Whenever I see articles in the media about college students, they seem to be talking about the fact students are in debt. WE GET IT! The articles seem to only talk about credit cards and spending. Interest rates.. on and on and on.... What about those people who are only in debt in response to their parent's irresponsibilities? The financial aid system in this country is based on the income of the parent and the student. What about the kid who has parents with a great income, but the parents spend the money foolishly, or choose not to spend it on their child's education? For example, I recently had a friend who's parent's decided instead of paying for school they were going to pay for his sister's wedding. My friend had no choice but then to take out a private loan. While I love my parents, they are constantly making bad choices with money, leaving me at the short end of the stick.
Does anyone else have similar problems? I've been thinking it can't only be just me that has a problem with the financial aid system in this country.
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I'm lucky, in some respects. We went through a really difficult time when I was in middle school, and I often didn't get things that I wanted or needed, such as new clothes for the school year. My mom and stepdad ended up filing for bankruptcy during that time. Now, they're divorced, and my mom has a job that pays better than her two jobs and my stepdad's job did combined. So we're pretty well off now, and my mom spends her money responsibly. I'm frugal as a result, and typically go without when it's not necessary. As a result, the only debt I have right now is about a $40 charge on my credit card from last month.
I wish you luck with financing your education, though. I'm really not looking forward to all the loans I'll have when I have to pay for medical school.
~C
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Yes, I have similar problems with paying for my education because I can't pay for my college education and my mother can't help me because she has other bills to pay like Mortgage, Electric, Gas, etc. because my parents are divorced and I only live with my mother. So, I'm trying to get a job; so, I can continue my college education. Therefore, you're not the only one who's having financial problems.
Oh ya. My mom remarried a huge jerk who kicked me out (for no reason, Im a bright a student, he just hated me because I stood up to his crap and how he treated us). Anyway he makes a LOT of money. So they did my FASFA and conaequently I could not get any federal aid because he makes to much money. And I AM NOT EVEN ON SPEAKING TERMS WITH THEM! But they did my Fasfa a week before he kicked me out so I got screwed over. Now this year Im just not gonna do it since you dont have to and even if I did I wouldnt get any more money if I did do it. Plus I would have to talk to them. And I cant get emancipated because it would cost a lot of money to go through court etc . . .
Francesca Chambers
I think when you are 18 you are considered an adult so you may or may not have to put them as your caregivers. I know that when I was having problems with my mother after my dad's death that they said try and wait things out until you are 18 and then you'll be able to be completely on your own and she won't have control over anything. (Such as school records and such.) I don't know though if it is the same for FASFA.
I wish it worked that way!
If you are 18, the only way you don't have to put your parents as your caregivers is if you have lived outside of their home for over a year.
So for people like me, who moved out a week after I turned 18 *which wasn't even 2 months ago*-I am screwed entirely.
My parents are not paying a single cent of my college, I have to do it entirely myself. FAFSA is nothing but crap because they took my parents information as if it had a part in it.
Actually its until you turn 24 or get married.
Francesca Chambers
That really sucks.. You would think that they would think more about this.
FAFSA sux. yeah with out them i could not afford college, but my parents dont support. im 23, adn i take care of myself. i think its BS thst i still have ot put my parents info. i have friends who had to have children in order to get financial aid from FAFSA. FAFSA do help but they mae it hard as hell! they make things harder then it should be.
It's easier for illegal mexicans to get social security from the states than it is for people to use (or get anything from) FAFSA.
My financial aid troubles are not stemming from previous money trouble or fights with my parents. They are a result of choices that I have made. Because I am still under the age of 24, not married, not a veteran, have no children, and my parents make a fairly good income, I do not qualify for federal aid. I have been out of high school for 5 years now (so I'm inching toward the "financially independent" mark, but won't reach it by the time next years FAFSA is due) and have, putting it nicely, taken my time to finish school. During the time that I have taken time off or taken very few classes, I have worked 2 sometimes 3 jobs to support myself. In the beginning, I was very fortunate to have my parents help with paying for school. However, as I have grown, my lifestyle has changed as have their views on paying for my school. So, now for my last two years of school, I will need to take out private loans. The loan I was able to get for last semester had a 12% interest rate!
I told my parents all my life i wanted to be a doctor. going to any school when be expensive. but later i relaized i wanted to go to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. VERY EXPENSIVE!! they were aware of this. i later changed my goal to become a vet, but still expensive. when senior year came, guess what?? no college fund. i had to attend community college until i saved up enough money myself to attend a university. i still can't afford Johns Hopkins, but i am at University of new orleans, which i love. but i am going into dept as a direct result of my parents. luckily i havn't had to borrow as much as some people i know. but now i'm actually dreading the day i gradutate and have to begin paying back the loans. i have heard of people taking 20 years to pay back school loans.
