New here- What is held against you when applying for Financial AID ?

Paying for College
21

<p>Thank you all, that is very encouraging. I know of another situation that is making me question everything I am hearing on here though. I have a friend, she is really low income, makes about $16,000 a year tops, just bought a house, has 2 kids, one applied to a Tech college in Pittsburgh , I know they did it in JUNE though, but he came away having to pay $15,000 total when his schooling is over. Unless they are giving me wrong details, it seems they wanted to know her income (the mothers), he has NO income at all to contribute, she has 2 kids, this college is ONLY 3 hours a day, he said the total cost was like $35,000 so is getting $20,000 in aid, but that is for 2 years. Which leaves him and her (being VERY low income, I know they get food stamps even), with paying $7,500 a year (divided into 2 years). </p>

<p>What I am wondering is.... Do you think maybe he did not get the aid because he applied TOO late in the year? Is it true that "First come First served" with Goverment aid for college each year? Or maybe this school does not offer much Aid packages. When I heard what HE is responsible for, I was freaked out- with their INcome SOOOO low, I can't imagine what I would get stuck with. So what you you suppose went wrong with this situation? Thank you all for the correspondence here.</p>

22

<p>Don't worry about your friend's situation--- too many variables in play.</p>

<ol>
<li>Get the book</li>
<li>Get out your last year's tax return</li>
<li>Try the financial aid calculator</li>
<li>Start applying to colleges with your son</li>
<li>Apply lessons learned from the book to your situation going forward</li>
<li>Fill out the FAFSA by the due date (you can do it in several sessions online).</li>
</ol>

23

<p>I accually ordered this book yesterday , it is called "straight talk for paying for college". Below is a link to amazon to read reviews. It seemed like a good one also. I may order another and another by the time he accually goes to college, I have 3 years to think about this. When do you start applying, when they are a Senior- you can't do it earlier than that , can you? </p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/0743241096/0/101/1/none/purchase/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Fr0/104-7286881-6904769%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/0743241096/0/101/1/none/purchase/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Fr0/104-7286881-6904769&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>