Not me, but #1 son.
After going through the Federal aid application process (a requirement everywhere he applied before they talked about how much things cost), we found out we qualified for - nothing. Not one red cent.
Oh sure, we could get loans, but who wants to borrow a ton of money and be saddled with a huge debt before landing a job. After the college loan system was taken over after the health care bill passed, this gave me another reason for not participating. The alternatives were pointing to the local community college for a couple of years and then transfer on.
A gnawing about this whole federal grant system continued: was I bitter for not qualifying for money or should I have even been asking for anything in the first place. What's ironic is that my taxes will help support some other schmuck's kid through college and I still have to pay for my own kid. Hmmm...
This past week we were informed of the first scholarship that he's earned. $7,000 for each of his first two years. $14,000 for an essay. Not bad wages for a few hours work. We should know in a couple of weeks regarding a half dozen other scholarships and he's got several others that are due in the coming months to work on. I think we can scrape up enough to get him through and have faith that the money will be there when we need it.
Looks like he's going to University of Northern Iowa
That's the second bit of good news we had this week for the kid.
2 comments:
Congrats! My oldest is almost that age.
Agree that I don't want his starting out under a mountain of debt.
Thanks, Borepatch.
We are in the income bracket where we don't make enough to pay for college ourselves and too much to get government aid. The moral conflict bugs me, too.
We've been cranking out scholarship applications since the first of the year and discovered some were due in December. Some can be applied for while a junior in high school. (And there are some weird ones I should post about.)
We don't intend to make the same mistake with #2.
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