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Any tips for college students on financial aid? please give!

D

desiplaya4life

Golden Member
i am going thru another crisis of financing my ass in college... so i am applying thru diff places (first being fafsa.ed.gov) and more on later...

one question i wanted to know is that if you work will it make it alot of diff where u are more proned to not get any financial aid from government.. ? should i just stay home to get aid? my parents brought up that issue and got me thinking... they telling me not to work😕


secondly what are the best way to get grants/aid? any website that offers links and tips on applying for one?

i will post more as more ideas/question come into mind!

thanks guys!
 
pray
because nothing else seems to work

i didnt get any aid as well and my college cost 34K a year, i owe a bank so much money 🙁
 
1. how old are you
2. are you still considered a dependent by your parents
3. if you are applying for THIS fall NOW, you will not receive any grants as they have most likely already been distributed.

there are no best ways to get grants/aid either than making below what the federal gov't and state gov't deems for those who need assistance. if your parents make above that, then you will be screwed and will only be given loans.

what you do is apply through fafsa first. then your school will send you a financial aid offer, telling you what you qualify for, i.e. grants/work study/unsubsidized loans/subsidized loans. if you need the money you will need to accept the offer before school starts.

if you make a lot of money on your own you might be considered ot have a higher personal contribution. if your parents make a lot of money they will be expected to have a higher family contribution. if you make a lot of money, just forget the financial aid, as you will most likely be given loans.

if your family won't help you at all but you are still considered a dependent, you have to talk to your school's financial aid office to see what they can do for you.

staying home does not make a difference, and won't cause you to get more or less aid. you will just be expected to not require as much money to make it through a school year compared to someone in the dorms or living off campus in an apt.

you can work, especially if you get work study. if you make a LOT of money like i said you could probably have a higher personal contribution. if you don't make a lot your personal contribution will be less.

are you going to a public or private school?
 
Fafsa rejected my ass so I had to do sallymay (dont know how to spell it) .. and also banks give out loans, bankofamerica.com has a good loan program
 
Some of the above is correct and some is wrong.

FASFA Pell Grants - that is the one you want (good amount and no paying it back).

You will need to prove that you support yourself - not supported by parents, that helps A LOT! Usually they don't look at that until you're rejected because of parents' income.

1. Apply (make sure you only have about $50 in your checking/savings account when you do
2. get rejected because of income of parents
3. Contest it at the colleges financial aide department and just prove that you support yourself and pay your own way
4. Check comes in the mail.
 
wow first of all THANKS guys for so much info...

Killykillall,

yea except for living w/ my parents, i pay for EVERYTHING even food cuz i am always out here and there .... can you kindly gimme a link to more onfo on this fafsa pell grant? never heard of this b4


i called fafsa hotline this evening, and they said they will check my 2003 tax report (i earned about 4g a yr🙁) and if i live dependent.. well how could i prove that? my driver license for one thing has my aunt's address instead of mine (for insurance purposes) ... is there a loop to show that i support my self?


and as for other info, i am right now going to jr.college to take all my basic classes (my lsat yr here) and then i will transfer next yr to a public university (as a junior).

so it is OK to work right? i dunno why my parents are bs'in about not to work and stay home for them to think that i need financial aid ...i was like :roll: yea give up on my necssities and the little to non leisure i have aside from school/work...


please keep more coming


and karenmarie thank you for the links! i will check these out!:thumbsup:🙂
 
I believe when you apply for FAFSA they will give a list of aid you are applicable to, which includes loans, scholarships and grants (the Pell Grant you wanted). So go ahead and apply and wait to see what you are offered. (meaning: you can't really just apply for Pell Grant, they will make that decision)
 
4g isn't that much. i've earned more than that in a year and they'd always expect my "personal" contribution to be about 1k a year.

they will check to see if you have been claimed as a dependent on anyone else's tax return. but if you're under 24 or not married its difficult to claim yourself as independent. my parents always had that same notion for me and it is just too hard if you are not legally emancipated or married.

on january 2nd or 3rd the new fafsa application should be out. fill that out asap to make sure you don't miss any of the deadlines for your state. i know for example in CA if you don't turn yours in by march 2nd i think you will miss out the deadlines for many of the grants. you will however need to have your parents income and your income for the year before, but just make sure you get it in before the priority deadline.

and once again, they base grants based on income.

killykillall has an interesting method of doing it, but you most likely won't get a check with no strings attached. my bf wanted to go back and get a second bachelor's and they said until you turn 24 or are married, even for a second bachelor's, they will still look at your parents income for financial aid. (it's graduate degrees they won't look at it.) the schools did say that if your parents would not support you, you could go to the financial aid office and have them try to turn it into loans or other types of aid (most likely not grants, depends on the school and what's available.) be prepared for student loans!

student loans aren't bad, its worse when you want to go to grad school - i.e. law school, when the costs are nuts.

the school you are looking to transfer to should have a financial aid office too that can answer your questions.
 
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