Postby soul alive » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:26 am
That's really tough. I'll pray for the both of you.
I work for a student-loan servicer on my campus; translation - I'm familiar with scholastic financial situations. I'll say a couple of things right away - Mike's dad does not have to fill out a FAFSA. Mike or you do. The FAFSA (federal application for student aid) deals with what financial support each individual student receives. Whether a student has parents who can/will support him/her financially can drastically change the amount of aid that can be received (whether the student is a dependent or independent), as can the individual income of the student. There are many different types of aid that you can receive:
-loans:
---subsidized- gov't pays interest while you are in school
---unsubsidized - interest accrues while you are in school, you can choose to pay for the interest while in school or not
---perkins
-grants: money that you don't have to pay back, there are TONS of grants out there from private and gov't sources
-scholarships
I would suggest that either or both of you go in to talk to your financial aid department about what possibilities the school offers. I might also suggest finding the student-loan servicer(s) on your campus and going in to talk to them, they can be very helpful people and can potentially help you find aid beyond loans. I would also suggest that both of you fill out your FAFSA's. It may be late, but you can still probably fill out for this school year to see what financial aid you are eligible for for next semester, and you should definately fill out for next year, the priority filing deadline is generally around March 31st.
You may or may not already know all of this, but I felt that I should throw it out there. If you have questions, I would be glad to answer or ask my boss, just PM me.