Are parents required to pay for college?

ucbalumnus
Wed, 24 Dec 2014 04:35:32 +0000

Between age 18 and 24 (and not married or a military veteran), you are in the situation where your parents are not required to pay for anything, but college financial aid assumes that they will pay based on their income and/or assets.

If your parents have significant income and/or assets but won’t pay, then college will not be affordable to you on need-based financial aid. You need to do one of the following in order to attend college:


Earn a full ride merit scholarship (see the sticky thread at the top of the financial aid and scholarships section).
Earn some other full ride scholarship (e.g. athletic, ROTC, etc.).
Attend a college that has no or minimal up-front cost (e.g. a military service academy, assuming your favored career is military officer).
Wait until you are 24, married, or a military veteran before attending college.


A few decades ago, your parents’ generation was likely able to earn enough pay as a high school graduate to be self-supporting, with money left over to pay the trivial tuition and books at an in-state public university. Unfortunately, this “working one’s way through college” is less doable now, due to much higher college costs and worse pay for high school graduates. It may be doable for the frosh/soph level course work at a community college (if your state has good inexpensive community colleges), but completion of a bachelor’s degree typically requires a more expensive four year school.