No offense but did any of you guys save for college yourself, that are blaming your parents for your debt? I mean it's not just their job to do that. It's nice when they do but they don't have to. Sometimes conditions don't allow for them to be able to give us everything but most parents try. Give them some credit! I know that there are circumstances and stuff happens and they can't provide, and sometimes parents are irresponsible or just don't care, but most parents do care and sometimes it's just not their fault. Well at least not all the blame lies in their hands sometimes.
If you personally didn't save for college how can you possibly throw the blame back at your parents? You didn't do anything to stop your debt from happening.
*To the people that have worked and everything, congratulations for trying to work towards your education. I know how bad that can suck but when everything works out you'll feel good.. And it will it just takes time sometimes. I wish you all the luck in the world.
To everyone- try looking into different scholarships. They have them for almost everything, and they can help too if you don't have the time or what not for a job.
First of all, yes I saved for college myself. BUT becauseI got kicked out, all the money I had saved for four years immediately disappeared because I had to support myself. Not to mention my car was in my parents' name even though I payed for it, so I lost money there too since I had to buy a new car. I have a job now, but when I first got kicked out I did not because I had quit a couple months before to be able to enjoy the last part of my senior year/focus on school.
Secondly, the only scholarships worht looking into usually are the ones offered by the college you want to go to. Fastweb and scholarships.com are like needles in a haystack. To win those you have to have like perfect scores on the ACT and SAT- and those kids dont need the money because they are already getting fullrides, but that is the way it works.
Francesca Chambers
where i'm from, no one can work until they are 14 and even than you cant work past the time of 5, so that limits you to only summer and minimum wage and you can only work part job (child labor laws). to attend the school of my choice i would had to work from the time i was born to save that much money. And i did save my money thats how i got to afford community college. saving money is a good idea, but people can only work so much to save that much money. my parents told me not to worry about money. when i worked in high school, i used that money to support myself, they didn't support. they told me they will take care of my college education, but hey didn't
Of course the majority of us have issues with paying more college. And while it might be unfair to use your parent's income as the determinant for what financial aid you get, how else is the gov't supposed to determine what everybody needs? You never suggested an alternative.
Most students don't make enough money at part time jobs during high school to use that as an "income" for a FAFSA. AND, with all the "extracurriculars" that are shoved onto children these days, there isn't time to have an after-school job to try and save money for college.
Plus, even if you changed it so that everybody got some kind of money based on their "income," there isn't enough money in the world to pay for every student to attend college/university.
Especially those ridiculous Ivy league and private colleges.
Granted, I attend a private college, and the $30,000 tuition I have to pay every year sucks, but half the year we work at co-ops. And whatever money you earn there is yours to do with what you wish. Whether it's used responsibly or irresponsibly is of course the student's choice.
What I don't get is why we ARE constantly reminded about debt. I agree with you. Because the cost of living & education far outstrips that of what you can make as a student, we are going to have debt. STOP NAGGING US ABOUT IT!
We understand! This is why we are going to college - to get a real time job after in order to pay off the debt. Yes, we will struggle. Yes, we will have moments of hardship.
But that shite makes us GROW as a person. Let us be, oh all-knowing adults. We can figure out how to live.
And those that can't, well...to be honest...and I'm sure I'm going to get some flack for this...but we need people to work at Walmart's and McDonald's and minimum wage jobs.
Just try not to treat them like they're scum, ok? They are people too.
Unless of course somebody forgot to tell me that they are little green men disguised in human suits. :)
~ KJ
"For it is not for honor, or glory, or riches that we fight, but for freedom only, which no good man surrenders but with his life." - Robert the Bruce
I agree and the government refuses to recognize that parents these days are taking less and less responsiblity for their child's education. Parents feel it is not their job and I am going through the stuggle of paying for college myself.
Yes, I do work and yes I did work before I went to college. The point is that my parents don't try to contribute to my education, yet they are still counted when it comes time to figure in my financial aid... The bottom line is I'm not trying to say my situation applies to everyone... I just hate how the stories in the media try to pigeon hole everyone.. Like every college student is the same and everybody's situation is the same.
