So my 18 year old best friend just finished up two years at community college (through a free high school dual enrollment program) in May and now holds an associate’s degree in business administration. Last fall, she applied to three different universities in her state and got into all of them - but when she received her financial aid package in February all they gave her was a $300 grant and about $6,000 in unsubsidized loans because her parents make $120K annually. She wasn’t worried at first because her mother and step-father had promised her they would contribute to her education if she completed her first two years at cc - but once they saw the bill her step father “changed his mind” and her alcoholic mother can’t keep a job to begin with so she couldn’t contribute either. Sadly my friend was forced to decline all offers of admission because she had no way to pay for college.
Over the summer I’ve been trying to brainstorm ways she can get more aid. Her step father refuses to co-sign any plus loans or private loans so she can’t get those. As of now (August 2016) her parents have forced her to move out so she shares a tiny apartment with two other people and works as a bank teller in Boise. She makes about $20K/year with medical and dental included but receives no financial support whatsoever from her mom or step father. Her biological father, who is pretty poor, is obligated to send her an additional $200 a month in back child support that he owes but that’s it. Is there ANY possible way she can be given special consideration for financial aid? I know FAFSA won’t help but could she appeal to the financial aid office or something? I just hate that she’s in such an unfair situation, and I don’t want to see her give up her dream of becoming an accountant. The government says it wants to make college “affordable for all” yet refuses to acknowledge increasingly common scenarios where a student’s parents (whose income the student’s aid is based on) cannot or will not help out. Does anyone know of any loopholes to this?
If her parents aren’t supporting her, she can file the FAFSA without their information by following [these steps](https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info#unwilling-parents), but she won’t qualify for any federal aid except the student loan (~$5500/year). I think it will be difficult to extra aid from the colleges. A lot of students have parents who can’t or won’t help pay. If colleges awarded them extra aid because of it, everybody would say they won’t pay.
What are her unweighted GPA and test scores? If her parents won’t help her pay, she’ll need a college that gives good merit aid. She can check the thread posted at the top of the financial aid forum for colleges that offer guaranteed merit. She may want to add [Boise State](https://admissions.boisestate.edu/cost/) to her list as a financial safety. The tuition for state residents is ~$7300/year.
If she hasn’t taken any college classes since she graduated from HS (those dual enrollment classes don’t count), she is a freshman applicant. She needs to look for good guaranteed merit aid. If her grades and test scores are good enough, she would qualify for automatic scholarships like the ones in this list.
The list hasn’t been updated yet for this application season, so she would need to check each institution’s website very carefully to find out which of the scholarships have changed.
This scenario has been around for decades. The best solution is to look a college that is affordable without help from the parents. Other solutions: military, marriage, or waiting until age 24.
She could take evening classes, one or two at a time, to chip away at her BA/BS degree requirements at a 4 year college or university. My sister pursued this slow route for her MBA. It took 4-5 years, but she did it!
@jabberjay79 It is a lousy situation. No loopholes. I would not hold my breath waiting for parents to change their minds. Maybe they believe she can work and put herself through school, like you could do 40 years. But college costs have risen much more than wages. Even going part-time is difficult with a salary of 20K and she will have a hard time saving any money.
But enough of negativity. Options indeed include waiting till 24. Also I concur with austinmshauri’s idea to look for schools that give good merit aid. Depending on her GPA and test scores–do you have those? She would likely need to move OOS–goodbye to the unhelpful family. (I’d give mom and stepdad a break here, as even with making 120K it is hard to pay for college out of salary if none is tucked away in a 529. But then there’s the bit about the parents forcing her to move out…) Boise State is an option. She could look into private colleges that would give her application a full and holistic reading. Takes time to research but well worth it. Colleges That Change Lives, for example, and there are dozens of other very good schools she could look at. Roughly, colleges and universities ranked maybe 50 to 125.
Whenever she does return to college to complete her 4 year degree, I would fully recommend borrowing whatever she can to get through. She already has proven herself by having completed 2 years, and most students who drop out and leave themselves with debt and no degree, the worst outcome, do so in the first 2 years. She will not be in debt for 100K or more (you cannot borrow but so much as an undergrad) and the last evidence I saw, college grads earn on average 1,000,000.00 more lifetime than HS grads.
