I work in financial aid administration, and when the time is right each year I try to let the Board know about that because I am the “financial aid expert” doper. If you need help, post on this thread and we can talk about it here, PM, email, or phone.
Don’t need help (although my son’s a h.s. freshman, so I may in three years!), but I work in higher ed. and just wanted to say that it’s totally awesome for you to offer your expertise, Translucent.
My daughter is a high-school freshman also. How soon should we start getting our shit together? From what I’ve observed from coworkers who are parents of college students, the financial aid process is different and much more complicated than when I went to school in the early 1980s.
Here is one question I have: how will the system treat her financial need? She has me and my husband (her step-father) and her father from whom I am divorced. Will they just look at my income and my former husband, or take into account my husband’s income too? How does the process treat the next child, who is two years younger?
A couple of questions just out of curiosity.
Every year I log into my daughter’s FAFSA account and provide parent info, and every year she has been “audited” and we had to give her a copy of our tax return to turn in to whomever. Is this just SOP, or was she singled out for some reason?
Also, she was told she couldn’t get the Pell grant because both my husband and I are in school. I received Pell, but my husband only has private loans. Is the Pell only one-to-a-family?
Do you know much about repayment options, or are you strictly on the giving-out end of the spectrum? My loan payments are going to start soon and I have a ton of questions.
I’m going to post in here because I can guarantee I’ll have questions (I do every year, thanks for this thread!), but I can’t think of any specific ones as of right now.
Are there any financial aid programs aimed at adults returning to college? My son-in-law at 35 is finally trying to get an education. Even the community college here is expensive for them. My daughter earns in the mid 30s as a teacher (no, there’s nothing thru her board of ed - they’re broke) and SIL works 25 hours a week for $10/hr. The only reason they’re not living in a box is that they’re living with us.
So, what options does he have for grants or scholarships? (His past grades are not exceptional.) We’ll lend them what they need if necessary, but obviously they want to avoid debt.
They may not be able to avoid debt. He may be able to get a good deal of grant money, but more than likely, he will have to borrow. The good news is that aid isn’t grade-dependent, so it won’t matter.
In my experience, however, scholarships for older students are hard to come by. I did a scholarship search through my university’s search site and only found a handful that didn’t have age requirements, and none that were specifically for anyone older than 22.
My brother has aggressively paid down his mortgage so that the house might be free and clear by the time my nephew (high school sophomore) is a high school senior or college freshman. I encouraged my brother to get a home equity loan to buy a new car (which he really needs) so as to improve his financial aid prospects.
Good idea or not? How does the financial aid process look at a mortgage-free home?
Scholarships are best to start looking for junior year. The federal financial aid process should start January 1st, the senior year. What you generally need is the current year’s tax return and W2s.
The financial aid application (FAFSA) is going to look at only your income, and in your situation, you would have a three person household with one in college, and when the younger is going to start going, you will be a 3/2.
The federal guidelines to meet is one third selected for the verification process. A few schools verify everything, but its not that common. If there is a large difference in your wages earned and adjusted gross income, it can be flagged by the Department of Education automatically, but I would have to see the tax return or her FAFSA to tell.
The Pell grant thing is bullshit, Pell is an entitlement. PM me the name of her school. Each person has their own Pell entitlement, its not one per family.
I know about repayment, but its more complicated than you might want to get into here. You can PM me and I can email you back and forth about it or if its a specific question, you can post it here too.
Generally, federal aid and state aid is entitlement, and there isn’t anything specific there, but students that are married and have kids generally do generate some sort of need based grants on the FAFSA, especially when the AGI is pretty low.
Shit, I forgot. Have them check with the local state’s department of vocational rehabilitation office or workforce center/commission office to see if the state or local goverment are giving grants for people transitioning into different needed careers, like nursing or construction. Depending on what careers they are pursuing, local businesses sometimes grant specific scholarship funds to people they want to hire.
My cousin is a senior right now. He’s a smart kid but he goes to a charter school, so I’m not sure if he stands out above his classmates. Not sure about his testing scores and whatnot…
While his homelife is emotionally fine, it’s financially a wreck. His dad died when he was 2 or 3, his mom has been on disability for most of his life. He’s personally gotten social security since his dad died, but that’s ending as soon as he turns 18.
I was a good writer when I was his age so I wrote myself a handful of essays and ended up with a near full-ride from scholarships. I keep thinking that his story is such a sob story that it could make for great essay fodder and get him a whole ton of money.
But, they tell me he’s not the best writer and has no interest in it. He’s going to look in to grants instead. I don’t know shit about grants OR loans.
Is that the best avenue for him?
He has the potential to go to some pretty good engineering schools I think. No idea which ones he’s applied to, other than maybe U Akron which just happens to be the closest engineering school.