Recent Major job change and financial aid

Paying for College Financial Aid (Need-Based, Merit Aid, Loans)
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My son applied to and was accepted to George Washington for Fall 2026. He graduated HS 2024 and has been taking classes at Arizona State University online via his job at Starbucks. He was originally waitlisted at GW when he applied originally for Fall 2025. Accepted at several other schools but for financial reasons decided to start with ASU via Starbucks. We just completed the CSS profile and submitted all our docs. Here is our situation:

My husband has been out of work since having his first Tonic Clonic seizure 8/29/25. He just had his last one on Monday and Dr. now wants him seizure free for 6 months before considering releasing him back to work. Though the further we get into this, the Neurologist is saying it is highly unlikely he will be able to return to his Blue-Collar Career, now being diagnosed with Epilepsy. He is in the Fire protection industry where he inspects and repairs Fire Sprinklers at places like Federal buildings, Jails, Condo complexes and other commercial buildings like stores in the SF Bay Area. With the physical aspect of being in confined spaces, around dangerous machinery and working with very high heights in commercial buildings, along with the memory issues and also having Focal Seizures where he spaces out and isn’t aware he did after it happens. That could all lead to dangerous situations where other lives are put at risk if he makes a mistake on the job. He will likely have to transition to a new career, and at his age and lack of office/computer skills, that will likely leave his pay significantly below what he was making.

When submitting the CSS profile, they wanted 2024 income. Which is significant. I was expecting to have to submit 2025 which was quite a bit less. For 2026, I highly doubt he will have returned to work. He will likely be on disability pay the whole year, well at least state disability through end of August and possibly nothing while we figure out next steps with Federal Disability. Will the school take this into consideration when processing Financial Need aid? P.S. there was no Merit Aid listed in his acceptance letter, not sure if that is because he would be a transfer? His ASU GPA has been 3.8 so far and his HS GPA was similar. Any thoughts? Or advice?

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I would contact the school’s Office of Financial Aid directly.

3 Likes
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GW doesn’t commit to meeting full need - but you can appeal. This is for continuing students, not transfers - but the process might be smilar.

But as @happy1 says, call an aid counselor and ask. It says 45 days on what they wrote below but the form says 2-4 weeks. And perhaps you need to have an alternative at the ready, in case it doesn’t work out for you.

Some families experience an unexpected change to their household income during the course of an academic year after the completion of their financial aid application. We allow appeals of a student’s financial aid package based upon a review of submitted documentation and funding limits. Some common occurrences that can cause a change to household include:

  • Loss of employment for 10 weeks or longer

  • Reduction in salary or wages

  • Medical expenses that are not covered by insurance

  • Uninsured losses or funeral expenses

  • Catastrophic property damage

  • Recent change in marital status

Students or parents may appeal by submitting an Appeal Form for the appropriate academic year. Please allow 45 business days for processing.