Are private (bank) loans an option? Educational debt is the best kind you take on, so they say. And unfortunately, a lot of the best schools don't offer a lot in the way of financial aid (NYU has awful financial aid), so the only thing to do is sign on the dotted line.

Try for a third party loan from a bank, that's what I did when my aid and loans wouldn't cover everything. I ended up with a loan from Key Bank (not sure if they're national) called an Alternative Loan. My parents had to cosign (I was 17 when I started college, and in addition to being a minor, had no credit).

I remember it arriving pretty quickly. I don't think I even applied until June or July and had it in time for classes. (and generally, if they know you're approved, they won't mind as much if the cash is late when it's a loan.)

Yeah, it's a lot, and she'll be paying it off until she's old and grey. But even so, she should do everything she can. I got into an Ivy League, and ended up at SUNY because of money and not wanting to be in debt until I was 40. I've regretted it pretty much every day of my life for the last decade.

(on preview, TPS and I are on the same wavelength)

What is she studying? Something that will eventually pay well? If so, suck up the debt and go for it. If she's going for social work or teaching, perhaps not. It kind of comes down to what she is going to do with her degree.

If she needs to support herself, maybe she can get a part time job on campus or nearby. My son is making $10/hr in tips waiting tables at a Cracker Barrel. If she can squeek by, maybe she can get a summer job that will pay better and next year will be easier.

I don't have anything better than that.... maybe make a personal appeal to the financial aid office?

They can't get loans...my mom's financial situation won't allow for it...they don't qualify. And we don't have some magic relative willing to take a risk and cosign. It's just the two of them, and I'm certainly in no position to cosign.

She is willing to suck up the loans...the school still wants 10k cash money. She plans to work during college, just as she works now (more than she's legally supposed to as a high school student in fact...I did the same when I was her age). They expect the money prior to school starting, and they want her to commit to paying it in the next couple of weeks.

Alert the local media. Call and plead your case to one of the reporters at the station. Give them the angle of the story: brilliant local girl gets accepted at IVY league school but financial woes may squash her dreams. Tell them about your hard working Mom. Tell them your sister worked hard at a low-paying job just to come up with tuition. The reporter will want to get in touch with the school and they will not want this kind of attention. Either they'll waive the money or some local folks will donate. Your sister will get in.

Sasshat, I hope your sister can find other means of local financial support. But I've just watched a friend's 18 year old son get a lot of bad counseling, go off to an out of state school for the fall semester, that cost her $8K in tuition and fees after their fairly generous aid package was figured in, where he couldn't get out of bed on time to attend class, and came home with his tail between his legs, and a 1.86 GPA. He was lucky to get into his hometown state school as a probationary transfer student for the spring semester, and isn't making all his classes there, either. He's a major worry to his family at the moment.

But it happens to a significant percentage of college kids. He was a very bright kid, with very high SAT scores, and about 20 hours of AP credits and 2 years of program summer camps at the institution he went to in the Fall semester. But he wasn't particularly mature in his junior and senior years of high school, and he's clearly not ready for college, yet. He might be, in 5 or 10 years. In the meantime, if he doesn't turn things way around in the next few weeks, he's going to be attending the School of Hard Knocks next year.

So, what I'm saying is that if your sister's best guidance and planning up to this point has been to apply and see what happens, this is the "see what happens" part of that strategy. She's gotten the same proposition several thousand other kids in similar situations have, and she's now in a competition to see who's ruthless and clever enough to game the system to their advantage. If she's the kind of shark she'd need to be to make this work without real family support, the college has got to see that, now. Because without an individual behind her interested enough in her progress to front large sums of money and able to do so, and to whom she'd bear moral and perhaps financial obligations, the risk to them of giving her a full ride is just too high. As my friend's kid's story shows, even with such people in their lives, a lot of kids melt down anyway. And your sister, far from home, with a heavy work schedule, and little if any elective funds, would be under extreme psychological pressure from the get go, as a 17 or 18 year old person.

As I say, they've got to see she's a shark, now, if this is going to have any chance of working. Because if she's just a dreamer, they have lots and lots of applications from dreamers, who are better heeled, and equally likely to succeed there.

