Ignorant Parents

<p>My nephew just called me asking me if I would co-sign for a student loan. He is 19 and wants to go to a California Community College. I know for a fact that the available Federal grant and loan money should be enough. So, I tell him he should not take out a private loan, he needs to fill out the FAFSA and get a stafford laon. It turns out my sister refuses to give him financial information because she thinks if he doesn’t pay off his loans it will effect her credit. (Same sister who actually destroyed his credit by putting bills in his name when he was a kid and then shirking them, but whatever.)</p>

<p>What ****es me off most about this situation is that our mother pulled the same stunt on us when we were trying to go to school when we were young. We both ended up having to wait until having independent student status (plus a few years extra because of life) to be able to go to school. I don’t understand why she would curse him with the same fate. </p>

<p>I am always seeing in the parents forum where parents assert that they are not legally obligated to pay for their kids schooling. Yet the kids have no legal rights when the parents refuse to even cooperate. </p>

<p>My nephew seems to think that he can get a waiver on her information because he has been on his own for over a year. I think he is wrong, but I couldn’t convince him of that.</p>

<p>Please tell him he cannot get a waiver. However, if his mother refuses to fill out the FAFSA and if she also refuses to provide support for him, he may be able to borrow an unsubsidized student loan at undergrad maximum amounts for year in school. His mom would have to certify that she provides no support, though - meaning no health care, no car insurance, no living at home unless the kid pays market rate rent, no car in mom’s name, etc. If none of this applies, he has to have her info. Please print out the information about Stafford loans so that she can see that it is a student loan, in the student’s name, and it DOES NOT affect the parent in any way, shape, or form. Only a parent PLUS loan, which she does not have to take, is in the parent name.</p>