No they aren't. Some parents can't or just don't care. There really isn't a better option though, for the most part no college student is going to have enough money to pay for college on their own. Have you considered looking into the possiblity of not putting them on if you are 18 or older because you are legally an adult. Not every college student is the same, but they try to appeal to the ones that have debt because they know many times that most college students do.
Granted, debt is a difficult thing to manage, speaking from personal experience, but what bothers me is the sense of entitlement that seems to be so pervasive in this post and the thread.
Your parents have assumed the responsibility of taking care of you for 18 years. They have fed you, clothed you, and provided a home for you (exceptions exist of course). They have made sacrifices for you, now you assume that they should be paying for your secondary education?
Maybe it was just my mindset, or the way that I was raised, but it has always been understood that I am responsible for my own education, and that I would have to make things happen. So I am, I have collected a mountain of debt. Now I have to work to pay it off.
Shared Irresponsibilty is just deference to the assumption that parents are required to pay for a college education. Perhaps it is the practice of fidelity that has lead some parents to, for lack of a better phrase, throw you into the deep end.
Obviously some people are feeling like children still and wanting their parents to pay their way through school when the fact of the matter is that you are an adult now. they work hard for their money and they spent plenty of it just in raising you. Sometimes it is a tough lesson when your parents cut off access to their funds and tell you to learn fiscal responsibility. Before you get all huffy and pissed off at your parents for not financing your way through yet another goal of yours ask yurself, did their parents pay their way through school. Is it my parents responsibility to fund my dreams and ambitions or are they right and this is something that I will value and appreciate more if I have to actually work for it?
I am the first person in my family to go to college and I am doing it completely on grants and loans and hopefully scholarship funds. I am not a kid anymore I am 32 years old and so this does not bother me and after all of the hard work and effort pays off in that degree I can stand proudly and say "I did this for me, no one had to give it to me, and I really have accomplished something great here."
Except for the fact that if they were helping me I could get a better education at a better college and get a better job so that I could pay for my kids' school since I am not a heartless witch. I worked hard, as many kids did, to get into good colleges. I did my part, but to go to one of those schools you have to have the money. Which you cant make because the homework is too hard to do and have a job on top of it. Not to mention I dont even go to one of the hardest ones because tmy parents are not paying for anything. Just because your parents didnt help you doesnt mean that ours shouldnt help us. Misery really does love company I guess.
By the way, Im not trying to start an argument, but I have worked hard to get to the top and cant get there because of them, so it really just ticks me the heck off when people criticize me because I am doing the best that I can but my parents are not. Maybe what you went through was bad, but dont criticize us until you have walked each of our individual paths. Being on your own at this age is really hard and we are just looking for support from our peers so that we can make it to the next day without giving up hope of a better tomorrow.
Francesca Chambers
On paper, my parents look pretty financially stable, so I don't get a lot of aid. But my parents have worked to save that money for more than thirty years, and they are willing to help me, but not pay for all of my tuition. I accept that, and don't expect them to pay for any more of it. It's their money, not mine.
I don't think I'm in debt because my parents are irresponsible, though I do think there's a flaw in the way aid is determined. The amount my parents are "expected to pay" according to FAFSA is more than they're willing to, but that isn't their fault. I don't think it's fair to expect parents to pay thousands of dollars for their children to get an education anyway..
So, i totally know where you are coming from here, i choose to go to a four year university so i could get a better education than from the community college in my town, where just about everyone could go. For this choice i have been taking out student loans every single semester in my name....My parents both make plenty of money, but they instead choose to spend it on my brohter, paying for his education in full even when he is failing, vacations to branson or disney ext, gambling, or on a new house....thus leaving me majorly in debt.
Yes, you read it right. My mom owes me money. Not for school (she never promised a dime or gave a dime for school), but for other miscellaneous stuff. She is a school teacher (and that's what i am studying to be), and does not have extra money to pay for my schooling. And nor do I expect that of her! Anyone watch the Suze Orman Show? You should! Great money advice, etc. Anyway, It is MY responsibility to take charge of MY future. So I work hard, play less, and scrape up money where I can to go to school. I got married last year, so now FAFSA doesn't need her info. But, they still think we make too much money. Well, we have a school loan, a car loan and a wedding to pay off, and are still renting an apartment after almost 5 years. Is it someone else's fault? NO! We don't really have the money for me to go to school, but we don't have the money for me NOT to go to school. Not that I will make a TON more money as a teacher, but I will be a happier person. So I look for scholarships and aide at every opportunity. This isn't about SHARED responsibilty- this is MY responsibility, and I will find a way to do it myself because that it how it should be, and has to be.
Jessie