Financial Aid, Student Loans, Grants, Scholarships

[BigV]

I'm sure someone down here knows a friend of a friend who heard of some guy who got some financial aid for college once. Or maybe it's you. We've filed our FAFSA, we've (he's) gotten a couple of scholarships, and there's still the menace of "Unmet Need". The next step is loans, ugh.

I would love to hear about your experiences with financial aid. I am interested as much in success stories as I am abysmal failures (bonus points if you tell it in a humorous way ). I'd especially like to hear about student loans and grants, and, *sigh*, parent loans.

Well? Feel like boasting? Let's hear it. Is yours a cautionary tale to frighten students and parents alike? Now's your chance. How did you pay (are paying) for school anyway?

[lookout123]

i paid my way through school via, military service, working multiple part time jobs, some student loans. i already had an adult lifestyle to support so it was a bit more expensive than most highschool directly to college transitions are.

my personal and professional advice are:

1) parents you are not obligated to pay for your child's entire college education. in fact, i find more value in the educational experience if the child has to participate. have them fill out the forms and track the money. obviously you will supervise and monitor the process, but there is a greater chance of financial responsibility when they see how the money got into the account and understand what repayment means.

2) student loans, if taken, should be in the child's name. make it clear to the child that THEY will be responsible for repaying the loan upon graduation - not you. when they are pissing away $$$ on pizza, beer, etc. it might help to control the expenses if they know they are the ones footing the bill. probably not much, but every little bit helps.

3) loans aren't all bad, either. the child will eventually need to be a self sufficient human. as such, they will need credit. student loans are a good intro to this world.


financial aid horror story? who me? well, ok. my first semester back to school, i was still married and she was working a pissass job (couldn't handle the stress of a real one), i was taking 21 sem hours, working 1 full time job and 1 part time. i wanted to drop down to part time so i applied for the student loan. i was given @$900 for the whole semester. how is that? the kid sitting next to me was just talking about how he went and bought a $20,000 truck with his loan check, because mom and dad were paying for everythng, so it was just play money. i went to the office, waited my turn and asked the nice gentlemen if there was some mistake. surely on my limited income i could qualify for a LOAN. he got snotty and pointed out that i should have saved more money while i was in the military. i said sorry, but i did the best i could. he then told me i made too much money to get more of a loan - there were people who weren't working at all who needed the loan more. i tried to reason with him. he was just nasty. then he tripped my trigger. "all you veterans think we owe you something just because you went to some sandbox on the taxpayers bill to take pictures and goof around." he went a little further, and then i stood up and with a great big smile let him know that i was about to drag him over his desk and kick the shit out of him just for the hell of it - i mean hell "what are you going to do - take my $900 away?" at that point he picked up his phone and called security. fortunately for me, i had gone to high school with the two that showed up. nothing happened to me.

i did find out that even though it is gov't money that shows up, the individual school gets to decide how to split it up.

[Pie]

I was very lucky. I had scholarships enough to cover my own tuition and books; Mom and Papa paid room & board. We never filed a FAFSA, since we knew we wouldn't qualify for aid.
So it was a real pleasant surprise to me when I got another scholarship for $2.5K/year from the Alumni Assn. during my sophomore year -- usually, if you're well off, they toss ten bucks in your direction so you can put the scholarship on your resume, and give the money to someone else who needs it more.
I asked why I got the $$ -- they said it was because I didn't have a FAFSA on record, so I got the average grant amount.
- Pie
PS: For the record, I wasn't noble enough to tell them I didn't need the money...

[elSicomoro]

I took out a Federal Stafford loan during my senior semesters--$9000 total. I'm halfway done paying it: 6 years down, 6 years to go. The rest was covered by scholarships, jobs and credit cards.

My parents weren't able to help me at all, but I still had to include their income on my FAFSA. As a consequence, I never qualified for any grants.

I agree with lookout's points, and will add this: NEVER pay for any school shit with a credit card.

[Clodfobble]

I also echo the ability of students to work to pay at least some of the bill themselves.

My tuition was on a full scholarship (National Merit Scholarship, plus I went to a state school and they waived the remaining tuition for any NMS that wanted to attend). My parents paid for my dorm the first year, which included cafeteria food. I paid for books and all other spending money with my full-time job.

The next year, I ramped it up to 3 jobs (1 full-time, two part-time but one didn't pay) and paid rent in an apartment with about $300 a month from my parents in rent subsidy (slightly more than half of my rent.)

The third year, I was on my own. I was back to one job, but it paid a lot better than my earlier jobs so I did okay.

My husband took out a couple student loans, which are by far the lowest-interest-rate loans we're paying off. I think they're something like 3.9% APR.

[Iggy]

I am going to college now. I can't even apply for federal grant money because my dad refuses (well, not really refuses, but does the "I will do it later" thing and never does it until 2 years too late) to give me his financial info and I am not 24. I don't live with him, haven't since I was 17, and he owes me about $1,200 in past cell phone bills (he didn't have good enough credit to have it in his name so I paid the bills thinking he would pay me back never again!). So I am paying out of pocket (I can only afford part-time school with just 1 full-time job) but at least I won't have to pay for it later. I don't get why you have to be married, have kids, or be 24 to keep from having to use your parents info. The 2 schools I talked to told me it didn't matter that my dad would not give me the info, I still had to have it to apply. What the hell for?!?!? I support myself and my dad can't hold down a job anyway. I would use my moms info but she passed away. Stupid government. I can't even get help because of that. You have to be an orphan for it to matter.

