Everyone looks forward to turning 18. You finally become an adult and can "do whatever you want to do." Most people look forward to turning 21. You can drink and buy alcohol, rent a car, and enter those obnoxious drawings to Win a Car that are always present in the malls. I am looking forward to turning 24. Why you might ask? Because when I turn 24 the government will finally recognize me as an independent adult.
For the past three years, I have been paying for college tuition, books, and room and board. I buy my own meals, oil changes, clothes, gas, and just about everything else your average adult needs. I work at a Pizza joint where the pay is low and the hours are scarce, but at least I can buy cheap dinner. I am a full-time and then some student who works part-time and saves every penny. So why does the FAFSA ask me about my savings account but doesn't ask me about my spending?
If I could, I would tell that application what my EFC really is. It's zero. Zero, zero, zero. That would tell my college that I need financial aid and make the FAFSA an aid rather than a hindrance.
Why can the FAFSA dig into your personal life- your bank statements, your taxes, your family- but there is no room for explanations. Yes, I have a mom and step-dad and I am the only child in college. Why doesn't it ask "Did your mom finish high school?" or "Did your dad put aside money for your college?" The answers to both would be no. My mom changes jobs constantly working for wages equivalent to high school girls. On top of that, they have never saved a dime of their earnings for themselves, much less thought about my higher education.
I realize that someday I will finish college and probably be making more money than my parents combined. But what happens if I can't afford that last year of school? What happens if my FAFSA holds that EFC over my head and takes away any scholarships I could apply for?
Its so disheartening. I start panicking now that I won't be able to afford the LAW/MBA degree that I am aiming for until after I turn 24. Once I can be treated as an independent adult, they will view me completely differently as far as need even though the only thing that will have changed is my age. If we become adults at 18, and can go to war, buy porn, and buy cigarettes, why can't we get help paying for college?
I know it is an enormous government agency, so it would be nearly impossible for them to investigate every individual situation, but I think a lot of people get stuck in that situation. It is now just assumed that parents help pay for college, but it can't happen that way for a lot of people.
In my case, my parents had been impoverished up until a year and a half before I went to college, so they were playing catch up on a lot of things. There was no savings, there were no investments. Their tax forms did not reflect this, and there was no way to prove otherwise. The best thing they could have done for me was to quit claiming me on their taxes, but they didn't want to give up the tax break. They were too short sighted to see that the small break I gave them was a drop in the bucket compared to the debt they were giving me. They didn't pay for anything, but the government believed that they did. Now I have several thousand dollars left to pay, after paying for ten years. Add graduate school loans to that, and subtract it by a teacher's salary, and I'll be paying for my education until...oh, retirement. Boo.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
You're treated as an adult for financial purposes when you go to graduate school. You are completely independent from your parents at that point. Or so the medical schools tell me. Might have something to do with the fact that most people going to medical school are 24 or older.
~C
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Hey-
I hope you're right about the grad school thing. I go to the University of Idaho and they offer a concurrent Law/MBA degree. It takes four years and I was figuring that at least the second two years I might get aid. If we count as independent as grad students then that really brightens my day. :)
Good point. I'm currently filing for the FAFSA and even though I'm paying for college, the whole "parents making over a certain amount of money" thing is KILLING me.
Good luck with the rest of your education.
And happy birthday
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/hugogirl46