Anonymous wrote:If a student can prove they are financially independent from family (which is often a lot of documentation) then they CAN apply independently WITHOUT EFC- expected family contributions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't help but think that many of the PPs have no idea how the system works. Please consider:

Students can't borrow more than $27k TOTAL (over 4 years) on their own. Any additional loans will need to be in the parents names or consigned by the parents. Consider that 4 years of tuition (not including room and board) at GMU or UMD for an instate resident is currently $40k. Even if your child lives at home, it will be a stretch to finance this without some help from parents.

Colleges expect parents to contribute. Students cannot qualify for financial aid without submitting info about their parents financials. You may not intend to help pay for college, but if the college determines that you are able to assist, that will be used to lower any financial award. Students are considered independent only if they are 24 or older, in grad school, married, or have children, or if they are orphans, wards of the state, or active or retired military.

Most of the top tier colleges give ONLY financial aid to students depending on their families' need, as determined by the college. Financial aid has NOTHING to do with good grades. There are no "scholarships" to these schools.

Many less selective colleges DO give scholarships based on merit, but in most cases, the amount given is a fraction of the cost of attendance. A "full ride" is extremely rare.

What is your point?
I am not being snarky. You do realize that, especially in today's economy, a lot if families are struggling to finance the NOW and cannot finance college in the future. It us great if folks can pay or help pay, but if not that does not necessarily mean that kid is doomed of their parents are remiss in some way.

That's not true. There are two types of loans- federal and private. Private student loans are granted to college students everyday for far more than that. Students accessing private loans do not need cosigners. It is normally a better interest rate WITH cosigners, but they do not need them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

My husband is retired military. One of his biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to go directly into college. Military enlisted life is very hard. It is not easy to work and be deployed and get their degree. It is not a typical job. It also is not easy to join always as one makes it sound. They are doing troup reductions. Traveling costs money. My parents would not have allowed either. They were not ok with an 18 year old traveling alone. Fine if those are your values but ours are to help or pay all, if possibly.

My comment is based on seeing many immature 17 to 18 year olds greatly hurt their futures because they were not mature enough to do well in college at such a young age. Or similarly, see students in grad school who were older do very well while those directly from undergrad not do as well. It depends on the child, but I'd much rather an unready child have a gap year and hopefully grow up then go somewhere and get bad grades or flunk out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents paid most of my college, and a small portion of graduate school. We intend to pay all of college and graduate school for our five children.

what is your HHI?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't help but think that many of the PPs have no idea how the system works. Please consider:

Students can't borrow more than $27k TOTAL (over 4 years) on their own. Any additional loans will need to be in the parents names or consigned by the parents. Consider that 4 years of tuition (not including room and board) at GMU or UMD for an instate resident is currently $40k. Even if your child lives at home, it will be a stretch to finance this without some help from parents.

Colleges expect parents to contribute. Students cannot qualify for financial aid without submitting info about their parents financials. You may not intend to help pay for college, but if the college determines that you are able to assist, that will be used to lower any financial award. Students are considered independent only if they are 24 or older, in grad school, married, or have children, or if they are orphans, wards of the state, or active or retired military.

Most of the top tier colleges give ONLY financial aid to students depending on their families' need, as determined by the college. Financial aid has NOTHING to do with good grades. There are no "scholarships" to these schools.

Many less selective colleges DO give scholarships based on merit, but in most cases, the amount given is a fraction of the cost of attendance. A "full ride" is extremely rare.

What is your point?
I am not being snarky. You do realize that, especially in today's economy, a lot if families are struggling to finance the NOW and cannot finance college in the future. It us great if folks can pay or help pay, but if not that does not necessarily mean that kid is doomed of their parents are remiss in some way.

Anonymous wrote:My parents paid most of my college, and a small portion of graduate school. We intend to pay all of college and graduate school for our five children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

My husband is retired military. One of his biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to go directly into college. Military enlisted life is very hard. It is not easy to work and be deployed and get their degree. It is not a typical job. It also is not easy to join always as one makes it sound. They are doing troup reductions. Traveling costs money. My parents would not have allowed either. They were not ok with an 18 year old traveling alone. Fine if those are your values but ours are to help or pay all, if possibly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

My husband is retired military. One of his biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to go directly into college. Military enlisted life is very hard. It is not easy to work and be deployed and get their degree. It is not a typical job. It also is not easy to join always as one makes it sound. They are doing troup reductions. Traveling costs money. My parents would not have allowed either. They were not ok with an 18 year old traveling alone. Fine if those are your values but ours are to help or pay all, if possibly.

My comment is based on seeing many immature 17 to 18 year olds greatly hurt their futures because they were not mature enough to do well in college at such a young age. Or similarly, see students in grad school who were older do very well while those directly from undergrad not do as well. It depends on the child, but I'd much rather an unready child have a gap year and hopefully grow up then go somewhere and get bad grades or flunk out.

that's fine, but that is an individual maturity level thing. If my child is really going to go off to college and flunk out, then college isn't for her at that time. My husband joined the military because that would have been him. He's a smart guy, but he lacked any kind of direction and was definitely the type who would have just partied his way right out. He made the right choice for him, but it also made going to college as an adult post-military VERY hard while also trying to hold down a job and have a family.

He wants a different direction for his children. It is situational, obviously, but we will be pushing for college post-high school. It is just easier. But, again, we will let our children know there are consequences if they squander their opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

My husband is retired military. One of his biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to go directly into college. Military enlisted life is very hard. It is not easy to work and be deployed and get their degree. It is not a typical job. It also is not easy to join always as one makes it sound. They are doing troup reductions. Traveling costs money. My parents would not have allowed either. They were not ok with an 18 year old traveling alone. Fine if those are your values but ours are to help or pay all, if possibly.

My comment is based on seeing many immature 17 to 18 year olds greatly hurt their futures because they were not mature enough to do well in college at such a young age. Or similarly, see students in grad school who were older do very well while those directly from undergrad not do as well. It depends on the child, but I'd much rather an unready child have a gap year and hopefully grow up then go somewhere and get bad grades or flunk out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

My husband is retired military. One of his biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to go directly into college. Military enlisted life is very hard. It is not easy to work and be deployed and get their degree. It is not a typical job. It also is not easy to join always as one makes it sound. They are doing troup reductions. Traveling costs money. My parents would not have allowed either. They were not ok with an 18 year old traveling alone. Fine if those are your values but ours are to help or pay all, if possibly.

Anonymous wrote:My parents paid undergrad 100% for me and my siblings. My husband's mom paid his 100%, too. We are planning to pay for all of our kids' tuition, too. I did not take school any less seriously because my parents paid. In fact, I remember thinking how much my dad sacrificed for me to be there which made me work harder (he never went to college and worked nights to save for his kids' college educations among other things).

Anonymous wrote:18 is too young for college. Kids should work or travel or join the army or something first. Grow up some.

Anonymous wrote:

great for you, jackass.