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.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Taking out high-interest private student loans without a cosignerDid this help you?
- 2Working part-time while taking a reduced course load over a longer periodDid this help you?
- 3Delaying college for 1-2 years to work and save moneyDid this help you?
- 4Finding an employer that offers tuition reimbursementDid this help you?
- 5Enlisting in the military to utilize education benefits like the GI billDid this help you?
- 6Attending online school to cut down on costs while workingDid this help you?
- 7considering taking out a personal loan through a lender like SoFiDid this help you?
- 8withdrawing money from a life insurance policyDid this help you?
- 9contacting the school's financial aid office for alternative optionsDid this help you?
- 10Changing the FAFSA file to parent refusalDid this help you?
- 11Asking the school about a dependency overrideDid this help you?
- 12Trying to take out private student loans without a co-signer or credit scoreDid this help you?
- 13Attending a cheaper community college insteadDid this help you?
- 14Working part-time while going to school part-timeDid this help you?
- 15enrolling in a school payment plan for a fee to spread payments over multiple monthsDid this help you?
- 16using an emergency fund to cover the tuition lump sumDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, 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 ↗
“In January I’ll have to pay for my next semester of college again, and I currently am on track to have enough to cover it, but that’s my emergency fund that I just started in August, and have been 200 from in each paycheck in.”source ↗
“The bill will be ~3000 for my second semester and that would wipe out my emergency fund, however they have a payment plan that cost 80 to enroll, that you pay over 4 months, I have had no luck with loans unfortunately”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to pay for private college after a layoff without draining trust funds
- 2How to pay for school or a hobby when you didn't save enough
- 6How to move out and become financially independent with no family support
- 2Where to put college cash without hurting financial aid
- 17How to pay for large emergency expenses without using credit
- 3How to say no to parents asking for money