Financial Aid HELP?!?!?

I'm 18 and I want to go away to college next year, I filled out the FAFSA, but my parents made too much (my dad sold a piece of property) therefore, I do not have a good financial aid package. Now, I don't have a job or any credit, and my parents refuse to help me pay for college, what do I do?? And to top it off, I have no one to cosign for me, so I can't even get a private loan. Also, I have applied for many scholarships, but they are too competitive, I haven't gotten any yet, except from the schools I applied to.

D33:

Not to disagree entirely with Stephanie, because there's nothing wrong with the suggestion to contact financial aid, but she missed something in her answer that I did want to draw to your attention.

Your financial aid eligibility wasn't really influenced by your dad selling that piece of property this year - until he sold that property, it was an investment asset, and he would have had to report the fair market value of that asset on your FAFSA if it had not been sold in the past year. For the purposes of calculating your Expected Family Contribution score, a piece of investment land has the same effect as the equivalent amount of cash in your parents' savings or checking account.

Because of that - you're not really experiencing a 'changed circumstance', and the financial aid office is not going to be able to make changes to your aid eligibility based on that "one-time" transaction.

You get what I'm saying, right? If your dad still had the land, he'd have to report its fair market value on your FAFSA - so the fact that he turned the land into cash didn't impact your EFC score. All he has done is exchange one type of asset for another.

The bigger problem is simply that you're trying to figure out how to swing an expense that you're really not in a position to afford. I don't know anything about why your parents aren't willing to contribute to the costs of your college education, but that's the real problem here, not the land.

I don't even think that piece of land - cash or investment - is really that critical to the aid that you were offered to begin with. The reality is that only one of every three financial aid applicants qualifies for need-based financial aid - as you might imagine, those are generally students from the neediest of families.

There are quite a lot of misconceptions about how the financial aid system is designed to work - the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of federal aid comes in the form of access to cheap, easy-to-get loans. The neediest students qualify for a few thousand dollars in grants, but even they are expected to take out a fairly heavy dose of loans, so that they're investing in their own financial future.

What I'm telling you is this - if your parents had been really poor, you might have qualified for a Pell Grant of as much as $5350 for next year - if you were fortunate, you might have received another few thousand dollars more. But as you can see - financial aid is not going to pay anyone's way through anything other than a moderate priced state university or community college. Students who choose to attend a more pricey school must really be in a situation where they and their families can afford to contribute quite a bit of money.

There's an unwillingness to recognize what college education truly is - it's a very expensive purchase. Just like there are all different price ranges for cars, there are all different price ranges for colleges. I'm a Honda driver because I can afford a Honda, and my neighbor drives a Lexus because she can afford a more expensive car. There are people out there who drive Lamborghinis. Colleges work the same way - students need to pick a college they can afford. If you pick the Lexus, or the Lamborghini, you have to have the personal wherewithal to afford it, because there are no government gifts to make expensive schools possible for students without a whole lot of money.

I'm sorry for the disappointing news, and there is certainly no harm in contacting financial aid - but I'm going to bet that they're not going to increase your aid because your dad sold a piece of property in 2008.

Good luck to you!

The number one person who can help you is the financial aid officer at the college you want to go to. You should always let a financial aid officer know about unusual circumstances, such as your dad selling that piece of property, that would make your financial situation seem different than what it really is. It would be best if you could meet with the financial aid officer in person, with one or both of your parents, and have your parents bring their tax forms from previous years that better reflect the average amount your family usually makes.

If you can't meet in person, talk to the financial aid officer over the phone, and ask what information you can mail or fax in to have your situation reconsidered.