"Lower Income Moms" September 2007 Support - Page 16

[beansmama]

Originally Posted by zersha

Actually that sounds about right for financial aid if you didn't make the deadline for any state grants available. The pell grant is based on the # of credits you take, so it may have gone down if he went to 3/4 time or 1/2 time. (usually 9-6 credits respectively). My dh makes about the income you stated, but we are family of 5 so had no financial responsibility, but most of the financial aid was still loans.

No, dh is going more than full time. That's the full grant.

I guess we did apply late...because he lost his job in august with NO warning, they just closed down, and he didn't plan on going back to school before that...so yep, very late...BUT -

I actually applied for fin aid around the begining of the year for this school (through a fafsa) and i NEVER heard back from them. No SAR or anything...so i don't know what THAT was all about - but i guess it is my fault for not following through.

[rosie_plus_one]

Re: Financial Aid

I applied at the start of January, a single mom with 2 kids, reported about $16,000 in income for the year before, and I only got a few thousand dollars of pell grant money. Even after I took the subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, I had a balance to pay for my tuition. I still need to come up with the money for my books.

[beansmama]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

Re: Financial Aid

I applied at the start of January, a single mom with 2 kids, reported about $16,000 in income for the year before, and I only got a few thousand dollars of pell grant money. Even after I took the subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, I had a balance to pay for my tuition. I still need to come up with the money for my books.

I think our school must be a lot cheaper then. Dh is taking...uh, i think 14 credits this term? Our credits cost $62/each, and i think he has spent around $322 for books/supplies. So we should still be getting around $500 cash from "leftover" fin. aid money...and i realize that is better than nothing.

(I don't know if i already mentioned it, but another company is giving him around $950/term for tuition and books, so i'm including that money in my totals).

Oh - i wanted to add he goes to our local community college. And when we went to school there a few years ago credits were under 40$ each! Yikes!

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by Belleweather

So, DH had an interview for his dream job this afternoon (which turned into an enormous cluster you-know-what, as he left his only proper suit in the trunk of my car and didn't realize it until an hour before his interview when I was at work across town...). He says that he thinks it went well.

I think I'm going to ask him to turn it down if they offer it to him. :

I feel like the worst wife in the history of the world. But this job, while salaried, is on the low end of a salary job (~28k). The place has a reputation as basically the lab version of a sweatshop and when DH went in there they were pretty open about there being frequent weekend and lots of evening hours. They SAY they'll give comp time and they don't want people working more than 40 hours a week, but well... with their reputation I kinda doubt it. Even if he WERE working 40 hours a week, the salary they're offering works out to only a couple of bucks more an hour than he's making now, and for the hours they're wanting him to work I would expect way more money. Plus, there's something to be said for having him at home during the day and not having to pay daycare for two kids -- unless they are also a part of the state benefits program, we'd probably lose money having him work full time between the benefits and the cost of daycare... presuming we could even FIND daycare that would take both boys in cloth diapers.

But it's his DREAM JOB. I'm such a bad wife.

Well, if you're a bad wife, then I, in your situation, would be the wife from *HADES*! Not only would I ask (no strongly suggest or more if he didn't get it) that he turn it down, but I'd also give him a min. salary. If he couldn't get the minimum that would make daycare worth it, + find a daycare that will CD--not too many of those around...--then no job. Dream job or not, his first priority should be his family. (Yes, I've had this discussion with my DH (can you tell?) and we don't even CD.)

[Aura_Kitten]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

Re: Financial Aid

I applied at the start of January, a single mom with 2 kids, reported about $16,000 in income for the year before, and I only got a few thousand dollars of pell grant money. Even after I took the subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, I had a balance to pay for my tuition. I still need to come up with the money for my books.

YUP this country sucks for financial aid, seriously. (And every other financial set of support services, like food banks and clothing for needy people...)

We say we value education but put all our federal funding into building bombs.


s

I didn't have to make up the funds for tuition but I did have to buy all my supplies - books - and other expenses. :

[sonrisaa29]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

Re: Financial Aid

I applied at the start of January, a single mom with 2 kids, reported about $16,000 in income for the year before, and I only got a few thousand dollars of pell grant money. Even after I took the subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, I had a balance to pay for my tuition. I still need to come up with the money for my books.

If you haven't filled it out already, you should go to fastweb since they'll email you when scholarships match you. There is also a website that does scholarships just for single mom as well as pay back any student loans for providing that they do some volunteer work.

[Two Spunky Monkeys]

Oh my goodness! I am so disheartened with everyone's bad expereinces with financial aid! We have been talking about me going back to school - I have a BA in English and I am thinking of getting my teaching certificiation (for k-6). My DH works at a college, and we get FREE tuition there - BUT they do not cover any "student teaching" - so any class that has a major in-classroom expereince is not covered. So, my "Free" tutition will acually cost me more like $30K! And that's just for that one semester of major student teaching - not sure if they cover field experiences. Someone told me that tuition is sometimes reduced for student teachers, so I may not have to worry about that mush, but I have not confirmed this with the college yet. I could go get my master's in Library Science (what I really want to do!) at the state university for the same amount as that one semester, so it's hard to know what to do.

