| > It's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations. I know this probably applies to almost nobody, but it's something I haven't seen discussed openly before: If you're a completely average person in the US. Not a minority, coming from a middleclass family. But your family doesn't want to just hand you money -- you're kind of fucked. There's something called "Expected Family Contribution". The country has decided that everyone's parents are just going to give away their money to their children. > Eligibility for need-based financial aid is determined by a formula that subtracts the student’s expected family contribution (EFC) from a college’s total cost of attendance. This determines financial need. The equation looks like this: (cost of attendance – EFC = financial need). So if your parents are say, by-your-bootstraps capitalists, and they go "Get a job bum, you want something, go work for it." then you're shit outta luck. I applied for financial aid and I was denied. "Your parents make too much money." "Well, that's nice for them. I don't live with my parents and they have no interest in financially supporting me, so can't you calculate it from my $8/hr wage?" "No, sorry. You can try waiting to go to college until you're no longer considered a dependent." I'm not trying to make this out to be a sob story, but if you're a completely unremarkable individual without family contribution, your only way in is debt. And not even reasonable debt, that you could work a regular job and pay off in a few years, but obscene debt. |