<p>In the very wonderful system of financial aid, a dependent of a deadbeat on the basis of compulsion is especially disadvantaged when it comes to the meeting of his or her tuition obligations. This is because the supposed financial supplement that the system presumes to exist by the way of the financially-sound dependent is not a reality. Unfortunately, the parent (I will refer to the dependent as a parent because that’s who the individual typically is in these situations) is not willing to contribute towards the education, meaning that the dependent is afforded no help in making ends meet. The obvious response would be for the dependent to attain independent status;however, that too is impossible. Since the dependent is incapable of generating the funds necessary to pay his tuition, he is also incapable of generating the funds necessary to establish himself as independent. Essentially the dependent is, in not so kind words, screwed.</p>
<p>This is the situation that I find myself in. I live with my dad, who makes $70,000 a year and is completely unwilling to help me pay my tuition. As a result, I am struggling to figure out a way to pay a meager $10,000 a year tuition. The direct and unsubsidized loans cover nearly eighty-percent of the cost, but the rest is left unresolved. I’m not sure what to do about this.</p>
<p>That’s just the system. If it was not then everyone’s parent(s) would suddenly refuse to pay. Same for independent status. The requirements were changed due to rampant abuse. </p>
<p>The only things you can do are go to a cheaper school, take a gap year(s) to work and save, do both, or wait until you are 24. It does suck but those are the rules. Life is not fair I’m afraid. </p>
<p>Parents are under NO obligation to pay anything for college. Lots of us in your situation have put ourselves through school without parental help. I worked 30+ hours per week while taking a full course load. It can be done it is a matter of how much you want it.</p>
<p>Characterizing a father who refuses to pay for college as a “deadbeat” is an affront to single mothers everywhere whose ex-husbands refuse to provide support for their minor children’s basic needs.</p>
<p>Parents aren’t obligated to pay for college.</p>
<p>Students have other options…</p>
<p>Some go to a CC first…then transfer to a local state school. Work full-time in the summer and part-time during the school year to cover what loans don’t cover.</p>
<p>Some work full time all year and go to school part-time.</p>
<p>Some look for schools that will give generous merit scholarships for stats.</p>
<p>Some kids join the military and have their education paid that way.</p>
<p>The sleep-away college experience is a luxury, and many, many families cannot afford it. College tuition is expensive and many families can’t afford it either.</p>
<p>Your dad is not a deadbeat. He did what he was supposed to do, it seems- provided you food and shelter for 18 years. After that, it is a choice of whether or not he wants to contribute to your education. It would be nice if he did, but it definitely does not make him a deadbeat. </p>
<p>Would he let you live at home for college? If so, he is contributing to your education by providing room and board. Then you can go to a CC or local U and work to save up money. Students can cover tuition at a CC, <em>sometimes</em> even a public U, by working (note- just tuition, not the whole COA). I go to a state university and I make enough to cover tuition by working throughout the year- merit scholarships and financial aid/loans make up the difference for room & board and other supplies and expenses (and if they didn’t, I’d be living at home or I would have attended a CC for the first two years).</p>
<p>ETA: If you have $5500 in loans (at least), then you can’t make up the other $4500 (at most) by working? That’s less than $100/week if working throughout the year. Or are you working and using those funds to pay for housing and such?</p>
<p>Explain to me how, considering the growing importance of having an educated citizenry, it is not in the best interest of this country to provide loans to those who are both capable and willing to empower themselves? And please don’t feed me the rhetoric that, “No one owes me an education.” If that’s truly the sentiment of those living in this country, then they better find a better way to protect their private property, because I’m no longer going to accept the social contract that commands me to stand guard to it. The disparity of opportunity in this country is getting absurd.</p>
<p>^ The government does provide you loans. The Stafford loans are $5500-$7500 depending on your year. We also have public universities and community colleges where you can get an education while working.</p>