How do you get loans if you can't fill out the FAFSA anyway? Does anyone know?

[busterb]

I just cosigned a loan for my youngest son. $125??.oo something. He said the check would be in this week and I needed to sign. Haven't heard from him, Think maybe they forgot the cosign part on check?

[Clodfobble]

Iggy, how did you show them that your mom passed away? Did you just mark her as such on a form? Perhaps you could claim the same of your father. Do they need to see a death certificate or something?

[melidasaur]

I just consolidated my loans and am in a grace period before I have to start paying them back. Mr. Saur was also in school at the same time, but he got paid to go to school - graduate school stipend - but he also took loans out to not pay for living expenses, but to pay off credit card debt. Yeah, I know that's bad, but we're getting a better interest rate and we're both edumacated now.

I just used my loans for books & tuition, and while they gave me more, I just held on to the extra for other educational expenses (laptop, study abroad).

[Iggy]

Clodfobble, I told them my mom passed and they didn't need anything. But I asked one person about being an orphan and they said they needed proof for that. Maybe they just told me that because they already knew that my dad was alive.

But I don't know if I really want to lie to the government, even if they aren't willing to help. I am going to try and talk to the dean to see if I can get special approval so I don't have to use his info. Sometimes it is tempting to get married just so I won't ever have to deal with it again. But I'm not going to do anything that silly.

I already tried once to get special approval, but the financail aid people told me to talk to the dean, and the dean told me to talk the financial aid office. WTF?

Right now I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to just pay for it myself. I don't want to get my hopes up yet again just to be let down. It is less stressful to just try and do what I can. But I am still bitter about it when I think about it.

The job I got recently has tuition reimbursement so I am trying to take advantage of that while I can. It doesn't help with fees or books, but every little bit helps.

This summer I went to school and paid around $500 for tuition and online fees plus $120 for books and I am only getting back about $200 for reimbursment. But who am I to turn down that money? No way! This is the first semester I have had it so we will see how much it helps.

[LabRat]

I was the first to go to college in my family, so unfortunately we were very ignorant about scholorships/grants etc. I didn't get any, because I didn't try for any. My dad made too much to get me financial aid or to do work study, so I worked at 2-3 part-time jobs thru school. Undergrad, my parents paid tuition using money my parents had managed to save, and I lived at home all 4 years. Graduated with no credit card debt and no loans to repay and had paid off my car loan to boot. Got a full ride and TAship for graduate school, lived at home till I got married then lived in married student hell till graduation. Again, No loans and no credit card debt upon graduation #2.

For my daughter, (and others if there are more) we will contribute as much as we can, but essentially they are going to be on their own for getting scholorships etc. BUT, I a now know A LOT more than my parents did, so she'll be filling out ever grocery store, office supply store and any other type scholarship app there can be found, no matter how small. I didn't know that if you worked for Hy-Vee, you could apply for scholarships, or our bank had scholarships etc. when I went to school, but I do now. Plus, once you are IN school, there are a lot of small ones for different majors or year (frosh/soph etc) specific ones that a department offers. Talk to the academic advisor or profs to find out what is available, and how to apply. My schools had a dedicated web page with all available $$ opportunities, and you can skim it for any applicable. Good Luck.

You'd be amazed what's out there if you just ask.

[melidasaur]

Originally Posted by Iggy

I am going to college now. I can't even apply for federal grant money because my dad refuses (well, not really refuses, but does the "I will do it later" thing and never does it until 2 years too late) to give me his financial info and I am not 24. I don't live with him, haven't since I was 17, and he owes me about $1,200 in past cell phone bills (he didn't have good enough credit to have it in his name so I paid the bills thinking he would pay me back never again!). So I am paying out of pocket (I can only afford part-time school with just 1 full-time job) but at least I won't have to pay for it later. I don't get why you have to be married, have kids, or be 24 to keep from having to use your parents info. The 2 schools I talked to told me it didn't matter that my dad would not give me the info, I still had to have it to apply. What the hell for?!?!? I support myself and my dad can't hold down a job anyway. I would use my moms info but she passed away. Stupid government. I can't even get help because of that. You have to be an orphan for it to matter.

How do you get loans if you can't fill out the FAFSA anyway? Does anyone know?

There has to be a way that you can do it... good luck!

[Trilby]

Anybody ever try the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation? Of course, you have to have a vocation to start with first... I applied for my FAFSA in June---I'll let ya know if it comes through. I might go to school thru the BVR-completely paid for. They re-educate or re-train people...I'm hoping for the 're-educate' part. Looks like it is going to be a "go" but may have to wait until Winter quarter for them to start paying it.

[Iggy]

Well, I guess I haven't been asking the right people because they told me that I had to fill out the FAFSA first, so that they knew that I wasn't going to get a scholership and then go and get a grant or something. I will just have to stop telling people the truth so that I can find a loophole. All of the advisors I talked to seemed too busy to want to talk to me and were irritated that I was taking up their time. Hmmm.... last I knew that was the job of a financial advisor, but maybe its just me. I am just going to have to keep going, at the rate I am going I won't finish school for another 4 years, since I can only go part time. Thanks for your advice though!