But I was really thinking that we would qualify for some financial aid if I did have to pay for a few semesters - now I am thinking that I may not get much at all.

This is such a hard decision for us - and bittersweet because I really don't want to work full-time, but I'd have to to justify the cost of going back to school. The income potential of working in the public school system is NICE, but I am not ready for full-time employment.

[ian'smommaya]

i love financial aid. i have lived off it for years! great thing post ww2 ever.

[s_kristina]

My serious dislike of BOA is growing at the moment. After having an account there for months and never having a problem with money being available after a deposit they have put dh's entire check on hold. We're still trying to get the bills caught up from dh having no work for 3 months and the food stamp are gone until the 8th. We've got about $40 and no food in the house so I'm hoping that hold lifts very, very soon! This might be the last thing that pushes me to dump them as our bank :

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by Two Spunky Monkeys

Oh my goodness! I am so disheartened with everyone's bad expereinces with financial aid! We have been talking about me going back to school - I have a BA in English and I am thinking of getting my teaching certificiation (for k-6). My DH works at a college, and we get FREE tuition there - BUT they do not cover any "student teaching" - so any class that has a major in-classroom expereince is not covered. So, my "Free" tutition will acually cost me more like $30K! And that's just for that one semester of major student teaching - not sure if they cover field experiences. Someone told me that tuition is sometimes reduced for student teachers, so I may not have to worry about that mush, but I have not confirmed this with the college yet. I could go get my master's in Library Science (what I really want to do!) at the state university for the same amount as that one semester, so it's hard to know what to do.

But I was really thinking that we would qualify for some financial aid if I did have to pay for a few semesters - now I am thinking that I may not get much at all.

This is such a hard decision for us - and bittersweet because I really don't want to work full-time, but I'd have to to justify the cost of going back to school. The income potential of working in the public school system is NICE, but I am not ready for full-time employment.

Bush just signed an enormous overhaul of the student aid process into law within the last two days. And one of the (many) good things that it's going to do is provide 100% federal loan forgiveness for anyone who works in a needed public field like teaching, police, firefighters, etc. for ten years, and for people who work in the government. It also massively lowers interest rates on federal student loans taken out in the next few years... down to 3.4% by 2012. And caps payments for students who are having a hard time paying down their loans due to financial hardship to 15% of the Adjusted Gross Income (basically, the difference between 150% of the poverty level and whatever they're making, they'd pay 15% of that. I don't know if there are disregards for daycare or not -- they might not have made it into the final bill).

It's a huge, huge wonderful thing that for some weird reason isn't getting much press, but if you have major student loans or are thinking about going back to school it's VERY worth reading up on. DH and I have 150K+ of student loans, so if we could cap our payments at 15% of our AGI the difference would be amazing. Currently, with them consolidated we're paying 30% of our total monthly income, which won't have them paid off for 30 years. I really hope this applies to older loans as well.

[CaliMommie]

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[serenetabbie]

And one of the (many) good things that it's going to do is provide 100% federal loan forgiveness for anyone who works in a needed public field like teaching, police, firefighters, etc. for ten years, and for people who work in the government

Oh my gosh, this is awesome. If this is true, than maybe the stupid loan people can stop bothering me (I posted about that in another thread). I work for the government, and have for over 10 years!

[ediesmom]

do you ladies do this every month? oh, do i need this!!!!!!!

a quick explanation of where i am at................. i got laid off in january, used up all my benefits (don't want another poopy job!), went back to school last minute so my financial aid hasn't come through quite yet, applied for welfare and got DENIED because my dd's father is a 'good dad' (freaks). so i am living off 57bucks a week.....if he bothers to pay his child support. they did give me food stamps! but hey were gone in about a week because we had nothing in the cupboards and i am celiac and diabetic, which makes eating expensive. and my car isn't running, and my bike has a flat

all the good stuff....
food stamps
friends
my daughters
section 8 (its not perfect, but i am just so grateful)
my 4 legged friends (who are eating commercial food, poor babies)
100 days today of not smoking cigs!!!!!!
freecycle
a warm fall season---low heating bills
beans
an opportunity to go to school to finish my SW degree so i can get that high paying social work position (teeheehee)

if there is an october thread, count me in!

[s_kristina]

I have to update my BOA rant. They did release the hold on dh's check yesterday so we could get bills paid and grocery cared for.

On the good side of things I had an order come through my website Friday evening. I think that's the 3rd since the site has been up, about 2 months now. Also dh is talking with a guy today about a job so hopefully that works out and he isn't out of work again for November-December.

[mum4boys]

I started a new thread. http://www.mothering.com/discussions...38#post9316838