I’ve had a difficult past few years. I won’t go into detail but will say that here I am, holding a Pennsylvania GED diploma. Supposed to be finishing my senior year of high school and applying at my local community college. I’ve been working for 3 years full time while in school only to drop out during my second semester of senior year.
I’m not worried about my academic choices, I’ve become a more focused person and can fix that. My main concern is how my fairly large income will affect my chances at good financial aid and federal loans.
In 2014 I made $16000 and my mother made $28,000, no money was saved for college… I’ve filled out the fasts and have to meet with the financial aid office at my community college.
I thought I needed to work. But I worked for material possessions and not for my education. Now I’m afraid my waisted money will affect my financial aid. I’m prepared for federal loans but I’m afraid I will not get enough to sustain myself during school because my parents cannot afford to keep up the household, traort me to classes, or pay for a car for me. It might not be long before they are unable to have me living with them so I will have to take my financial aid towards independent living expenses.
I can’t work at the level I have been and be in school and I’m afraid I won’t be able to afford to be in school while I am in school.
Have you filed a FAFSA for 2015-16 school year using the 2014 parent and student data? If so you will get a SAR (Student Aid Report) and it will tell you your FAFSA EFC. The EFC will determine what federal grant you can get.
Federal aid you might get
Pell Grant - goes up to 5,775 per academic year. depending on the income and assets
Federal student direct loan - up to 5,500 for freshman year (then 6,500, 7,500 jr and sr year for max of 32,000)
That is usually all that CC students receive. Some states have extra grants depending where you are. Most students will be working a p/t job to make ends meet.
My EFC for 2015-2016 is 5167 I don’t expect my tuition and fees to be more than 3000 with my current understanding of the tuition outline. So if I understand you correctly. I will get little to no aid. Great, I’ll be over here building sandwiches and saying “would you like fries with that” if you need me.
Don’t neglect to read all the information on the college financial aid pages for info on state aid or waivers and any funds the college has available.
Thirsty…if you complete a fafsa, you will be eligible for a Direct Loan.
I did complete a fasfa. Are direct loans non-income based? Bright side I received my pheaa Pa, state grant grant award for the year
Anyone who completes a fafsa is eligible to take out the Direct Loan. It is $5500 for freshman year.
That’s somewhat of a relief. Not saying I want a ton of student debt but I’ve made peace with the fact that my family situation will require me to take on debt. With that being said, I know there is a grace period on student loans for beginning to repay, say I were to take them on during my time at CC and then go to a four year institution. Would the grace period start counting after I graduate with an associates or would it be reset if I were to continue to a bachelors program? This all assuming I graduate with an associates and don’t just transfer before finishing.
As long as you are enrolled in a degree program, I believe half time or more, your loans do not have to be repaid. When you leave school for any reason, you have a six months grace period before repayment starts.
Be sure you understand that some of loans may have interest that starts accruing immediately, so even though you don’t have payments due, you may want to stay ahead of the interest payments.
I’m considering going to graduate school as how, say I take a year off before that. Will I still be required to be paying on leans during graduate school or would that be put on hold once I ended the program
@twoinanddone I’m going to try my best to at least stay on top of the interest
If you take a year off in between undergrad and graduate school, you will be making loan payments for approximately 6-9 months (depending when you start grad school). Once you start graduate school, your loans will be able to be deferred again.
I’m out of concerns for the time being so I just want to thank all of you who helped answer my questions. Much more informative than any Google search I’ve done. So thank you!
You can work this summer and maybe on weekends parttime while in CC. That should help. If you live at home and the tuition is $3,000 it should be doable with minimal loans, especially since you got a state grant also.
Once you go to university it will be harder to pay for, especially if you can’t commute as room and board adds another $10k or so to tuition costs.
Frankly, I think that since you don’t qualify for a Pell Grant (or just a tiny one), you should continue working as much as you can so that you can get a car, even if that means not starting college until Spring or Fall 2016.
Yes, it appears that you may have wasted a bunch of your income, learn from that.
[QUOTE=""]
It might not be long before they are unable to have me living with them so I will have to take my financial aid towards independent living expenses
[/QUOTE]
Ok…this is not the right way to think…and you’d just end up having to work to pay rent and not get your education… It will cost you at least $10k-15k per year to live away from home. It would be better for you and your parents if you just gave them - say - $500 a month towards your food and home expenses. that would be a win/win. They need the money, and you would be able to have food and shelter for $500 a month.
So, in the meantime, keep your job. Work/save as much as you can. Get yourself a RELIABLE but not expensive car.
@mom2collegekids I have a reliable car and insurance is nuts. For the time being I pay our cable/internet bill. I’ve been doing my best to save anything possible so I won’t be hit so hard come fall. At this point I’m only spending on necessities
@thirstybrain ,
[QUOTE=""]
In 2014 I made $16000 and my mother made $28,000, no money was saved for college.. I've filled out the fasts and have to meet with the financial aid office at my community college.
[/QUOTE]
I thought I needed to work. But I worked for material possessions and not for my education. Now I’m afraid my waisted money will affect my financial aid. I’m prepared for federal loans but I’m afraid I will not get enough to sustain myself during school ** because my parents cannot afford to keep up the household, traort me to classes, or pay for a car for me. ** It might not be long before they are unable to have me living with them so I will have to take my financial aid towards independent living expenses.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
glad to hear that you have a car. From the post above, it sounded like you do not.
Again…it’s better for you to pay your parents a few hundred a month for “rent and food” then for you to move out and have to pay for another place.