<p>Hey everyone.
This is not intended at all to be a "poor me" thread, so i'm sorry if it comes off as whiny.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer this november. He had to have a colostomy put in and had a lengthy hospital stay. He is now undergoing chemo and radiation(but all signs point to a full recovery!)</p>
<p>Here's my question: We normally make like 85kish/year. However, my dad has not worked since he got diagnosed so we lost his income(around 12k/year). We also have a ton of hosptial bills(totaling over 40k). How will this affect finaid at "full need" schools? I know the loss of income will be addressed, but will the new debt?</p>
<p>I've emailed all my schools and they said they'd be willing to negotiate packages in april given the circumstances, I just want to get an idea of what(if anything) to expect</p>
<p>Thanks!!!!</p>
<p>EDIT: We are saving ALL bills, forms, etc so we can show this to financial aid officers(as we were instructed to do so)</p>
<p>First, my wishes for a full and rapid recovery for your father.</p>
<p>Regarding aid, try to keep copies of bills and any other relevant information. A good friend of mine who has cancer and whose son is at a full-need school has been able to renegotiate aid, but the FA office has asked for a lot of documentation of costs and income.</p>
<p>thanks…We’re doing that(so i edited my first post to include that info)</p>
<p>We had a special circumstances adjustment for high medical bills my daughter’s first year of college. We had to provide copies of all my husbands the medical bills and our FA officer also told us to include all the medical bills/prescriptions/medical insurance premiums for the entire family. They went through and decided what would be allowed Once they approved the adjustment they reduced our income on FAFSA and the new #s were run through FAFSA and new EFC was calculated. This was not a full need school but it did make my daughter eligible for more federal grants than she would have been before the adjustment.</p>
<p>Prayers for a complete recovery for your dad! </p>
<p>Schools generally will take this into consideration. Be sure to make all of your schools aware of this.</p>
<p>Complete your FAFSA using actual info from 2009. Contact each school to ask about a special circumstances review (policies vary by school). There is a medical bill allowance built into the EFC formula. Many schools will adjust available income downward by the amount of the bills that exceed this allowance. This in turn would reduce the EFC.</p>
<p>Best wishes for a quick recovery for your dad.</p>