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Why are you worrying about your parents taking loans – are YOU taking out your federal loans (in your name, you pay them back when you are out of school)? For the subsidized portion, you don’t even accrue interest during college.
And FAFSA is treating the dependent situation that way for a reason. Your oldest sib is an adult out of college. The expectation is that parents will help the younger kids, not keep pouring scarce resources into an older student out of college.
Let your parents make their own decision about money… yes it might save them in the short run, but they want you to get a degree so you can optimize your career. You can, of course, give your parents money towards the loans.
Your siblings had their turn, now it’s your turn. They need to find their own way for their funding. You, as a young person don’t have a whole lot of options if your parents don’t help. They can find a way.
No, it’s not. In order to be a physical therapist you have to get a DPT, which is a professional degree. Some schools might have some limited (very limited) scholarships for very low-income or very highly meritorious students, but for the most part DPT programs expect you to finance the program with future earnings - in other words, loans.
Actually, it’s more logical the other way around. A first bachelor’s degree is necessary to unlock a vast amount of professional jobs and greatly enhance your chances of earning a middle-class income. In addition, there’s a lot less support - ironically - for bachelor’s degrees. A DPT student can borrow large Graduate PLUS loans that cover his entire cost of attendance to pay for the DPT program. That may not be what your brother wants to do, but it is what most physical therapists do if they don’t have wealthy parents that can cover the costs; they make enough later to repay the loans (well, in theory).
It wouldn’t at all be fair for your brother to have a DPT while you are stuck with no bachelor’s. It’s also, frankly, not fair for your brother’s possibly poor financial decisions to affect your ability to get a BA (sounds like your parents are helping him pay down large loans, which limits their ability to contribute to your education).
Also, it doesn’t matter whether or not you know what you want to do. Part of college is figuring out what you want to do, and college isn’t strictly a vocational degree anyway. It’s not just for getting a job later. You’re not “wasting” time or money just because you haven’t decided on a major yet, especially if you are only a freshman.
Well, first of all, I would not advise being an RA for the room and board. If you don’t want to do it, it will be an unhappy experience for you.
Secondly…are you asking whether schools allow freshman to apply to be RAs in their sophomore year? Most schools do, although some schools limit their RAs to juniors and seniors. How likely you are to get that really depends on your school - some schools have very competitive RA processes and sophomores have lower chances; other schools have very competitive processes but your year in school doesn’t mean anything; and some schools don’t have competitive processes at all.
Your brother can do what others do: take on graduate loans. He’s an adult. It’s all well and good your parents want to help, but your brother has a degree and can find a better paying job than someone with only a high school diploma. His choice is either to keep working or to take on loans. Your parents should help you. If you graduate college, you can help your brother - your choice. But your parents should help you get that first degree.
In order to have a better life and help everyone (yourself as well as your family) you MUST get a college degree. Most college students spend about two years on pre-reqs and gen-eds. It’s normal. It doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with you nor that you’re wasting your time. In order to be a RA sophomore year (not common, but maybe… especially if juniors/seniors move off campus) you’d need to be involved in your hall’s life and be active in organizing activities. As your RA how s/he became RA, the process, etc.