Autumn is Asking for Help with FAFSA

[longskirts]

autiemautie.blogspot.com

Anyone have ideas? I don't know why she's not considered independent by the school since from her blog posts it doesn't sound like her parents give her any financial support.

[longskirts]

And if her parents have enough income that she wouldn't qualify for Pell grants while their dependent but they're still not willing to give her any financial help, I am even less impressed with them than before.

[browncoatslytherin]

autiemautie.blogspot.com

Anyone have ideas? I don't know why she's not considered independent by the school since from her blog posts it doesn't sound like her parents give her any financial support.

she's not 24, that's the problem. i was in the same situation as far as support from parents went, but because i wasn't 24 i was still forced to list their income on my application. she must have somehow gotten a military status assigned to her on her former application and that's the only reason she mistakenly got it in the first place. i know, it's stupid, it's ridiculous. i went through the exact same shit. i moved out of my parent's house at 19, was not supported by them at all, filed my own taxes and everything, wasn't a dependent, nothing. didn't matter, i wasn't 24. so the only solution is going to be to wait. i had to do the same. it sucks. :(

so ridiculous when people say, "just go to school!" uh, school ain't inexpensive, and unless you can qualify for a bunch of shit, you ain't gonna be able to do it. i hated when i felt like i was looked down at for my nigh-homeless situation, but there was literally nothing else i could do! i exhausted all of my avenues, but i couldn't qualify for enough aide without the fafsa backing me up.

at this point, the only thing she might be able to do to get through school is get loans herself, if she can qualify.

[Grimalkin]

Is it worth only taking one class at a time at a community college until she is 24? One class is doable while working and hopefully she could afford that. I did not read the article it was slow to load.

[nolongerIFBx]

Is it worth only taking one class at a time at a community college until she is 24? One class is doable while working and hopefully she could afford that. I did not read the article it was slow to load.

That's what I would say too. Then time isn't being "wasted" even if she has to get her education at a slower pace than she would like-- finishing my 10th year this semester, but finally done!

[Eponine]

I'm a financial aid counselor. We get students all the time who logically should be independent, but the government doesn't consider them as such.

It would not matter if she's divorced, because the marital status question that grants independent is just a yes/no "Are you married as of today?" There is another question that asks what a student's marital status is (single/married/divorced or separated) but it doesn't determine independence.

Two of the questions that DO determine independence, however are: "Are you on active duty in the US military?" and "Are you a veteran of the US armed forces?" If she accidentally answered "yes" to either of these she would automatically be considered independent. At my school we always ask for proof for a "yes" answer to those questions because a surprising number of people will say "yes" when it's not really the case. I've seen it many times. The school really should have double checked that, especially if she wasn't getting any military benefits.

Anyway, all is not lost! Although I don't know this blogger or if her situation fits, here is how she can gain independence in terms of the FAFSA: if she supports herself (or if a non-parent family member or other person supports her) AND if she has not had contact with her parents in a few years and can prove this OR had a traumatic break with her parents she can ask the school for a dependency override, where the school can use "professional judgment" to say she's independent. The others ways my school does this (although I'm not sure this is true for every school) is if she gets government benefits in her own name, or if she can document some kind of abuse/neglect from her parents (we require 3 neutral sources like a social worker, counselor, law enforcement, church leader etc).

If none of these cases fit, unfortunately she won't be able to be an independent student. In this case students can put their parents' income figures on the FAFSA and still will at least be entitled to $5500-$7500 in loans (as long as they're taking at least 6 credits per semester, and depending on how many credits they have) at the very least. That can usually cover a few credits.

[browncoatslytherin]

Anyway, all is not lost! Although I don't know this blogger or if her situation fits, here is how she can gain independence in terms of the FAFSA: if she supports herself (or if a non-parent family member or other person supports her) AND if she has not had contact with her parents in a few years and can prove this OR had a traumatic break with her parents she can ask the school for a dependency override, where the school can use "professional judgment" to say she's independent. The others ways my school does this (although I'm not sure this is true for every school) is if she gets government benefits in her own name, or if she can document some kind of abuse/neglect from her parents (we require 3 neutral sources like a social worker, counselor, law enforcement, church leader etc).

i hope her school could do this! the schools i tried with were basically like "too bad, so sad." one of them just brushed me off, but the second one really tried to figure something out and work with me, but just couldn't get anything done, so i'm thinking this isn't able to be done in every school. :( it would be cool if she could, though! hell i wish i could have done it!

[Eponine]

i hope her school could do this! the schools i tried with were basically like "too bad, so sad." one of them just brushed me off, but the second one really tried to figure something out and work with me, but just couldn't get anything done, so i'm thinking this isn't able to be done in every school. :( it would be cool if she could, though! hell i wish i could have done it!

All Title IV schools have some capacity to do this. It's just a question of what kinds of documentation/proof they require, and what types of cases they do it for. I would guess larger schools simply don't have the resources to do it for all but the most extreme cases: we do a few each year and it usually takes at least a couple months of waiting, follow up, back-and-forth with the student and whatever agencies they need documents from. Normally it takes about 4 months to complete a case at my school unless it's very straightforward.

[lilwriter85]

Is it worth only taking one class at a time at a community college until she is 24? One class is doable while working and hopefully she could afford that. I did not read the article it was slow to load.

I've known a few people that done similar things. She could maybe take 2 or 3 classes per semester at a CC depending on the costs. My cousin did that until she turned 24. My parents live near an elderly woman whose grandson will be turning 24 next year. He did go to college for awhile right out of high school, but he decided to work full time to save up money for college. He lives with his grandmother which also helps him save money. He also knows FAFSA will kick in for him.

