My parents have saved $0 for college

Paying for College
1

I asked my parents in about 6th grade how much they had saved for my college, they told me “don’t worry about it, we will pay for it”
Then the other day my dad brought up, “hey, we have to figure out a way to not have you get out of college drown in debt.”
I am a sophomore in high school in all honors classes, studying diligently, planning on going out of state for college (I live in New Jersey), but now I don’t even know if that is possible.
My mom told me that I should go to community college (she has been saying this for years)
but my dad told me that where ever I want to go to school he will figure out a way to make it happen.

We aren’t rich, we aren’t dirt poor, but there is no chance that my parents will be able to pay $20,000 a year, especially considering the fact that I have a brother who is one year younger and my parents have told us both that we are going to college whether we like it or not.

What should I do?
Are those essay scholarships worth entering? because ever one I ever applied for I didn’t win.
Should I pressure my parents?
Should I focus less on school and get a part time job?

2

Keep your grades up, study hard for the SAT/ACT so you may be able to chase merit aid. Run the NPC for several schools both in state and out and show the results to your parents. Many parents do not realize how much college cost now a days.Last do not set your hopes on a dream school. Many kids end up going where they can afford rather to that dream school. And actually start to visit schools now, if possible.

3

@justconfused5 If you continue to get good grades, take challenging courses, and do well on standardized tests, you should be eligible for merit scholarships that may be sufficient for you to attend a 4 year college and maybe even live on campus.

Fortunately, NJ has many possible options other than CC. Rowan, TCNJ, and the Rutgers campuses are among the best in-state options. Montclair State, William Patterson, and Stockton also might be options.

National merit or equivalent test scores on SAT/ACT (1500/33+) may open up out of state merit options at places like Alabama, Old Miss, and some of the Florida public schools.

You can take out federal loans of between 5.5K and 7.5K per year over the course of four years (for a total of about 27K).

Your first step should be to find out exactly what your family’s income and assets are. Sit down with your parents and plug those numbers into Net Price Calculators for colleges and universities of interest. You may be eligible for more (or less) need-based aid than you think. Elite private schools with large endowments are typically the most generous (but also the hardest to gain admission).

Your parents may be reluctant to discuss financial matters with you. If so, explain that you are seeking options that will be affordable and you can’t do that unless they provide accurate information.

When you are a junior and have standardized test scores in hand, come back here and ask for suggestions and people will help with specific recommendations.

Worst case scenario, if you qualify for Stars, community NJ college tuition is free, and last two years at a 4-year are subsidized assuming you meet a certain academic standard.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

4

Agree with post #2. Keep your focus on school, not PT work. The best money will come from schools themselves with high grades and test scores.

5

@justconfused5 Forgot to mention - in line with what @momofsenior1 mentioned - that any income you earn is assessed at a higher rate than your parents’ assets (about 20% vs. around 6%). Depending on your parents’ financial situation, this may or may not be relevant. But I thought I’d put it out there. And yes, the best way to “save” for college is to maintain a strong GPA.

6

Don’t focus too much on trying to go out of state. You can move after graduating.

7

Sounds like dad was naive and overly optimistic when you were younger, but now that college costs are on the horizon he knows that there’s no way that the can squeak out $1k-2k per month to put towards college.

Sounds like mom has long known that the household didn’t have wiggle room to pay for college.

You need to ask them how much they can pay PER YEAR towards your college costs (and this includes when a sibling is going as well).

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You may or may not be able to go OOS for undergrad. That will depend on your grades, test scores, and how much your parents will pay.

What is your likely major and career goal?

It’s not unusual for one parent to be extremely naive about how college will get paid for.

Again, ask them how much they can pay per year.

Have them run the Net Price Calculators on a few schools’ websites, like Rutgers, and a few other OOS publics and mid-level privates.

Pressuring your parents won’t magically make them come up with more money, so simply find out how much they will pay.

DO NOT focus less on school. WORK ON YOUR GRADES AND PREP FOR HIGH ACT/SAT SCORES.

You can always work/save a lot over summer.

The best merit scholarships are from the colleges that give them.

8

I think she means how savings are assessed. However, you could put your savings in a 529 and then it would be assessed at the 6% rate.

9

11th grade PSAT is the qualifier for National Merit, which can increase the range of large scholarships available to you.

10

@justconfused5

The vast majority of college students have NO college savings. You certainly are not alone.

  1. Some people don’t have college savings because the simply cannot afford to put aside money for college. They need their income to pay day to day living expenses.
  2. Some people don’t have college savings because they plan to pay for college with current earnings, and perhaps loans.
  3. Some people choose to maximize retirement contributions rather than save for college.

I could go on and on.

But the real message here is…kids DO go to college without college savings accounts. I did. Our kids did.

You can too.

You need to figure out how much you actually can expect from your parents, if anything. You should research merit awards, and figure out your potential to get the. You need to look at lower cost options like community college or commuting to a four year college from your home.

You need to run the net price calculators for colleges of interest to you to get an idea of what your net costs might be.

11

Good for you that you’re here asking questions. As a parent facing $ constraints, I spent a lot of time reading the financial section of CC, the learning curve takes a while. We created the college lists by using the net price calculators (NPC) to make sure we had a shot at affording the school once admitted. I have a freshman in college, and a high school senior, who was just accepted ED into a school that meets 100% need. High rigor and great grades open doors. I will add that both my kids had part time jobs while in school. For us, I knew they were going to be work-study in college, so they had to learn to balance school/work/EC. I personally think that for my kids, it showed that they had some skin in the game in paying for college, and they learned money management skills while at home. One kid need much more guidance not to spend it all at Starbucks. They worked Friday-Sunday, about 10-12 hours, so did not impact school week, but they had to use time very wisely.

