The parents spent their daughter's tuition without asking, forcing her to consider filing a lawsuit.
Career planning is important, but even the best-laid plans can be derailed by circumstances beyond our control. This was the case for a Reddit user, u/Stolentuition2024, a 17-year-old whose dreams of college were shattered by her parents' poor financial decisions. Now, she’s considering suing them for what happened.
"I, 17F, am graduating high school next month and am set to attend my first-choice college with a partial scholarship in the fall. It's an instate school about an hour away, and because of my dual enrollment credits, I should only be five semesters from finishing my bachelor's degree and then going for the master's degree I need for the career I want," she wrote in her post.
She then revealed how her maternal grandma whom she called 'Mamaw' passed away, leaving behind a college fund for her and her siblings, Kyle (M25) and Kelsey (F22). After her death, the fund was looked after by her mother's aunt. When she passed away in 2020, her parents took over the fund and while she didn't know the specifics of the fund, she did know that it was supposed to be enough for all the children.
"Kelsey is a fine arts major and her first year of college was derailed by lockdowns, and she wound up losing an entire year. She was supposed to go back for her final year next fall just as I am starting college, but last night at our Grandpa's birthday dinner (Dad's dad) she announced that she had been invited to participate in a Junior Artist in Residence study program and was deferring her last year of college," she wrote. "Everyone congratulated her and my grandparents asked about what sort of stipend she was getting. She said there wasn't one, but Mamaw's money would cover her living expenses," she continued.
An uncle who was present soon pointed out that the fund didn't have enough money to cover both of their expenses, to which her dad decided to respond and his words shocked the author to her core. She revealed that her dad said that since the author had scholarships and her sister needed the money more, it was best that none of it goes to the author. "Everyone was shocked and started asking questions, but my parents insisted that it was important to support my sister's artistic goals 'the way we never were', and that I'd be fine," she added.
When her grandparents decided to stand up for the author, her mom said that it was best if she took out a loan for what her scholarship didn't cover, and suggested she live at home to save money. "I was in tears and my sister was upset that people weren't happier for her. When my uncle asked if there was even going to be money left for my sister to go back and graduate, my parents said they would take out a loan against the house to cover it," she wrote.
None of the other family members agreed with her parents when they said that they were planning to take out a loan against the house. They also said that she could get a lien on their house if they couldn’t use it to get a loan. She then recalled how one of her uncles, who is a lawyer, had suggested she sue them. Lastly, she said that no matter what happened, she would be going to go to college. "Either way I got into my first choice college and am going to go, even if I have to sell blood or take out loans, so I've got that going for me, which is nice," she wrote.
Many took to the comment section to talk about the situation. "This sounds like they mismanaged the money. A fund that was supposed to cover even 50% of three college tuitions should have had a healthy six-figure amount. Not to mention the fund was supposed to be used for TUITION, not other programs," wrote u/ChaoticCapricorn. "You need a lawyer (not your uncle, have him make a referral) to determine how exactly the funds were left. Your uncle can probably look up the will and any other public documents to give your attorney a head start," suggest u/Aggressive_Idea_6806. Others talked about the many possibilities, "Several things could have happened. Grandma didn't leave as much as everyone thought, aunt mismanaged money, parents mismanaged money. Terrible situation. Follow uncle's guidance since he's a lawyer," commented u/BKRF1999.