I personally think it’s crap that your parents’ income determines your financial aid award. After all, your parents aren’t required to help you pay for school. It’s not the student’s fault if their parents make a lot of money.
What else could it be based on? Everyone would get free rides if only the students’ income was considered. And while that would be great for the students, it wouldn’t be so great for the number of applicants each school could afford to fund.
The vast majority of students have their undergraduate university funded by their parents. Most have some constraints on what the parents are able to pay (“in-state public only” is common for example). It is true that parents are not required to pay for university. However, if the parents saying “we won’t pay” was enough to get full funding for the student, then many and probably most parents would say “we won’t pay”.
The current system isn’t perfect. However, ignoring parent’s income does not seem possible in the current system.
Maybe TheAverageJoe71 has an idea for a better system. Hopefully he can tell us where all the money will come from to pay for college expenses if parents are no longer expected to be first in line to pay the majority of these costs for their children, when they are able.
Everyone has a right to a free college education, right? 
I don’t know about free, but more taxpayer subsidies (perhaps in exchange for some financial regulation on colleges so they don’t either hoard their endowment or spend it on climbing walls) would be nice. The current system leaves many families with very difficult choices regarding financial sacrifice and debt versus the value of the education received.
I don’t believe in need based awards, so 
I think it should be loans or paid for out of pocket.
There are MANY college students who don’t get support from their parents for college. They attend community colleges, work part or full time, take courses part time, take years off to earn money, etc.
Even IF only student income were considered…that would NOT mean every student would get a free ride. Sorry…just wouldn’t be the case.
@hannuhylu, you of course are entitled to your opinion. But without need-based awards, that’s precisely how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
What about if all students are required to work after graduation and have to contribute 25-50% of their gross income until their educational cost is completely paid for?
Hmmm, let me count how many cars, bags, shoes I could have bought with all that tuition money. Yup, I think that would be a more fair thing to do - leave my income out of it.
The loan structure would obviously have to change as the OP said let 18yr olds take out the loans.
Are you suggesting that most college kids have a sufficient income to finance their own educations?
Or are you suggesting instead that, after financing 13 years of your public school education, the taxpayers should finance the rest of your education-- your Associate’s Degree, your Bachelor’s, your Master’s, maybe even your PhD? And the same for all your siblings, your friends, the kids at school who do absolutely nothing, the kids who will take a slew of remedial courses to make up for the courses they chose not to attend to not to pay attention to in high school? Keep in mind: your parents are taxpayers, and in 4 years, you’ll be one too. And there are an awful lot of kids coming up behind you in high school and middle school and elementary school and preschool-- and they’ll want the same sweet deal you’re looking for.
Or should you be encouraged to rack up $240,000, maybe $300,000 in debt? Note In 2010, the median HOUSE price was about $220,000-- and that meant a THIRTY YEAR mortgage.
What exactly are you suggesting as an alternative?
From your posting history your father is a dentist. He will have to do a few more root canals maybe to pay for your college.
You come from an affluent family and you are looking for taxpayer handouts?
You can have your award based solely on your income. Wait until you’re 24 and you can file as an independent. If your income is low, you’ll be awarded a Pell grant of about $6k/year. That $3k/semester won’t cover the tuition at any community college that I know of so you’ll either have to take the ~$5500/year federal student loan, get a job, or both. You won’t be able to afford residential college, but at least your parents’ incomes won’t be considered.
I’m sorry. I know it feels really unfair and frustrating. There really isn’t currently a more fair way to do it though. You will need to choose something you can afford without your parent’s help. Life just isn’t always fair.
@mom2twogirlsThe OP isn’t poor and he never stated that his parents won’t pay, he just wants a free ride.
Yep, we/ve had the talk with our kids, we are make too much for need based aid and too little to pay for college. They know they have to chase merit, it is what it is, they know there is no magic college money tree in our yard. We have some college savings but not enough to send 3 kids away to college for four years each. So far 2 of the 3 have found schools that are a ‘fit’ well under budget and the 3rd looks like he’s on track for the same. I think it’s more about managing expectations.
I absolutely wish we were like most of the rest of the Western world where higher education was seen as a public good to be funded by public money. But, we’re not.
So while we’re in the system we’re in, I’m sorry that your parents won’t pay. Truly. But the bulk of my sympathy is with the students who grew up poor and don’t have a choice. They already have more hurdles in front of them than well-off kids will ever encounter in their entire lifetime.
What feels odd to me as a lawyer qualified in a European jurisdiction is that the student can be required by public and private colleges alike to submit their parents financial information and will be awarded grants and loans on the basis of that information, but the parents are in no way legally required to submit or pay.
I work in a jurisdiction where the parent can be not only made to submit the information by imposing fines (and the aid offices are able to access tax and social security data if the parents are still non compliant), but after the student has been awarded grants and loans according to the students income and assets, the parents can actually be made to pay according to their income and assets.
Of course, this is for no frills schools most US students wouldn’t want to go to, and both aid office and parents can require the child to live at home and commute if a suitable option within commuting distance exists, but at least it is a coherent system.
Aha, I know somebody who I am quite jealous of to have somehow been an independent throught his undergrad w/o being 24 yet lived with parents 
If you’re an undergrad at my school it’s a free ride enough to cover your apartment, tuition, other expenses, and you get to the pocket the rest — moreso if you still live with parents.
If you’re a legitimate independent because of graduate school, at my school you’ll get over 80% of the tuition and fees paid for. It’s really really nice the new financial aid system where they look at your income two years back and you could be making over $80k and still get the full financial aid 
Loopholes (and this is why you don’t have to wait for work to pay for it or shouldn’t necessary wait on graduate school)