RL PS re FAFSA

[Sanna]

Real Life Primal Scream regarding Federal Application for Financial Student Aid



When I realized how large this was going to be, I recalled Denmother-sama worrying about her bandwidth, so I'm linking this to a txt on my site.

If someone with an inkling of an idea of how I might can get around this, or if you are willing to be a shoulder for a moment till I calm down, I would be very thankful if you would read this.


bit o unladylike language within, but not too much i guess.

http://www.sannask.com/eq/fafsa-anger.txt


-- Sanna
lost this post once already, sounds stilted the 2nd time around

[Ilona]

I'm very sorry I have no suggestions for you, Sanna, since I'm not from the US.

The only thing I can give you is a big *HUG*

I really, really hope you can get it sorted out.

Does the FinAid Counsellor have no further ideas?

[Xenephex]

FAFSA - ugggh.

My wife went back to school late in life (after we had four kids). Four years of undergrad - 3 years of med school. Which means 7 FAFSA's for me to fill out. Jeez, I hated those things (and yes - we had to hassle the first year to convince them that at age 35 she wasn't going to get her parent's Income Tax information).

But I digress. Advice:

1. You've got to get the FAFSA filed and accepted, even if they end up regarding you as a dependent. You're just trying to get your scholarship money, for which you were previously dependent anyway. It will probably be a bit of a hassle, but present your case this way - here's my FAFSA - my parents will not provide income tax information - shouldn't matter, because I'm willing to be regarded as dependent for FAFSA purposes. That gets you your scholarship. The only other alternative is to appeal to your parents - say "look, I don't want anything from you, but I HAVE to have a copy of your tax forms to stay in school."

2. Unless things have changed massively, there are certain student loans (Stafford? sorry - it's been a while) that are not need-based. Get one of those to supply your spending money. That will leave you with some debt when you graduate, but at least get you past your current problems.

Hope this helps and good luck to you.

[Rhisk]

To be independent

OK, drastic step to automatic independency...

Get married.

OK, I said it was drastic. Let me tell you how I know this. My wife (before we were married) move to Vegas, hang out for a year, she decides to go to UNLV... well, since she is under 20 and all they want parental info to determine eligibility for aid. Well, her parents stopped helping her out finanically when she turned 18 (I am a bad influence, heck, still am after 12 years), we are screwed, or so we thought.

Financial aid officer asks is we are engaged.

We say yes.

She says get married, instant independence and then its figured off your guys' income. We were making chump change... cha-ching instant financial aid.

OK, so she goes to UNLV and is talking to other people about the hassle of getting financial aid, turns out A LOT of people got married for financial aid reasons (we did it cuz we were planning on getting married anyways, so it was a no brainer). Oftentimes the married couple didnt live together, in one case we found a "couple" who had met the day in the financial aid office and went and got married, they were married knowing each other for less than 30 minutes (Vegas, gotta love it).

Long story short (ok, so I babbled thru it). When you get married, the FAFSA people CAN NOT ask for your parents financial information and HAVE to look solely at you and your spouse's finances.

Drastic, but works.

Something to ponder, dont know if it will work.

Good Luck

Rhisk

[Saleani]

A lot of this paperwork bureaucracy stuff is because folks tried dodgy things to get around out of state tuition (number 1 is buying an apartment in the college town and "hiring" the child to manage the (single) apartment). I ended up dropping out of college to have to work for a living because my parents refused to support me in college and refused to cough up tax returns to get financial aid. After going to a police academy, the parents wigged out at the idea of a white sheep in the family (well, do you think a family of 100% black sheep is going to sit there and go baah? especially when they were growing pot at the time), they magically coughed up the money for college. I came close to enlisting in the military for the purpose of getting financial aid for college (took physical, but did not swear in). I don't know if the Army still has 2 year enlistments, and a skill in another language should be helpful if you are remotely interested.

Another possiblity to prove independance from the parental units is to take a leave of absence from the college for a year and work. Do not live with the parents during this time. If you can do this, almost all financial aid councillors will see this as being independent of them.

The IRS rules for independance and the financial aid rules for independance are different.

[Monodon]

You have my sympathy.

I'm a grad student from outside the US.

I reside in the US 100 % of the year, but because i'm a student I can't declare residency and therefore am stuck paying taxes in the US and in my home country.

As if that isn't bad enough my university refuses to fill out my forms for student loan deferal, but would rather write a letter to my student loan peeps saying htat I'm a student (kinda crazy since all they actually have to do is sign the **** thing). Of course that isn't good enough for the student loan peeps, so for the past year I have been paying student loans while attending school resulting in a much diminished income.

Government agencies suck.


/RANT OFF

I hope it works out for you

[Sanna]

hehehe, a friend in the German classes suggested the same thing, that I marry my BF and solve that issue. (The main thing here, aside from insta-writing-out-of-parents-will, is that the particular scholarship instantly cancels upon marriage. Did I mention I hate this @#$%^ state? Stupid inbred b@#$%^&s.)



I'm going to try filling out the online form on Aug 27, one calendar day after I turn 21. Maybe that will help? If not, I guess I just get to deal with having no income. Again.



The one significant problem with this is...
ok, there's 2.

1. My meal plan is only 10 meals a week. I still have another 3-5 meals a week that I have to eat, just for living's sake. IE, I need to go to Walmart, and even if I start another Rice-N-Root-Beer 'diet', that's still a good... say, $15 a month, just to be on the outside.

2. EQ. It's another $13 a month.
(Cue all the 'don't keep playing eq if it's getting in the way of rl' replies. I'm sure if I got hungry enough, I'd stop. ^_^)


.... heh, too bad my artistry skills suck, or I could try to sell commissions of EQ Charactors online. hehehehehhe. What can be done, I wonder? I write a comic, but no one would give me money for that, even.

Oh, look, did I just hijack my own thread?

I guess I'll post an update after the 26th, see if being 21 helps anything at all. (probably not, the [grumble deleted bad words and unkind references to questionable parentage].)

thanks for support tho.

-- sanna
I thought, as I got older, the BS would go away as the people around me started maturing.
anyone still wondering why I hate reality?

[Lilosh]

I thought, as I got older, the BS would go away as the people around me started maturing.
anyone still wondering why I hate reality? [/B]

One of the great lies of childhood.

Everything gets better when you're older, since people mature.

It seems the same jerks who used to bully the playground now have Football Scholarships, Uncles who run the Company, or more money then God himself.


And , for what it's worth, I hate reality too.


-Lilosh