll have to cover grad school and you’ll pay interest. Everyone is saying the same thing but it’s true - you need to find more affordable options. Take a year and work to save up some $ you won’t have to borrow - or get out of the house and share an apartment if that gets you away from your parents and heps your mental state. Research schools where your stats will give you more aid. Get to know your in-state options. If your end goal is graduate school learning to work a job and go to school simultaneously is a great skill to learn now.

You got into some great schools this round but you cannot afford them - I am sure if you reorient your search and take a year to redo your applications you will end up with a good education AND not be drowning in debt by age 25.

16

This is not true. Hamilton net cost estimates are available through MyinTuition, and the MyinTuition calculator does ask questions about primary home market value and any remaining mortgage balance, but it also clearly notes the following:

Home equity is asked for consistency with other schools, but Hamilton does not take the equity of your primary home into consideration when determining financial need.

As far as I know, there was no change in 2018 to Hamilton’s formula for determining need-based aid. Primary home equity was not and still is not a factor in calculating Hamilton financial aid.

17

Thanks BelknapPoint for that clarification.

18
  1. will your parents help with food, transportation, books or anything?
  2. which of these schools is your favorite, meaning that if it were affordable you’d definitely attend?
  3. is there some sort of documentation wrt your parents being hoarders or any sort of mental issue?

Your plan to apply to 100% need colleges was a good one - your parents threw a curve ball at you at the last minute.

Your stats are valuable and can be turned into merit scholarships, however their deadlines were in October-December.
You may have to find a full time job, move out, find roommates (is there a college town nearby where students commonly rent apartments together?) Unless you have aunts, cousins, grandparents willing to house you while you earn money and regroup?
Can anybody in your family help?

A good idea might be to defer at one college just in case.
Have your parents explained why they won’t help pay for college at all?
Would talking with a religious leaders sway them (after you first talked it through with the religious leaders?)
What did they think would happen? Don’t they expect you to attend college or are they against the idea?

19

When parents can help pay but refuse to pay it is often due to situations in parent/child relationships. Is that the case here?