This pisses me off but I’m afraid I’m low on venom at the moment so it’s mild.
I have a student worker I like a lot: I’ll call her “Kay”. She’s a very intelligent and good person and good at her job. She’s 22, she’s been on her own since she was 18 (working class struggling mom with other kids, deadbeat dad) and she’s going to have to drop out of college because she doesn’t have the money and can’t get a loan. Here’s why:
Her mom has terrible credit- one of those “too rich to be poor and to poor for anything else” people who’s about $500 a year over the threshold for state aid and consequently always in arrears on all bills because she’s old school honorable (i.e. she’s not going to quit work and go on relief- I respect that, but I’m not sure I’d be as proud when she’d ironically live better with a lower paying job). Anyway, her credit’s just kerplunk.
The student’s dad owes her mom about $30,000 that she’ll never see- never paid support, went to jail a couple of times for non-payment, has outstanding judgments against him, put everything in new wife’s name, etc… In other words, he’s not good for a penny of help to his ex-wife or any of his kids (of whom there are at least 3 ranging from teenaged to Kay).
Okay, Kay’s mom took out Parent’s Loans for Underaged Students (PLUS- not exactly sure if that’s what it stands for) but can’t take anymore due to credit. She could technically get an endorser (or co-signer), but…
1- there’s a problem finding someone willing to sign for $20,000 in unsecured loans (I’ll be honest- I wouldn’t do it for someone I didnt’ know really well and have total faith in)
2- because she’s always a day later and a dollar short on payments her mom herself knows there’s a good chance she’ll default
3- Hi Opal
So Kay, who at 22 is only a sophomore because she didn’t start school until she was 20 (but is a good student) is going to have to drop out of school. She’s willing to take out a loan in her own name, and since she’s a good student and the field she’s in is legal studies she stands an excellent chance of either getting a decent paying paralegal job right out of college or of going to law school if she so desires, but because of the way the government loans are set up she can’t.
For those not familiar, the requirements to be an independent student are that you have to meet one of the following:
1- you have to be 24 years of age
2- you have to be married
3- you have to be in the armed forces or a veteran
4- you have to have a child
5- you have to demonstrate extreme hardship of the sort that led to emancipation while a minor
6- you’re an orphan
7- you have legal dependents (children or otherwise)
And none of those apply.
Technically you can appeal the decision to be declared independent, but it’s a major pain in the ass and rarely successful. It used to be a bit easier- almost pro forma if you got the right person- but it’s a lot harder to get declared independent now. Ultimately it’s up to bureaucrats and overworked Financial Aid Officers and they rarely see things your way (and rarely see students as individuals with houses and toasters and working at Waffle House but just as SSNs and paperwork- used to piss me off so much when I worked for these people that they had such ‘hurry up and wait’ attitudes towards people on the verge of being expelled).
Then there’s the whole gay marriage issue. What’s that have to do with it you ask?
Well, Kay is a lesbian you see, which I mention because she’s been in a monogamous relationship with her girlfriend for about 3 years- they live together, share bills together, and all that makes a marriage together. But of course they’re not and can’t be legally married so that doesn’t count.
Ironically if she’d go out and get pregnant that would get her back into school. One person she spoke with at another school (she tried to get into state schools when this one [I work at a private college] wouldn’t budge) suggested she join the army (her response “No! Because I never wanted to join the army and besides I’m here, I’m queer, and there’s a motherfucking WAR ON!”). She has a chance of getting in at a Historically Black College & University (HBCU) because they have more minority scholarships and the like, but she’d have to change her major and she’d lose a lot of credits and frankly we’re not talking Tuskegee or Morehouse but a mostly crappy state college that just happens to be predominantly black.
I swear that if I didn’t think it would come back to bite me in the ass big time I’d have a paper marriage with her as there’s absolutely nothing illegal about that; it’s not like a green card marriage where you’ll be checked on to make sure it’s valid and all, it’s just a “yep I’m married- my husband’s gay and I don’t live with him and couldn’t tell you his middle name or his dogs’ names, but here’s my wedding license- loan please”- but I’m afraid that if I married her I’d either immediately find someone I much preferred to assist or I’d find out about a $12,000 penalty never before enforced for interracial marriage between a gay white male and a much younger black lesbian in Alabama for purposes of financial aid for legal studies degree, or I’d suddenly find out that Kay’s lover is a paranoid schizophrenic who has decided we’re really doing the nah-nah and is going to feed me to a blender, or whatever. While those aren’t likely, there would be likely repercussions of some sort as you know- you don’t do marriage lightly, especially for someone who isn’t really in desperate need. (Last time I considered one of those straight marriage thingies, incidentally, was for one of the employees I supervised at another university; she had a son- adorable kid- who was burned and had facial scars that for some reason or other couldn’t be covered by Medicaid and other state insurance but were covered by private insurance- we actually talked about getting married, letting me put the kid on my insurance, and going from there, but deus ex machina- a Congressman she’d written to came through in getting him treatment (that Congressman is Artur Davis, incidentally- great great guy and not just because of that, though in terms of money one of the 5 poorest Reps (negative 250k net worth)…
Sorry, I digress.
The point is that if this were just Kay I wouldn’t be pitting the Direct Loan agency’s requirements, but I’ve known many students who fell through this hole in the sidewalk. My own ex-boyfriend had this problem right down to the deadbeat dad/terrible credit mom and add to this that he hadn’t received a nickel from either parent since he was 16 and wasn’t even on speaking terms with his parents. I’ve known students in three states now who had to drop out because of some variation on this theme, and all because 24 is an absurdly old age to require for independent status (who here was not being counted on another person’s taxes [other than perhaps for Head of Household exemption] at 23?).
I have other problems with Federal loans (I used to work for them if I haven’t mentioned it). Ironcially one of my beefs is that I think they’re too ridiculously easy for most people to get- you wouldn’t believe how many people I used to speak to on a daily basis when I worked for [a] Dept. of Ed [contractor] who had borrowed $120,000 and had a B.A. and some grad work in Theater or some other “license to print money” degree that they now couldn’t make the payments on, or people who had foreclosures and repos on their credit but got loans no problem because they were independent and these weren’t credit based. But this “you’re not an adult until you’re 24” and “if you’d just be straight and cohabit with someone who has opposing genitalia you could marry them and be done withit” crap is irritating.
And don’t do drugs.
Just curious- anyone else had this problem?
Since this is pretty mild feel free to bitch about financial aid problems in general.