Financial Aid? (can i get it?)

Valaena

I've been looking at financial aid sites trying to make heads or tails of what exactly I'm looking at. My parents make too much money for me to get financial aid, but I found out today they will not be paying anything. I'be been looking at apartments to move out and go to school, but Woops. Dunno how I'm going to afford that working at a dang Walmart or something.

So all I really need to know, are there any grants I can get to just pay for school? I don't mind postponing moving, if it means going to school.

Also: I'm just looking at community college right now. I'd rather save money where I can.
As obvious, I'm pretty new to this whole, how to be a grown-up human thing, so any advice on how to not be shitty at life are also welcome.

noir_blood

Sorry if this is going to sound redundant, but you applied through fafsa right?

And grants can encompass hundreds-thousands of things, some of them for only a couple of hundred of bucks, others for full rides. It really depends on tons of things like grades, where you live, what you want to to study, even race.

Best advise you're probably going to get is go talk to your school's financial aid office, that's what they're there for.

Also, it's fully possible to work full time and go to school for at least part time, up to 12 hours. Tons of people do it.

Killgrimage

Would your parents be willing to co-sign on a loan? I was in a similar situation where my dad made too much for FAFSA to be worth it, but too little to really help out with college. They were able to co-sign my loans (sallie mae, unfortunately) which helped tremendously, and they are also helping pay them back a bit. Are you coming out of highschool? Your school can also help guide you to the correct FA, be it need or merit based.

noir_blood

Killgrimage wrote: »

Would your parents be willing to co-sign on a loan? I was in a similar situation where my dad made too much for FAFSA to be worth it, but too little to really help out with college. They were able to co-sign my loans (sallie mae, unfortunately) which helped tremendously, and they are also helping pay them back a bit. Are you coming out of highschool? Your school can also help guide you to the correct FA, be it need or merit based.

Don't do this unless you can get a great interest rate. The places which will give out loans(including 'real' banks like Wells Fargo) to students do so cause they know they can make a killing on the interest rate.

Seriously, If it comes to it, put off college for a year, work your ass off, and then next year you have money saved and can do Fafsa based solely off your wages.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

You should fill out a FAFSA anyway, just because lots of aid will require you to have done so (whether or not you get any direct need-based aid.)

Something potentially helpful is to get emancipated from your parents; iirc FAFSA filing is supposed to take that into consideration now.

Jasconius

If your parents make any kind of money at all (like more than 50,000 per year combined), you aren't going to get much from Fasfa, if anything. Unless you're like a Native American or something. It sucks but it's true.

In order to have your parents income disregarded, you have to have certain tax records and meet certain requirements... if your parents have claimed you as a dependent in their last tax return, you'll not be able to escape that.

But really, baseline college grants from the government pretty much only go to people in poverty or are extremely disadvantaged. I had a single parent making less than 50k per year with two children, and I think I ended up getting, over the course of 3+ years... a 500 dollar pell grant and the ability to take out maybe 3 grand in federal subsidized loans. EVERYTHING else was private.

But yes, you should do it anyway because other sources will probably ask that you do so.

VisionOfClarity

He most likely won't be able to file without his folks income next year either. He will be a dependent student until he can answer yes to one of the following:

Are you 24 year of age or older?
Are you married?
Are you enrolled in a master or doctorate program?
Do you have children who receive more than half of their support form you?
Do you have dependents other than your children or spouse who live with you?
Are you an orphan or ward of the state?
Are you a veteran of the U.S. armed forces?

[Michael]

I was only given unsubsidized loans through FAFSA every year with a similar situation. I'm eligible this year (senior year) because of my age (24), and I'll have grants and subsidized loans out the wazoo (Pell Grant, SMART grant, state-lottery scholarship).

The only thing that got me anything extra was writing to my university's financial aid office to try to explain my situation. I got $600 in subsidized loans. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

You can always enroll just barely full time (12 hours usually) and work part-time or full-time depending on the difficulty of your courses/degree. My sister got a degree in communication and worked full time most semesters, whereas my brother got a degree in computer science and couldn't work at all some semesters due to the course load.

Aaannnd if you're really desperate, sell plasma.

Esh

It's also absolutely not the end of the world to wait to go to school. Live, work, enjoy yourself, then apply when you're 24 and get those wonderful Pell Grants. I didn't go back until I was 32 and I'm absolutely loving it. You have have no idea how many students I see doing terribly, not caring, or just not understanding the work or concepts because they have little to no life experience.

Deebaser

Look at your state universities. In my experience it is very possible to cover tuition and living expenses with a Stafford loan and a part time job. If there's one close enough to your parent's house, even better.

schuss

Also, look through local grants/subsidies and play schools off each other if you're planning to kick ass. There's hundreds of thousands of dollars in random scholarships out there, it's just that most are too lazy to apply for all of them.