Please talk to me about student loans! This does not make sense to me!

[*********]

:iagree:

 

What happens to the student whose parents flat out refuse?

 

(I never went to college, but my parents wouldn't have given me a red penny at 18. We didn't exactly get along back then...)

 

I'll tell you what happens (or, at least, what happened to me 15 years ago when I was 17 and had just graduated highschool).

 

My parents wouldn't even fill out the FAFSA information, just to be spiteful. We weren't exactly getting along back then, either. ;)

 

So I was 17, moved out of my parents house, couldn't drive since my parents revoked my license (which, at least at the time, they could do anytime before you were 18 for any reason), and couldn't get any financial aid at all for college because my folks wouldn't give me their info for my FAFSA. And no, I couldn't get the college or FAFSA to waive that requirement; they said too many kids would want it waived if they did it for me. :glare:

 

So what happens? Well, I didn't get my degree. I couldn't afford to live on my own, pay all my expenses by myself, and pay cash for college up front. And I had not the first clue of how to go about getting a loan or anything; I was basically all on my own, and no one at the college offered to help me figure it out. Looking back, it really makes me sad.

 

So here I am, 32 years old, and in three weeks, I'll be returning to college. The plan is to have my nursing license in two years. ANd guess what? My dh makes "too much" for me to get any need based help, so we have to pay cash, or else take out a loan. Just like it was 15 years ago, except now I'm old enough that the financial aid people aren't insisting I buy my parents for their tax returns and such.

 

I think the college financial aid system is a joke. My parents did not pay one cent for any of the college courses that me or any of my sisters have taken. There's four of us girls in the family, and not one of us got one cent for college classes. And I never asked them too. So why is it that the financial aid people get to assume that my parents will help pay?

Edited August 12, 2010 by bethanyniez

[phathui5]

It sometimes surprises me when parents state that they do not want their children to assume debt, but then are unwilling to pay. Who then pays?

 

I paid for my own college classes and doula training. I imagine I'll be paying for midwifery school as well. My parents didn't contribute financially to my education and I didn't borrow. I paid and attended as I was able.

[LauraQ]

Uh yep. My hubby just left for GA this morning to deal with financial aid for my dd. She did all the work to take the SAT, placement and entrance exams and get accepted but she has made zero progress with the financial aid office and she can't register for classes until her finacial aid is in place. Honestly, they have been no help at all. Our plans were for her to take a student loan. Turns out she can't do that this year because she isn't 18 yet and I can't even begin to understand why a parent would be required to contribute to college costs once their child is 18 and legally an adult anyhow. What if a parent didn't want to? Does that mean that the child wouldn't be able to go to college until they were 25? How is it that a child can go off to war at 18 but not be responsible for their own college costs? It makes no sense what-so-ever. I had to get a letter from my dad saying that he no longer provided for me so that I could get my own finacial aid and I was married and had children at the time. :001_huh:

 

I could not get aid after high school even though my mother had already abandoned me and I lived alone even through my senior year in high school. I could not get her cooperation even to the extent of proving that she didn't provide for me so I could get student aid. This is why I did not go to college until I was 30 and my kids were older. It was unbelievably frustrating to me then, and it seems things are no better now. I wish I could offer wise advice.

[ereks mom]

Yep, we're saving. I will not have my kids start off in life the way I did.

 

Unfortunately, we have no savings account at all, let alone a college fund for the kids. There simply aren't enough dollars in the budget. If there were, we would have health insurance and we wouldn't be driving a 14 yo van with 225,000 miles on it. And there might also be enough for a college fund. I didn't want my kids to have to start off their careers already thousands of dollars in debt either, but there's not a thing I'm going to be able to do about it.

[KidsHappen]

I just got good news regarding my dds student loans: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203390