So, how can your sister show them that she's the shark that is going to survive ultimately? She could:

-Raise the money, by local or national appeal. If she can show she's impressed someone enough that they'll fork over $10K on her behalf, she's going to see the round 2 aid distribution, and she'll probably get a better deal. That's what others have suggested, and it might work, if she can hustle like hell for the next two weeks. Hit businesses, civic clubs, churches. Get car washes going. Have a bake sale. Find and contact alumni of the institution in her area, and appeal to them personally. This is industrial scale begging, which might pay off, if she's got the grit, the energy and the winsome smile to pull it off, and if she's enough of a shark to do it. But if she's the least bit shy or retiring, or embarrassed, she won't make this work. She'll be like the 99% of the others in her circumstance who just aren't enough of a shark to survive in the deep waters she dreams of swimming. So even if she fails to raise the money, she'll have learned something valuable about herself in trying. Not a fun lesson to learn about yourself at a tender age, perhaps, but an important one.

-Another tack is to try to game the system through to round 2 of the admissions process. This is really tough, as the whole point of round 1 is to flush out those without the wherewithal and family support to be likely persons to succeed. She'd have to show True Grit, in the Horatio Alger sense, to accomplish this. She might be able to do this through assembling some package of special recommendations and human interest appeal she could send to through to the admissions office, along with explanatory letters. But they get a lot of those things, from people in this circumstance, and so your sister would have to show incredible creativity and capability to break out. Frankly, if she's got the moxie to talk a hard hearted admissions officer at an Ivy League school into deferring $10K of pre-admission deposit, because of mitigating financial circumstances, she could probably use those talents to raise the money back home, if she lives in Florida. So, this route is almost the exclusive province of disadvantaged kids in poor countries, trying to get to America to study. It's incredible the kinds of packages of human stories she'd be competing against. This probably isn't a very likely road.

-Investigate delayed entry options. She might be able to "hold" her admission until the following year, or at least Spring semester, in order to take a year to work and raise money. That would also give her time to re-evaluate her options, and maybe come up with a more financially realistic educational plan.

Finally, not going to an Ivy League school isn't the end of the world, unless she makes it such. Frankly, the risks to her for trying and not making it, in terms of a long term sense of personal failure and financial burden are significant. She'd be a lot kinder to herself, and have much greater freedom in her post college life, if she can avoid massive student debt, and can piggyback what resources she does have available into an educational plan with a far higher degree of probable success.

Sorry for the length of this comment, but I wanted to stimulate some thinking. So many bright kids get such crappy college admissions advice, I'm surprised we don't have a higher rate of dropout and early failure than we actually do. The really important thing for your sister, you and your Mom to do in the ocming weeks and months is to get through the process with an educational plan that will be successful for your sister, whether it is her "dream" plan or not, and to do it as a family. As hard as this is for your sister, it is clearly also wrenching for you and your Mom. But I hope you can see that larger issues are at play, and that by supporting your sister in finding funding to make her dream happen, or helping her to find realistic, affordable alternatives, if that is not possible, you are contributing to helping her do the best she can for herself, and showing her that you can make a good life, even if every dream doesn't pan out.

(SassHat, if you still want this posted on AskMe, I have a question free.)

As do I - I'd be happy to post it for you.

I really hear so many horror stories about early admissions - it's just a complete shame that high school counselors and parents are being suckered in to them. They really only benefit the school, since they can "lock in" students that will look good statistically while offering those students little to no aid.

paulsc's advice is pretty good. I would personally be very outraged, and would either go to a school that offered me a better package or would raise such a ruckus that someone helped me financially.

I have no advice to give, but I can post an AskMe, too. Actually, if anyone wants a question posted, email me and we'll see what we can do.

You guys are awesome...paulsc, that's the type of comment I was looking for. Personally, I don't live with her, and she's done a good job so far drafting up appeals...I was really looking for creative, proactive ways to deal with this.

If someone wants to post this to askme, I would appreciate it, although I feel kind of sketchy about trying to game the posting limits. Also, my post is much more geared towards friendly bunny stuff...there's a lot of personal background that wouldn't directly influence the question, I think.

Thanks for the advice so far, everyone! I'm passing a lot of these suggestions along.

Also, for clarity's sake...my sister does not live in florida (although she went to HS there for a couple years) and it is NOT an Ivy league school...just a private university. She didn't dream of the school because it was a "name" - we saw how well going to a "name" school helped my mom...she wants to go to the school because the programs they have, etc.