<p>I am not a parent, but I need your input. I am hoping to go to a school next year that will cost $16,000 with everything. I have about $1,500 saved, and a very slim chance of a scholarship. I won’t be eligible for financial aide, and my parents won’t be putting in any money. Most of the loans I see, are low, aka $1,000-$2,000.</p>
<p>How are your kids paying for college?</p>
<p>$16,000 is a pretty good deal. </p>
<p>Is there a reason your parents are not helping you with college? Because if you don’t qualify for FA it seems they should be able to provide at least some $$. Conversely, if they can’t afford to pay anything, why don’t you qualify for FA?</p>
<p>$1,500 is not very much for you to have saved, as a senior in HS. </p>
<p>It seems you should have had this conversation with your parents a couple of years ago, so you at least could have saved money from summer or after school jobs, if you had known they weren’t going to be chipping in at all.</p>
<p>Would they possibly be willing to loan you the money directly, to be paid back when you are out of school? Are there other relatives who might be able to help out, just for the satisfaction of seeing you go to college?</p>
<p>Most kids that are not eligible for aid do it through a combo of parent savings, student savings, student loans, student income, and scholarships. If you don’t have any parent contribution and don’t get a scholarship for the majority of the $14,500 gap then you have a major problem. You can’t take out even half that in student loans per year nor should you. </p>
<p>That leaves you with either a gap year to save money and/or a cheaper college. </p>
<p>The way financial aid works is that it assumes a parental contribution every year from parental income and savings. If they choose not to contribute you don’t get more aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies. I meant to put, not this upcoming year, but 2011. 
All the seniors talk about going to college this year, I got into saying it wrong.</p>
<p>I am a sophomore, but will graduate early, and I might be able to get a scholarship if I raise my ACT score 3-6 points. If I managed 6 points, I would qualify to maybe get $10,000. I still have yet to take the PSAT, so that is another option for scholarships. I am sounding pessimistic about scholarships, but I know people who are amazing, and score badly on the PSAT because they got sick, etc…</p>
<p>Is there a cut off for parental income to get aid. I know the school is pretty good about giving financial aid, and the acceptance rate to the school is 81%. </p>
<p>What loans are available that may cover that? I have looked at Stafford, but I would have to end up with an unsubsidized loan.</p>
<p>Thank you for rplies.:)</p>
<p>Ask your school about scholarships, not us.</p>
<p>And I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to graduate, if an extra year would give you better stats and more money saved. MHO.</p>
<p>I agree about graduating early. I’d take a limited load my senior year if I didn’t have to take more to graduate and work more. You can live at home and save. </p>
<p>You should spend some time over on the financial aid thread. In addition to parent income, some other things they take into account are your savings, parent savings, how many siblings you have of college age. Then there are a couple kinds of aid. There is need based aid (which your parents have to fill out the FAFSA for) and merit aid (some schools give it; generally the better your stats are compared to the averages at a school, the more likely you are to receive it). Even if you don’t think you will get financial aid, have them fill out the FAFSA. If nothing else, it might help you qualify for cheaper loans or get work study (that makes it easier to get the interesting jobs on campus - - you can still probably get a job without it, but the plum jobs on many campuses are for work-study students).</p>
<p>I do agree with Iron Maiden. Taking on $14,500 or even close to that of debt every year is not a good plan. The only way you should consider taking out that kind of debt (if you can even get the loans) are if you are going to major in something with a very good salary coming out of school (eg, engineering), and you are certain you can keep up and graduate in 4 years in that major.</p>
