@collegeisago The good or bad thing(depending on how you choose to look at it) is that the “the system” makes paying for college fair through the “Expected Family Contribution” system. So people who are low income pay very little, and as your parent’s income rises you are expected to pay more and more of the cost. It takes a big bite out of most everybody’s budget except the rich. So if the college is expecting your family to contribute a lot, I have news for you… it’s only because they have the means to do so. For families that have not saved, have large family lifestyle expenses relative to their income, and do not wish to borrow, that becomes a problem. For the “truly needy” it’s not really a problem because they are only required to take out relatively small low interest loans. I’m not saying any of this is comes easy by any means. But it is all very doable and requires sacrifice. Either your parent’s sacrifice or you sacrifice but with the way the system is set up it sucks for most people. Yeah my wife and I make enough money we get to pay full freight(minus the merit scholarship). Should you be jealous of us, or should we be jealous of the people who get tons of need based help? I don’t think so. Again the system is set up to be painful for most families. My advice to you, and I mean this in the best way so please don’t get offended, is that if $1,000 is really that big of a deal to you and your family and it makes all the difference between having to borrow or not, then do your first two years at junior college. You can work a ton while you are there and save bunch of money for when you transfer. You’ll be happy you did.