<p>* it is not in the best interest of this country to provide loans to those who are both capable and willing to empower themselves?*</p>
<p>The gov’t does provide loans. The loans have a set limit because the gov’t knows that newish grads have a HARD TIME paying them back. If the amounts were raised, guess what, more loans would go to default. </p>
<p>You can borrow up to $27k for 4 years. That results in a monthly payment that many/most newish grads can barely afford after paying rent, utilities, car costs, insurance, food, cell phones, taxes, etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>You have the right to do what you need to do to get an education. Did you go to a CC first? Are you commuting to a local state university? </p>
<p>You say that loans cover 80%…well, why can’t the earnings from a summer job cover the rest? Do you really think it’s wise to borrow all your college costs? </p>
<p>How much did you earn last summer?</p>
<p>HOw much do you earn weekly now that school has started?</p>
<p>As noted…the Stafford loans ARE provided to undergrad students IN the student’s name only. This amount would pay for the tuition at a community college in most places…and if the student were living with their family, the costs of attending college would be covered. </p>
<p>With regard to the “rhetoric” comment…I will not say what I am really thinking…but let’s just say…there is PLENTY of rhetoric being posting already on this thread.</p>
<p>You have options…you just don’t LIKE your options. </p>
<ol>
<li>Go to a community college and commute.</li>
<li>Take a year off, work, save money…and enroll in another year.</li>
<li>Apply to schools where you will get merit aid (if your grades and SAT/ACT scores are such that you would qualify).</li>
<li>Wait until you are 24 to go to college…work in the meantime.</li>
<li>Go to college part time (my own husband got his bachelors degree working full time during the day and attending college at night…took six years but he did it).</li>
</ol>
<p>If you have a cosigner, you will be able to take loans for the ENTIRE cost of your education. If your dad is willing to take out a Plus loan, you would also have enough loans available to you. You are making it sound like it’s impossible to fund a college education with loans. That is not the case…but you DO need to have someone with good credit who can cosign a loan with you. Simply put…why would a private vendor give you a loan when you have absolutely NO COLLATERAL. Over funding loans is one of the things that got the banking industry and a LOT of private individuals into problems…the banks are learning not to overfund loans. Hopefully private folks will learn not to ask for loans that overextend themselve.</p>
<p>Is this OP already in college? With my junior year fast approaching, and a budding interest to cut sails with the dull university from which I currently attend…</p>
<p>An odd attitude rings through. One of entitlement, at least. </p>
<p>Oftentimes, it is NOT “in the best interest of this country to provide loans to those who are both capable and willing to empower themselves” when those loan totals are excessive and become a later yoke. But, I think this poster is joshing with us.</p>
<p>Actually I have a lot of sympathy for OP. Depending on his city, one cannot count on picking up a job - -particularly a job that pays enough to fill the gap. </p>
<p>Financial aid DOES screw over kids in his situation. It also screws over folks that are property “rich” but bank account poor (like someone who has inherited the family mansion but has little to keep it up). </p>
<p>What might help is to work with Dad to ascertain what Dad sees as the path for the next few years. If Dad says “move out and get a job” then that’s different than “you can stay here and pay rent” or “college is fine but I won’t pay tuition. I am ok with you living here though” – -those are three very different realities. </p>
<p>There are some other options that haven’t been mentioned, like Americorps or Coast Guard. </p>
<p>Lastly, OP should consider that $70K might not be a lot in some cities. Dad may be at his limit paying for his own obligations and is terrified of the notion of taking on $80K of college expenses. If Dad is really righteous or angry about the issue of college, look for fear to be underneath the aggression. If that’s the case, a ton more respect and a ton less swagger and demands might help grease the conversational wheels. </p>
<p>If it were me, I’d sit down and write out a list of all the things I was grateful for that Dad had done for me in the past 18 years. Seriously. I’d do a good job on it and post it on the refrigerator. An attitude of gratitude shows that the student has the maturity to recognize that food, roofs, clothes, Ipods, computers and other things don’t fall from the sky. And this respectful action might unfreeze the discussion so some options could be explored. Good luck.</p>
