Please Help!

Paying for College
1

<p>Both my parents are self employed and in the beginning of the year we were doing fine. However, my father's health is completely a mess now, and my mom's business is not doing so great. (We sold our old business last year 2005 to buy our new business).</p>

<p>My counselor recommended me to fill out an application for the Free and Reduce Lunch Program which I did because our monthly income for the last three months met the guidelines for the program. I've never had free lunch before and this year was our first time. </p>

<p>However, along with the program, my counselor said that I can get waivers for college applications if I get a fee wavier for a test, which I got. </p>

<p>But this is the issue... Will colleges look at my application negatively if I use a college board waiver even though my CSS Profile do not meet the income guidelines? The CSS Profile will examine our whole year... while I need to use those application waviers now because our financial situation has changed. </p>

<p>Should I even risk it??? I really need the 4 application waivers though...</p>

<p>Please help!
Thank you beforehand.</p>

2

<p>use them, I don't think they will really care and, in some cases, there are programs to try to bring in low income kids, so if your new income is low enough, some schools may want you!</p>

3

<p>Yea, a lot of scholarships want "proof" of financial need, but they don't have firm criteria of what that means. Being able to get these waivers will show "proof" of financial need in my opinion, and when it comes to funding college you have to take advantage of every opportunity you can. If there's opportunity on your application to be specific about your family's financial situation, use it to explain whats going on and why the total year's data isn't necessarily relevent to the current situation.</p>