<p>I’M SO GLAD TO SEE THINGS WORKED OUT FOR YOU! WAY TO GO!!</p>
<p>I didn’t know about the whole aid lowering if you work too much thing. I understand where you’re coming from iamjbo. I just turned 24 in August and I was supposed to attending school in August but due to a lack of funds, I wasn’t able to. I’ve been to college before. I attended the Art Institute and after about nine months, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted. I went to a CC for Japanese 1 and 2 and now I’m taking a full load at a CC with just GE’s while also working full time. My predicament is that the school I applied to is Temple University, Japan Campus. It’s a branch school of Temple University in Philly but it’s located in Tokyo so I can spend my whole fours years in Tokyo earning my degree. The school is fully accredited in the US and Japan. I looked all over the web for aid and although there’s a lot I qualify for (I’m a low-income black female), the school has to be located in the States for me to receive the money and that’s my only pitfall. The school itself doesn’t qualify. Not even for the Perkins loan or FEOSG. I was over $16,000 short. I’ve contacted family and no one can help. I don’t have very good credit but I’m working on it and I actually don’t have ALOT of debt, just enough to be denied everything. It was my own stupid fault for trusting my sister back when I was 18 and she’s 12 years older than me! She messed up my credit before I had a chance to do anything with it. That’s a long story though and most of it I didn’t even know about until it was too late. Anyway, I’m trying again for the spring but the deadline for everything is Oct. 1st and I don’t think I’ll make it with the difficulty I’m having in finding funds. If this just utterly fails, I’m going to try for Middlebury for fall 08 which is renowned for its fantastic language programs. But, to be fair, you it had a bit rougher than me. I don’t have the best habits when it comes to money and I’m definitely due for a reality check with that despite the numerous ones life has thrown at me. Either way, even if I change my habits, that still won’t provide me enough aid for a whole year. I’m required to have at least $20,000 to get a visa and that covers my expenses for the whole school year. I live in LA so I can’t just go visit the school whenever I have a problem. I called the aid office about my situation and they said they couldn’t do anything for me. Also, study abroad aid isn’t really an option either because it’s always for students who attend school here but go abroad for a semester or year and come back home. I’d actually be obtaining my degree over in Japan the entire time.</p>
<p>Anyway, enough rambling though. Beside the obvious advice (change spending habits, save more, because I’m working on it) if anyone knows of grants, scholarships, etc, for someone like me, it’d be greatly appreciated. I’ve been looking all over and always come up short due to school location despite the fact that the money goes through the main school which is in Philly.</p>