[BrownieMomma]

After all my own recent experience as a fairly recent college grad, I agree that taking a class a semester is a viable option. I would highly recommend this, hopefully would cut down on the necessity for student loans.

If she can get employed by a govt entity, or a good private employer, she could even get herself set up for a really sweet situation by being vested in retirement program (before starting school at 24 even), then if the employer has tuition benefit she could possibly be graduated by the time she's 30, have ten or more years of work experience and probably pretty much write her own ticket.

Ofc she might have to make choices such as dating, marriage, kids along the way.

[Black Aliss]

Maybe I didn't read her blog correctly, but I got the impression that this has nothing to do with her current status, but that the school will not allow her to enroll in any further classes (or receive financial aid for same) until she has paid back everything she borrowed under a previous application, even though the clerical error was probably not hers. I'm sure that also means there's a freeze on her records, so trying to take classes at a CC that have pre-reqs she fulfilled earlier would also be out of the question.

[Eponine]

Maybe I didn't read her blog correctly, but I got the impression that this has nothing to do with her current status, but that the school will not allow her to enroll in any further classes (or receive financial aid for same) until she has paid back everything she borrowed under a previous application, even though the clerical error was probably not hers. I'm sure that also means there's a freeze on her records, so trying to take classes at a CC that have pre-reqs she fulfilled earlier would also be out of the question.

Her problem is that the school retroactively removed the Pell grant from her account because it turned out she was never eligible for it (very likely this WAS her error, but it's an easy one to make and the school should have checked it out - see what I said above). The removal made it so that now she has a back balance for that period of time, putting a hold on any registering for classes or even getting her transcripts. So you're right, if she went somewhere else and needed her transcripts for a new program she would not be able to get them.

But her ongoing issue is that it sounds like she won't be eligible for the Pell grant even if she were able to pay that back balance - at least not until she can be independent by age. Does anyone know the situation with her parents? Is it that they make enough money to make her ineligible, or that she's not in contact with them anymore?

[longskirts]

She is still in contact with them. I don't know how much they make, but she has always said she has to finance college 100% on her own. I don't know if that's because they don't make much and can't spare anything to help her, or because they just don't want to help. I suspect it may be they don't want to because they have always strongly discouraged college for her.

[treemom]

She is still in contact with them. I don't know how much they make, but she has always said she has to finance college 100% on her own. I don't know if that's because they don't make much and can't spare anything to help her, or because they just don't want to help. I suspect it may be they don't want to because they have always strongly discouraged college for her.

I think their views have changed considerably since the child marriage. I am not sure this is an accurate statement. I believe her brother financed his way through college through scholarships.

As much as I don't love their version of Christianity it isn't at all like the reformed version they practiced all those years ago. It could be true they don't want to because she is female...but I don't think it is that.

I have no advice for her. But it does suck.

[longskirts]

Even after her divorce they were still talking about "training" her to do housework. I know they dropped some specific doctrines and switched churches but I don't think they became so enlightened as people assume.

[treemom]

Even after her divorce they were still talking about "training" her to do housework. I know they dropped some specific doctrines and switched churches but I don't think they became so enlightened as people assume.

I don't recall that. We do know they have gotten more private and there has not been any further criticism of college for women or a need to live under fathers protection in the last couple of years.

I wouldn't call them enlightened, I'm just not sure that are as rabid anymore.

[Palimpsest]

I wouldn't call them enlightened either. Nor do I remember the bit about training Autumn to do housework after the divorce. Far from it. Perhaps the person who posted that was mistaken.

Tracy earned my respect when they a) supported Autumn when they realized she was being abused (how sad is it that we praise Fundies for that basic instinct to protect a child from harm?) and b) acknowledged that they were wrong and seemingly adjusted their ideas a little.

They seem to be supporting Autumn emotionally these days. They may not be able to support her financially in her quest for further education because they never anticipated the need. Thanks to their own brainwashing and the demands of other children.

I think Autumn needs the support and company of her parents/family - she went through hell and back - so it is rather sad that to prove independence she would have to show evidence of DV and/or estrangement from them. But then I don't understand the Pell rules. Perhaps there are loopholes/

[knit1purl1]

I'm not a FAFSA expert by any means but my husband is back in school working on his third career so FAFSA is something I'm fairly well acquainted with on the receiving end.

Both the website and the paper application make it pretty clear that you, the applicant, are responsible for the truth and accuracy of the form and that if its found that something was falsely recorded after you received a financial reward, you, the applicant, are on the hook for however much money you received in grants. Unfortunately, until she can pay that money back, she's not going to be able to get anything else, regardless of her age.

Are her parents college grads? There's a much less well known program for first generation college students (neither parent has a college degree) called TRIO (so called because it is a trio of programs aimed at specific student populations) that offers academic and career support and sometimes scholarships. But she will need to be in good standing with FAFSA/attending at least a community college to be eligible for TRIO. So really, she needs to figure out how to get the Pell Grant off her back.

Depending on the degree she is working on and her future earning potential, it **might** be worth taking out a student loan through a private lender to pay back Pell with, reapply for FAFSA, and talk to her financial aid department or academic councillor about TRIO eligibility.

[lawfulevil]

One sympathizes- my parents are well-off and helped my siblings get through private undergrad (Sewanee and Tulane). I've been on my own since I was 18, but I still couldn't get shit til 24.