12

It’s great that you’re on here this early; I would hope your parents would be on here too, as they’re the ones who have to do the heavy lifting on the financial side of things. You might want to steer them over here.

I thought, naively, that my kids could go to community college, transfer in the last two years, and they would be able to pay for it all themselves. Hahaha.

But I live in PA, which is worse than NJ in terms of college costs. At least NJ has low-cost state school options. PA has none, really. You are actually in much better shape.

You didn’t talk about your interests, but that’s OK b/c it’s very early to try to nail that down (even in college, it’s OK not to know what you want to do). If you are dead-set on something exotic, though, it becomes a factor.

Your state school options have great merit aid opportunities (unlike PA). Stockton, Rowan, Widener, TCNJ, Rutgers - you can go to most of these schools’ websites, go to the financial aid section, and there’s a freaking chart, laying it all out: Get a 30ACT and a 3.8 GPA and get a full-tuition scholarship, for example. Those kinds of charts are great motivators.

Then, all ya gotta do is hold up your end of the bargain and work your tail off … keep that GPA up, take AP classes and other rigorous classes, study for the SAT/ACT (Khan Academy is free and great), and maybe find a passion and devote some after-school time to doing it well. Chorus, baseball, chess, whatever. Be well-rounded. Be happy. ENJOY YOURSELF.

Don’t go nuts about the prestige. Since money is the main concern, concentrate on how to get the cheapest and best education possible. If you do really well, you might be able to go for free. Much of this is up to you. Don’t let your frustration with your parents color how you live your life. Don’t be a victim, don’t look to lay blame. Just run your race. You can do this!

13

Ask your parents what they think they can afford for college each month.
Then, see if they’re willing to start setting that amount aside for you in a 529.
(It’s good practice and it will create a little financial cushion for you in the first year).

That number from your parents + 5.5K in loans (all that you’re allowed to borrow - anything else would have to be borrowed by your parents and you really don’t want to do that to them) + whatever savings you have = your budget.

Run the NPC on TCNJ, Amherst, University of Iowa, and Dickinson. Do any of these “fit your budget”? (Please report the numbers on your thread for further help).
TCNJ = an instate university, very selective, no merit
Amherst = most selective, very generous, need based aid only
UIOwa = out of state university, very selective but less selective than TCNJ, good merit
Dickinson = highly selective, offers both merit and need

So, you need to figure out what your budget is, then look for colleges that fit the budget.
How much choice you’ll have will depend on your test scores.

Keep your GPA up, but do balance it - when going for merit, there’s rarely a HUGE difference based on rigor, so do not overload on AP’s to the point of cutting sleep and/or getting lower grades - the usual advice of taking classes as advanced as you can as long as you can get a B doesn’t work here, alas: take some APs so that it gives you a solid foundation for college but play smart, you’re better off with 3 AP’s/2 honors/2 regulars than with 5 Ap’s 2 honors when you play the merit game.

The HUGE difference is based on test scores. So, start preparing for the PSAT. Spend time on it this summer- the PSAT junior year is a scholarship competition, scoring top1% means you have lots of full tuition and full ride offers (including at the University of Florida, which is a TOP public university, and, obviously, OOS :p).

Now, of course, the odds of scoring in the top 1% are very low, so, what to do?
Well, the higher you score, the better your odds of scoring a big scholarship.

BTW I am not talking about those “essay-scholarships”. The #1 source of financial aid is the colleges themselves. (#2 is the federal government). It means you need to choose the colleges that will maximize their financial aid to you based on your unique circumstances. It can be rigor+grades+scores+family income (“need based aid”), or grades+scores (“merit aid”).

Important: don’t have “dream colleges”. Have college choices because you made the right choices for your college list.

Let’s imagine: The PSAT was decent but nothing glorious, a 1340… no National Merit Scholarship. Imagine you work really hard, borrow the proper books from the library, go take the prep classes it offers on Saturdays, and on your 3rd try, June junior year, you score a 1450. You have a 3.8 UW, by the time you graduate you’ll have taken 6APs, you don’t have any academic deficiency (ie. you didn’t skip Physics or French 4).
If you apply to a college where the median score is 1450, you MAY get in, you MAY NOT get in. Before you even consider applying, you run the NPC for need based aid and it’s 20K too much: cross it out. Or, you run the NPC and it’s within budget: excellent, put it on your list! However, for best odds, you can apply to a school where that 1450 will yield an awesome scholarship: UAlabama, Temple, UIOwa, UT Dallas, for instance. Top “Colleges that change lives”, Dickinson, UPuget Sound, Whitman, may be viable, depending on your profile and whether you showed interest (you should create your College Email Address and fill out the “Request info form” for all colleges mentioned, asap).
What if you only bring your 1340 up to a 1400? Well, you adjust your list. If you run the NPC, are any of the above universities doable? Some Colleges That Change Lives should provide you with aid. Universities in the Midwest or South likely will. Truman State, Luther, Beloit, St Lawrence, Muhlenberg, Sewanee, UScranton, St Michael’s, Hendrix, SUNY Plattsburgh, SUNY Geneseo, College of Charleston, UNC Asheville are all worth looking into and checking the NPC for.

Your goal is to have two affordable safeties and 3-5 “scholarship matches”.