Graduated with "Free Tuition"
(I'm not a big Reddit person so sorry if this is worded awfully)
Basically, my dad works at a private university as a professor, and when I was graduating high school my entire family pressured me into attending this university because my dad would be able to get me free tuition and it would cut down on my student loans. This is a school I super didn't want to go to, but it was the easy choice, so I did it, and hated it.
I recently graduated with my bfa and did FAFSA's exit counseling and I owe $37,565 as of right now. I lived on campus all four years and I did the lowest meal program the whole time. (Obviously not smart because I only lived an hour away, but after COVID my family was really serious about me getting a proper college social life, whatever.)
I expected to graduate with some student loans to cover living on campus, but $37,000 is way too much, like I owe more than some of my friends who didn't get free tuition but just had some scholarships helping them out. I cannot imagine what happened. I confronted my mom about this, and she said, "Well it's probably because I took out the max amount for the Parent Plus loans I did. But that shouldn't affect you" ????? I genuinely don't know what to do, like it clearly is affecting me?
Anyways, I came to this subreddit for advice on how to even begin figuring this shit out, like is there some kind of counselor I can talk to that can figure out where this money even went, or explain to me what the hell the Parent Plus loan even is and if my mom just sank me into a decade of debt without thinking about it. I'm not sure. I'm super overwhelmed, obviously.
Any advice helps, I'm just trying to ground myself. Thanks.