How to pay for college when parents make too much but won't help
Students stuck without financial aid or parental cosigners face high-interest private or personal loans as their main option to cover tuition and living expenses. Without a co-signer, these loans carry steep rates that make funding an entire degree or final two years exceedingly difficult to manage.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Taking out high-interest private student loans without a cosigner
- 2Working part-time while taking a reduced course load over a longer period
- 3Delaying college for 1-2 years to work and save money
- 4Finding an employer that offers tuition reimbursement
- 5Enlisting in the military to utilize education benefits like the GI bill
- 6Attending online school to cut down on costs while working
- 7considering taking out a personal loan through a lender like SoFi
- 8withdrawing money from a life insurance policy
- 9contacting the school's financial aid office for alternative options
- 10Changing the FAFSA file to parent refusal
- 11Asking the school about a dependency override
- 12Trying to take out private student loans without a co-signer or credit score
- 13Attending a cheaper community college instead
- 14Working part-time while going to school part-time
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I don’t qualify for financial aid and the federal loan amount I can get is very low since my parents make a lot. I will have an associates when I graduate high school because of dual enrollment and I don’t know how I will pay for the cheapest college near me.”source ↗
“Is my best option to take out private loans at a very high interest rate to pay for tuition and a car which I will use to make a bit of cash to pay off the loans by working part time? The interest will be high because parents won’t cosign”source ↗
“I filled out my FAFSA for college and my parents make too much money so I only am eligible for a $5,000 loan from them. My parents do not financially support me in ANY way and I was forced to move out (all alone) the moment I turned 18, so I also need to support myself entirely all the way through this.”source ↗
“I'm also running really low on money and possibly wont even have a place to live soon.”source ↗
“It’s not an option at all since I already have 60 credits”source ↗
“I am currently a grad student in a one-year MBA program, and I am looking at taking out a personal loan in order to cover rent and my tuition.”source ↗
“For this semester, I currently owe $6,000 for tuition and $5,000 for my rent.”source ↗
“I was thinking about taking out a $10,000-$15,000 loan through SoFi in order to pay my rent, tuition, and also have some money for additional expenses + next semester's expenses.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to pay for private college after a layoff without draining trust funds
- 5How to move out and become financially independent with no family support
- 13How to pay for large emergency expenses without using credit
- 3How to pay credit card debt with no job and leaving the country
- 6Funding my business out of my own pocket
- 5How to start managing money as a college student