If she is financially independent (and it sounds like she is if she has a job, is paying her own living expenses, etc.), she can declare this and after a certain amount of time, colleges will treat her as an independent student prior to age 24. I’m not sure what the time period is, though, so she would need to research it.
If she contacts one of the universities that accepted her, it may even be possible to defer her enrollment until she is considered independent. I’m not sure about that last suggestion, but if she calls to ask about being declared independent, she can discuss it at the same time.
Does her bank have some tuition reimbursement program? Otherwise, I believe Starbucks pays for an online degree. There are also service academies (not just Army, Navy, & AFA but also Coast Guard and Merchant Marine), but they take a special type of individual.
At some states (like NJ and IL), publics are tuition free if you are a National Guardsman. Check that as well.
And yes, there are colleges that provide full-rides if stats are high enough.
She should keep an eye on the employment section at the Boise State website. Her degree in business admin could help get her a job at the University. https://hrs.boisestate.edu/careers/
Employees can often get a deal on tuition as part time students. It is important to keep checking the website over time as jobs could get posted at any time during the year.
@DiotimaDM, Being independent for financial aid purposes doesn’t have anything to do with who pays the bills. @kelsmom or @sybbie719 can verify this, but I think the FAFSA website is very clear about it. Students whose parents don’t support them can leave them off the app, but the situation won’t make them eligible for extra aid.
In this this situation, what Op’s friend needs to do is live with dad more than she lives with mom, so that dad is custodial parent. It does not matter who files student for taxes on FAFSA (the IRS may have an issue, but it does not matter for FAFSA).
Not true.
Until she meets the requirements that makes her independent for federal aid (getting married, joining the military or being a veteran, having a child who is at least 51% dependent on her or turning 24, being in foster care, death of both parents, court ordered legal guardianship), she will not be considered independent for federal aid. her parents inability or unwillingness to pay, will not be a basis for a dependency override.
Because OP works, makes 20k, she will still have to include her income and assets on her her fafsa. Because she is young and will have little income protection, she will still not receive a lot of "free" money. If OP lived in NYS, she would not be eligible for state aid where not only must you be 35 before you are independent, but if you have no dependents that are dependent on you for support, that max income for state aid is $10k.
being independent for federal aid,, will not necessarily make you independent for institutional aid (at many schools,you have to be 26 years old, showing 5 years of self-sufficiency in order to receive institutional aid as an independent student).
Unfortunately, her situation is not unusual.
What this means is that her path to attending college will be different; she may have to attend part time, attending 1/2 classes a semester. She can see what if any tuition benefit are available at her current place of employment. She may have to look for a new job that has tuition reimbursement or paid tuition benefits. @CheddarcheeseMN makes a great recommendation about going to Boise State’s website for employment opportunities as most will come with free tuition benefits.
If she just graduated high school, she’s a freshman applicant (her cc credits will get her advanced standing after admission) as long as she doesn’t take any college class. Freshman status is crucial for her, because full tuition and full ride scholarships only go to students with freshman status.
What was her GPA (hs, cc)? Her sat o axt score ?
This is a terrible betrayal by her stepdad but there’s nothing she can expect now after such promise was broken, and at least she knows it. She is free to move forward if that free tuition or free ride takes her to Mississippi or Arkansas or South Carolina or Maine.
If our provide the stats we here can tell you if that’s a path forward that is even possible.
Being independent for financial aid purposes means that aid will be awarded based on the student’s very low earnings instead of the parents’ six figure salary.
The OPs friend should consult with a financial aid officer. The change isn’t immediate, and it’s not simply a matter of leaving the parents off the FAFSA, but it does make a difference. Perhaps things are different now, but I say this as someone who has done it.
You are incorrect. Yes,students can file a FAFSA without oarent information IF the parents agree that they are providing NO support to the student, and won’t be claiming the student on their taxes. BUT all this will get the student is the Direct Loan. And really…the student would get that anyway!
If you are talking about possibly getting a dependency override, I seriously doubt this student would get this. “My parents won’t pay my college bills” is not a sufficient reason for being granted a dependency override.