Pell is available for 6 years. Did you go to community college for six years?
OP- will your high paying job take you back for two years so you can save up enough money to start paying your loans AND provide a financial cushion going forward?
Why don’t you know your EFC?
What was your adjusted gross income for 2014?
How much do you have in assets/savings?
Thumper, I used pell grant for roughly 1 year. I am quite confused as why I do not recieve any pell grant. I will ask the financial aid office why this is so, thanks for the suggestion.
Blossom, the highpaying job will not initially take me back, but I could work towards it within 6months-a year. But with that being said and with me being 26 with such a degree, I don’t really see this as feasible as I am aiming to get a PhD.
With, say, 2 more years of work, that would essentially make my schooling worthless to me and I’d at that point just quit it altogether.
I really seek to not have to take time off.
Log into your 2015-2016 FAFSA and find the SAR, and locate your EFC.
Also, look at your 1040 and tell us your adjusted gross income for 2014. Maybe you made an error on the FAFSA.
Do you have any IRA / 401K money?
step back from the ledge OP.
You may be aiming to get a PhD but right now you need a plan- a real plan- to finish your BA and pay off your loans.
Why would your schooling be worthless with two more years of work experience?
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Unfortunately, I still have 3 more years of college left. This is my first sophmore semester.
I believe I do not get a pell grant because I had it before in my life when I went to community college. I may have used it all up?
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Your 'high paying job" likely made your EFC too high for a Pell Grant this year.
@bloss, I am too old (IMO) to be taking 2 years off, taking another 2-3 years to get my BS degree, then devoting anywhere from 3-8 years for the PhD. If I can’t afford college now, then I’m not interesting in that process.
@mom2 I do believe the job caused me to miss out on the pell grant my first year, but not sure why I wouldn’t recieve it the second year. Hm. Oh well.
Trying to log into my FaFSA now, but have to find log in, etc.
So we have more suggestions for the idea of taking time off as being the route to go.
EFC: 018810
Your FAFSA EFC has to be less than $5000 to be eligible for even a small Pell Grant. Your $18,000 or so EFC is too high.
What is the cost of attendance at your school, and what aid DID you receive? As an independent sophomore, you should have gotten at least the $6500 Direct Loan plus an additional $4000 in Direct loans because you are independent for financial aid this year. That is $10,500.
Did you get any additional,aid?
What is the cost of attendance fo your college yearly?
You are spot on with the loans, I recieved about $10,500 for federal school loans awarded.
Looking at my fafsa, it makes sense, since I was married jointly filling it out (We are seperated), so that seems to be messing with my reality. On FAFSA it says I made 64,000 when in reality, I made less than 10,000.
Cost of college is around 13,000 for semester, and when I fill out private loans, they say that I should have to cover 11,000.
So total cost of school life is estimated around 24,000. Loan services suggest for me to take out 11,000.
No other additional aid.
Are you legally separated now? If so, take some supporting documentation to your financial,aid office that supports this. This could be a lease held by your former spouse for a different living place,plus utilities in her name. You would,have to show evidence that you also have a separate living place.
Take your w-2 forms, and your 2014 tax return with you. You need to show them what YOUR actual income was for the 2014 year.
Were you separated when you filed your FAFSA?
Are you divorced now?
How many months did you live apart in 2014?
Maybe @kelsmom can give advice on whether you can get your EFC adjusted through professional judgment to reflect your income of $10k only.
But really…how did you think you were going to pay for college this year?
At this point, this school is not affordable for you.
@Thumper, yes we were seperated at time of FAFSa, and it would be easy to provide that documentation. I will do those things.
@Madison, no I am not officially divorced, we are in the process of that at some point.
We lived apart all of 2014.
@Thumper, I don’t understand how something like school could not be affordable. I guess I am a wishful thinker. It just seems ridiculous that I could succeed well in school and not be able to make it through.
The school is not affordable because you have no income and no way to pay for the costs to attend.
If you were separated all of 2014, you should have filed your FAFSA as separated…and included only your income and assets.
@kelsmom what does this student need to do to show that he was separated for all of 2014, and that his spouses income needs to be deleted?
To the OP…you need to discuss this with the financial,aid advisor at your school. You will need to provide serious documentation if you were really separated all of 2014. The school will want proof that you are not just saying this for financial aid gain (which would be fraud, by the way).
Any other information that has been omitted in this story?
I agree with Blossom…you need to,figure out your bachelors first. For now…forget about graduate studies. Take one step,at a time.
Well, then who do you think should pay for your tuition, books, rent, food, clothing, shampoo, toothpaste, dental floss, health insurance? The taxpayers?
A college education is a luxury, not a necessity.
You can’t always get what you want.
Financial well being? First lesson…live within your means. That means you can only get things and pay for things IF you have the money to do so.
You would not be the first student who worked full or part time, and went to school part time to complete a bachelors degree. My husband got his bachelors degree when he was 30 years old…working and going to school part time for a while…and then doing a co-op program though his four year university.
We didn’t have the money for him to attend school full time initially. So guess what? He worked and also went to college.
Like you, he started out at a CC. Nothing wrong with that either.
You are caught up with wanting to finish ASAP as if that is the only option for getting a bachelors degree. It’s not. Thousands upon thousands of college students attend school part time, and take a long time to complete their degrees…because financially they have no choice but to do so.
Thanks for the chat, guys. It seems like some of my fears are confirmed. I will likely find a way to make it work by sacrificing a lot.
Cheers for all of your help.
You seem to be missing some important advice!
Make an appointment with a financial aid office employee at your school to explain that you were separated for all of 2014, only earned 10,000 and you are requesting professional judgement to have your spouse’s income excluded from your FAFSA. You may then end up with additional aid from the Pell grant.
At the very least, you probably should NOT use Married Filing Jointly filing status for your 2015 tax returns.