I hope no one gets upset about me bumping this back, I need somewhere to rant considering this is driving me nuts.
I'm going to a community college, I'm 22, and live in South Carolina. I can't possibly afford more than one class currently because I do not qualify for FAFSA, or Pell Grants. I scheduled a appoint for the youth program a few months ago to meet with someone about some form of financial aid through the school, only to be stopped in the middle of my meeting and hear, "Oh.... you're 22? The cut off is at 21. We have an adult program at the unemployment office though!" I go today to meet with someone, only to be told "Ohhhh.... we work with UNEMPLOYED adults, the first step we do is find them a job... and then we help with their schooling." I just looked at the girls dropped a "f" bomb and said "I guess I'ma have to bite the bullet and apply for student loans."
The problem with FAFSA's is I'm classified by the government as dependent upon my parents until I'm 24, unless I'm emancipated or my parents are deceased. There is no way around that, they do not give a damn that I am living in another state, paying my own bills, and receive nothing from my family. My parents make "too much" money in the governments eyes, but never mind the fact that they are struggling to keep their heads above the water with their own bills. I just feel that the system is way to screwed up, preventing honest hard working people such as myself from actually bettering myself. All I want to do is to go to school and do better with my life. I don't want to be that bitter old woman stuck making sandwiches in a restaurant, I just want a good career, and to live as comfortably as possible.
I'm paying $480 completely out of my own pocket plus some for books for this one class per semester, and I'm getting scared because the program I want to go into has general studies I can knock out while on the waiting list, and it's over 10 classes. I have to either hope I maintain this one class per semester thing catching up, and then when I hit 24 hope that fafsa can help considerably so I can knock out all the general studies quick enough to finish before my name is at the top of the list for clinical so that I get at least one year off from school so I can work full time during that small break in school. I want to save a considerable amount of money so that I can become a full time student and quit my job while doing my clinical, I just have to make sure that I have at least a 3 month cushion to fall back on in my savings in case of a emergency with bills.
I really dislike the rules of financial aid. I think the only other way around FAFSA with my parents is if I get married, they then base it off of my spouses income. But my boyfriend and I are wanting to wait until after we're both through school to do that, and we really want to do it the right way.
Lots of rambling, my mind is in a ton of different places right now. So if my sentences are formed poorly, I really am sorry. I just came home a couple hours ago after my running around in the student services building being turned away, and told all this stuff.. and I just cried. I just want to be able to go to damn school. I don't need the financial aid department to be rude and cut me off in the middle of my sentences, I just want one damn person to be able to answer all of my questions. I don't want someone to cut me off and say "You're in the wrong department, go here." and when I go to that department they say "Now why did they send you to me? Go here." I'm tired of the chase and not getting results. Also, the class I'm taking now, I paid $160 for the book, only to be told later on "OH, you don't need the book." but the bookstore would not refund it. I'm just.... knjdksnjlsdkjkj dklsjf. It's a special edition book exclusively for that school only so I can't really even throw it up for sale for other people elsewhere... and NONE of the instructors in the college I attend actually use this book as I was being told by other students so trying to sell it locally is a joke.
I'm just frustrated, and this is the the college thread... and maybe just maybe some of my fellow American buddies can give me some advice on something if they've run into a similar situation.