<p>Btw, I highly commend you for looking at ways to pay off the cost of college without complaining whatsoever. Do you have any idea how many people your age either don’t care about the cost, because they’re having it paid for by someone else, OR they do care and all they do is complain b/c they don’t get free rides? It’s wild. :P</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>So you’re a sophomore now and you could graduate at the end of your junior year. You don’t have enough money saved for college and you don’t know what to do. If that’s accurate, here are my thoughts:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Get a phenomenal summer job. Start looking now. Do something that’s lucrative and that you’re good at. My sister’s great with people so she chose to nanny–she gets to choose her rates and trust me they’re pretty high. I like focusing on more than one family so I worked basically full time at a country club. You might think “full time job! during the summer? I want to hang out with my friends!” But here’s the catch: find a place where you like the other people working there (for example, my summer coworkers were high schoolers too) so then it’s not a chore to go to work. You’ll also have plenty of time for your friends if you choose a place with reasonable closing hours (for example, I was never at work past 8:30 except a few times). I’d spend this summer bulking up your savings and not too focused on doing something “meaningful” that will look “good” to colleges. Do that the next summer.</p></li>
<li><p>During junior year, take rigorous classes. Raise your GPA. Maintain your job. Do some cool extra curriculars. Get involved with things that you care about so you’re passionate about them. This way you can build rapport with people who could write you rec letters to get scholarships and you can still work so you’ll keep saving money. Also your parents will see that you’re putting concerted effort into your college process so may offer to kick in some money too.</p></li>
<li><p>Summer after junior year, go for another lucrative job. Save more money. Spend this summer maybe with a good part or 3/4 time job so you can use some of the summer in a meaningful way, perhaps building on whatever extracurriculars you enjoy. Obsessed with leadership? Go to a conference. Like science? Teach a program for little kids. Play sports? Do a summer league. Etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Stay in school for senior year. Unless you have some pressing personal reason to graduate early, don’t. Senior year is SO MUCH FUN especially if you don’t have to take rigorous courses. Take classes that you want with teachers you like. Get into the college mindset. Keep your job (or switch jobs for variety) and maintain your savings. </p></li>
<li><p>If you still don’t have enough money, take a gap year and do something phenomenal with it. Save more money, find a cheaper school, etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You have plenty of time! Not worth stressing out about just yet. Good luck!</p>
<p>If my kids had to pay for college themselves, they would be going to a school that had very cheap tuition close to home so they could live at home or one at which their GPA/test scores would assure them of almost a full ride scholarship. </p>
<p>It is very difficult for a teenager to come up with $16,000 in after tax money. I’ve known kids in your position to do one of three things: </p>
<p>Go to a local 4 year state university and live at home;</p>
<p>Go to the local community college and transfer to the local state university at the end of two years, all while living at home;</p>
<p>Get an ROTC scholarship to attend college (not recommended for anyone who wouldn’t be happy to serve in the military after graduation).</p>
<p>twisted…are there community college classes you can take during your senior year of high school? Both my kids did this and my oldest is now graduating from college a full year early due to AP and community college classes.</p>
<p>Definitely do some prep and retake the ACTs if that might help you get a scholarship. My daughter even retook hers after she was accepted at her school to increase her score in an attempt to increase her scholarship. The extra couple of ACT points from a few days studying have saved her thousands of dollars (her scholarship jumped from a partial tuition waiver of a set $ amount to a full tuition waiver - better each year as tuition increases) plus a cash award. It leaves about half the costs to worry about.</p>
<p>What makes you believe that you are not eligible for Financial aid?</p>
<p>You should still fill out the FAFSA forms so that you can get the Stafford loans unsubsidized for 2000.00 if you are not eligible for FA: and if you are eligible you can get up to 3500.00 subsidized. that is 5500.00 towards your tuition.(Freshman yr) It increases each yr of school.
I would also not graduate early, take some senior classes and/or CC classes, work a job and save some more money. When you do get to your college of choice, you will be that much more ahead academically and cost wise.</p>
<p>Have you gone on the College Board site and figured out your Estimated Family Contribution, or have you looked at the FAFSA site? Many schools don’t abide by the EFC, but many do, too. If your parents can’t swing this amount, it sounds like you/they might be able to get some aid. If financial aid is not possible, and your parents won’t pay anything, you are in a tough position. There are other ways to go to college, including community college, online classes, low residency programs, and continuing education, but the idealized experience of living on campus and finishing in 4 years might be hard to achieve.</p>