The Curse of a Middle Class Kid: No Financial Aid

[Izz13]

College is expensive and that is the truth, but there are ways to help with the expenses, unless your parents worked hard and made money, then scholarships are hard to come by for their kids. I am a middle class student in college with good grades and plenty of activities and what would seem a good candidate for scholarships. I am, however, constantly passed over for scholarships because my parents make money, yet I am the one paying for my college degree not my parents, but my financial aid is no where to be seen. I am a broke college kid that has worked for my entire life to be here and I am getting no assistance for all of my hard work just because my parents worked hard to bring my family up to middle class status. And I am not saying that all scholarships should be focused on middle class kids, but they should hold more weight in merit based ideals than in purely financial aid based details. If any kid (independent of their class) works hard, then they should be rewarded for that with aid.

 

[Michelle420]

Grants are available for the poor, if you get good grades you should be able to apply for scholarships.

What is your G.P.A.?

 

[Izz13]

Yes, but a majority of all scholarships are still need-base aid which is based off of a parents income level.

And my college GPA is a 3.95 in engineering.

 

[Michelle420]

And my college GPA is a 3.95 in an engineering field.

Which State?

With a High GPA like that you should be able to go through engineering scholarships pr

phi kappa phi, phi beta kappa etc etc

https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college-scholarships/scholarships-by-state/

 

[Unkotare]

Anyone stopping you from taking out student loans?

 

[Michelle420]

Anyone stopping you from taking out student loans?

Scholarships are nice and you don't have to pay them back.

 

[Unkotare]

"Nice" is nice, but it's not an entitlement.

 

[Michelle420]

"Nice" is nice, but it's not an entitlement.

You have to earn a scholarship by meeting standards set by the funder who is designating the scholarship.

It is not like a grant where you just get it for being poor.

 

[Mr. H.]

Anyone stopping you from taking out student loans?

Scholarships are nice and you don't have to pay them back.

I'm sure Obama could find you a waver or an extension. He's handing out a lot of those these days.

But I do understand your plight. My AGI is such that need-based moneys are out of the question. However, after paying the mortgage and tuition and health insurance and taxes and other living expenses... I'm just treading water here.

 

[Spiderman]

get a job and go to school part time

 

[Michelle420]

Anyone stopping you from taking out student loans?

Scholarships are nice and you don't have to pay them back.

I'm sure Obama could find you a waver or an extension. He's handing out a lot of those these days.

But I do understand your plight. My AGI is such that need-based moneys are out of the question. However, after paying the mortgage and tuition and health insurance and taxes and other living expenses... I'm just treading water here.

Scholarships are not from Obama, pell grants are government funding.

Private donor scholarships

People still work internships and they have to meet a standard set by the donor.

The benefit being you graduate without a heavy debt.

 

[Michelle420]

get a job and go to school part time

People on scholarship do work, they do internships and or work study or jobs outside of that.

The scholarship pays tuition and sometimes books too.

It doesn't pay rent food car....

 

[RKMBrown]

College is expensive and that is the truth, but there are ways to help with the expenses, unless your parents worked hard and made money, then scholarships are hard to come by for their kids. I am a middle class student in college with good grades and plenty of activities and what would seem a good candidate for scholarships. I am, however, constantly passed over for scholarships because my parents make money, yet I am the one paying for my college degree not my parents, but my financial aid is no where to be seen. I am a broke college kid that has worked for my entire life to be here and I am getting no assistance for all of my hard work just because my parents worked hard to bring my family up to middle class status. And I am not saying that all scholarships should be focused on middle class kids, but they should hold more weight in merit based ideals than in purely financial aid based details. If any kid (independent of their class) works hard, then they should be rewarded for that with aid.

It's much worse than that. The reason school is so expensive? All that tax payer money being dumped by the truck load to pay for poor parent's kids resulting in a massive % of enrolled kids who don't give a shit what it costs because it's free to them thus allowing the schools to charge whatever the hell they want for tuition because the government is writing and/or backing the check not the student or student's parent.

Still not mad enough? How about college administrators making 500k plus a year off your back?

 

[DGS49]

The process does not recognize students who must do it on their own. My father (an eon ago) refused to fill out the financial aid forms because he saw it as an invasion of privacy. So even though we would have qualified I couldn't get any grants.

When my son was looking at colleges, the pitch was always the same to us parents: "Yeah, the tuition looks high, but very few people actually pay that much." Then confidentially they let us know that with two incomes and only one kid, we are among the "lucky few" who get to pay the full tuition on our own.

Not that it was a problem, but it was an irritation.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

College is expensive and that is the truth, but there are ways to help with the expenses, unless your parents worked hard and made money, then scholarships are hard to come by for their kids. I am a middle class student in college with good grades and plenty of activities and what would seem a good candidate for scholarships. I am, however, constantly passed over for scholarships because my parents make money, yet I am the one paying for my college degree not my parents, but my financial aid is no where to be seen. I am a broke college kid that has worked for my entire life to be here and I am getting no assistance for all of my hard work just because my parents worked hard to bring my family up to middle class status. And I am not saying that all scholarships should be focused on middle class kids, but they should hold more weight in merit based ideals than in purely financial aid based details. If any kid (independent of their class) works hard, then they should be rewarded for that with aid.

Welcome to the real world.

 

[Spiderman]

Seriously if you think not getting financial aid is a curse then your life is pretty good.

Get a full time job and take classes part time as you can afford them.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

And what i mean by that is, that life is fucked up. It's unfair and you will without any doubt find yourself on both ends of unfairness. Roll with the punches, make the best of what you have and be proud to be a self made individual.

 

[RKMBrown]

And what i mean by that is, that life is fucked up. It's unfair and you will without any doubt find yourself on both ends of unfairness. Roll with the punches, make the best of what you have and be proud to be a self made individual.

Eggzactly. And if you don't like the system of government being run by this two headed beast... vote libertarian.

 

[jillian]

Grants are available for the poor, if you get good grades you should be able to apply for scholarships.

What is your G.P.A.?

merit scholarships are limited.... and many schools don't give them at all. (e.g., Columbia doesn't give money... they feel everyone there would deserve a merit scholarship if they started giving them out.... of course, that's an excuse, but whatever).

financial aid is nonexistent for middle class kids.

we're looking at tuition of up to $60,000 a year depending on where my son gets into college. (hopefully WITH scholarships, but we'll see).