By KBC Associate :max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(779x399:781x401)/high-school-graduation-hats-013025-72f7ccf51a814334b1f5382763225a98.jpg?ssl=1 "High Schooler’s Parents Want to Use His College Fund for His Sibling’s Wedding")
NEED TO KNOW
- A high school student’s educational aspirations are at risk after his parents suggested using his college fund for something else
- The 18-year-old says his parents are thinking about using the money his grandparents gave him for college to pay for his older brother’s wedding
- The teen says he is “shocked” by his parents’ behavior and turned to Reddit for advice
A high school senior, who was recently accepted into his “dream university,” says his college goals are now at risk because his parents want to use the funds to finance his older brother’s wedding.
In a post shared on Reddit, the anonymous 18-year-old writes that his grandparents “set up a college fund for me when I was born, and it has enough to cover most of my tuition.”
“My parents have always known about this fund, and I’ve been planning my education around it,” he adds.
Having recently been accepted into his dream school, the poster writes that he was all set to have his schooling covered — until, that is, his 25-year-old brother announced his engagement.
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“A few weeks ago, my older brother (25M) announced that he’s getting married,” the post continues. “My parents are paying for most of the wedding but recently told me that they need to borrow from my college fund to cover extra costs.”
“I was shocked and told them no, since that money was meant for my education,” he continues.
His parents argued that he could simply take out student loans to cover the costs, telling him, “family comes first.”
“My brother and his fiancée also called me selfish, saying I should ‘help out’ since they want a big wedding,” he writes. “I refused again. Now, my parents are saying they’re disappointed in me, and my brother isn’t speaking to me.”
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Reddit users have chimed in, with many questioning why the brother’s wedding would take precedence over his education.
“Why can’t the brother ‘just take out loans?'” questioned one commenter, to which another added, “Or better yet, scale back on the wedding.”
Someone else suggested that his brother could “cosign for the student loan, and pay it back.”
“But better yet: family comes first. And [the 18-year-old’s] education that is already paid for trumps the brother having a fancier wedding than the parent can afford,” they added.