1- if you don’t hear back from the FA office, call them. This happens all the time to incoming and current students, and they will have procedures.
2- ask your mom when she will file her 2025 taxes and if she has all the supporting documentation in case the FA office wants that. This will be helpful to know if they ask.
3- look at the actual costs you will be billed. Sometimes there are personal expenses and other things that you may or may not need to spend.
4- pay particular attention to health insurance and how you will be covered. By mom? School’s plan? This could affect the cost structure.
5- working in college is a type of professional development. If you’ve never had a job, working during the school year or over the summer will improve your chances at internships and other jobs. You need to help your mother understand this. In financial terms it’s reasonable to expect to earn 5k or so in a summer. Not familiar with the specifics but this is likely a school that helps with attractive work options and that’s part of the draw. It’d be a shame to waste that.
6- you say in one post you have 100k in assets but in another that you don’t have assets…
7- using the loans wouldn’t be the worst thing and would help you smooth out the costs. It might just be the first year anyway
8- does your mom know about the American opportunity tax credit? That’s $4k/ year for 4 years.
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I think they just have to be mailed by 1/31. I received some today (although some are now sent by email or are available online before they mail them).
If your mother’s income was significantly different in 2025, you can ask for the financial aid office to review and they might be able to do an override. You might not get any more school money, but you may qualify for subsidized student loans and that could save you a lot in student loan interest while you are in school. I didn’t want my kids to take student loans either, but it sure made things a lot easier in years 2-4. They only borrowed what they really needed. Try to keep it to a minimum, but don’t struggle so much with money that you struggle to live.
You can get some type of job. IMO, ALL college kids waste at least 10 hours a week and you can learn to budget those 10 hours at a job on campus. Until then, you should be planning on a summer job or maybe even one this spring. Maybe you only work on Saturdays, or maybe you work 4 to 8 two afternoons per week. Here, minimum wage is $20/hr, so you could be making $100 or more per week without too many hours.
Honestly, if you don’t work at all until you are 20, it is going to be a hard adjustment. Both my kids loved working for professors in their majors, and one is still doing research for one professor - and she graduated 3 years ago! She loves it.
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