FAP894: FAFSA, Facebook, eBooks, Free stuff

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FAP894: FAFSA, Facebook, eBooks, Free stuff

9 January 2009 1 views No Comment

FAP894: FAFSA, Facebook, eBooks, Free stuff

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Weekly Financial Aid Roundup

The 2009-2010 FAFSA is now available for filing. Get going by grabbing our free FAFSA eBook and getting your application in as soon as possible.

One note on the eBook, the FAFSA web application has absolutely no line numbers, which at least one person has said makes the guide a little harder. I’ve updated the eBook so that it includes the FAFSA on the web worksheets, which are the questions from the online application cross-referenced with the paper application. This should help some.

Are you registered for the February 15 episode of Sunday Night Financial Aid?

Financial aid offices busier than ever.

Featured Scholarships

Scholarship Search Secrets Fifth Edition is available now!

Mail Bag

TONS of mail in the mail bag this week. Two that stood out:

Ron wrote in:

I am trying to help a friend of mine’s daughter to apply for college financial aid. Her situation is unique as most are that post here it seems. I could not find any comments similar to her situation so I will go ahead and post even though I can almost guess what you are going to tell me just from reading the other posts. The girl is a Sr. in high school with very good grades and above average ACT. She currently lives at home but plans to move to the town where she plans to attend college in the Fall. Her Father was incarcerated in Nov. 2008 and is not expected to be released until several years after this girl will finish college so his financial contribution is zero. He did hawever have income in most of 2008 and supported the family entirely with his income–i.e. the Mother did not work in 2008. In fact, she is still unemployed and her prospects for a full time job are not real good as I write to you. She has taken in other people to help with rent and other expenses to help survive. The daughter and one of her brothers work in addition to going to high school and they both are required to pay a certain amount each payday to their mother to help out. She is applying for help from the Federal govt. programs (Food Stamps, etc.) but that is taking along time and that probably won’t be much $$ in the end.

So the situation is that when Fall comes and she moves away to college–she will support herself with work and financial aid help to attend school. How do you advise addressing the completion of the FAFSA application with the significant loss in income from 2008 going forward and how can I help this girl establish independent status so that a fair financial picture of her situation can be made? We are meeting with the college financial aid office next week–can you give me any tips to help me with her in those discussions? Thanks!! Look forward to hearing from you!

A few things. First, in the 2009-2010 FAFSA, the mother should indicate dislocated worker status which will help with some of the simplified needs tests for more aid. That’s in the parental section. For the father’s income, that will count against her but the school’s financial aid officer should be able, based on circumstances, to do a professional judgement override for future earnings and income, as this is definitely a different situation than normal. The faster the mother can get qualified for TANF or other programs, the better, as that will help with additional simplification of the FAFSA.

Nadeau writes in:

I’m a 26 year old high school drop out who recently enrolled in an adult education prog and obtained a hs diploma. I want to enroll in my local community college and don’t know where to start, nor do I have a lot of cash on hand. I dont have family to help me with this. Do you have any podcasts on, “where/how to start”?

First of all, I congratulate and salute your willingness to pick up where you left off. That takes a tremendous amount of resolve and determination.

For local community colleges, the first place you want to go is the FAFSA. Get it done, get it in. Then start Googling for returning student and non-traditional student scholarships. The good news is that community college is relatively inexpensive and still has great instructors. Plan to work if you can during school.

Also, I’d take the time once you do the FAFSA and associated paperwork to pay your school financial aid office a visit and get to know someone there on a personal level. Explain to them where you’re coming from and see what resources they may know about that can help you.

Free Stuff Friday

Match.com 3 day free trial

Free sample of cream of wheat.

Free download of Good Lovin by Slim on iTunes.

Picasa for the Mac.

Burger King Whopper Sacrifice. Weird, but hey, free food.

Free software from Microsoft.

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(Premium Latin Music)

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