<p>OP- Aren’t you the same guy who went on an anti-marxist rant? You claim you’re a libertarian and yet you want more help from the government? I’m very confused.</p>
<p>Actually, I was mostly on the OP’s side until I read post 7. I think that any parent has an obligation to provide for his children’s education, to the extent s/he is able; and someone making $70,000 should be able to contribute something. But to blame society for your woes when your parent reneges on his responsibility shows a level of immaturity that tells me this kid is not college material, at least not yet.</p>
<p>If this student lives at home for free then his parent is contributing something towards college costs…the dad is providing room and board. that’s something…and it’s more than some parents provide their children over age 18.</p>
<p>Does the dad pay for this kid’s cell phone? How about car or health insurance? </p>
<p>All of these things cost money. </p>
<p>Many parents don’t pay for tuition/books, but many do pay for things that get counted for room, board, personal expenses, and transportation. That can be worth about $10k or more per year. </p>
<p>A $70k per year income is not high in many areas of the country. and if the dad is providing housing and any other perks, then he is contributing to college costs.</p>
<p>I agree that if he is helping support the kid, he is contributing. I read, perhaps wrongly, the original post as saying he would contribute nothing at all.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the dad is paying for. When kids say that their parents won’t pay, they generally mean that their parents won’t pay tuition, etc. However, if those parents are letting the kids live at home for free, paying for cell phones, paying for car insurance, etc, then they are contributing something. :)</p>
<p>I hardly call a parent who has raised a kid to the age of 18 and then has advised the now-ADULT that they are on their own a “deadbeat parent.” Legally and morally the obligations are over and whether or not the now adult-child has a parent who is able AND WILLING to continue partial or full support is really a little matter of fate. Some adult-aged offspring will get supported indefinitely, others will be shown the door rather quickly. </p>
<p>The FAFSA system is messed up–and it seems the more the government subsidizes higher education, the higher tuition runs at the colleges (the colleges know they can expect students to take out minimally the federal student loans and start from that baseline assumption… if federal loans available doubled, the baseline assumption of tuition cost would also double). However, the fool-FAFSA system should NOT be used as a measuring stick for whether or not a parent is a deadbeat. </p>
<p>If a parent gets their kid to the age of 18 with 3 out of 4 limbs intact and the kid can read and reason–I think the now-adult should thank their lucky stars they were not born in the 1300s (disease, famine, plagues, no antibiotics, no modern dentistry, no emergency surgery for burst appendix, no universal secondary education, etc) and stop b*tching about their dad… or mom as the case may be… and go be a man and make it happen.</p>
<p>There are alternative paths to a college degree that don’t require a parent’s pocketbook. OP’s life is still a gift if he can read, write, get on the internet, hold a job, and has what I presume reasonable health and lots of youth. I award your dad a medal for getting you to 18. There are LOTS of kids who don’t even get that. </p>
<p>The posts from the OP have got to be the most entitled I’ve read here in a very long time. Especially since this poster ranted about Marxism and government in another thread. But now he/she wants everyone else to pay for his/her education. </p>
<p>Explain to me how, considering the growing importance of having an educated citizenry, it is not in the best interest of this country to provide loans to those who are both capable and willing to empower themselves? </p>
<hr>
<p>It is not in the best interest of anyone to provide loans in an amount that will saddle the recipient with a large debt level & potentially be defaulted on - which saddles the citizenry with that large debt that the recipient cannot pay.</p>
<p>If there is more to your story than “Dad won’t pay,” then that may have led you to being bitter about your situation. Try to separate your facts from vague rhetoric. If YOUR situation is unusual in some way … perhaps Dad is an abusive alcoholic … then there are options for aid. PM me if your situation is not run-of-the-mill, and I will offer advice.</p>