<p>Your counselor is probably correct. Unless you sign up for some type of military program such as ROTC, the government is not going to pay for you to go to school. You may be eligible for a Pell grant which may be close to $5000. Otherwise, you need to fill out the FAFSA to determine what your expected family contribution will be towards your college education. If the FAFSA determines that your need is $40,000 per year and the school costs $40,000 per year, it does not mean that you will go to school for free. Many schools do not meet full financial need and most have loans (sometimes extensive) as part of the financial aid package. The top schools (such as ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc) tend to have the best financial aid packages. Are your stats good enough to apply to these schools?
If you need advice about financial aid, etc, you might repost this on the financial aid board. However, be careful about how you phrase it. You don’t want to make it seem like you feel entitled to have the government pay for your college education.</p>