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Who's Paying For All This?
How To Find The $$$!

**This content is excerpted from the Guerilla Manual for Adult College Students. To learn more about the book or author visit AdultStudents.com .

"Ultimately, I'm the one who made the choice. I'm the one who's paying the bills, I'm the one who put my name on the loans. And if I miss something, I'm the one who has to take the hit. I don't have to apologize to the professor, I don't have to make excuses. I just say OK, I'll make this up. I'll recover."
Patrick A., 46, married and the father of two children, cut back from a full time job to a part time one and decided to attend college nearly full time. It took him about 5 years.

Hang onto your wallet.
This could be an expensive trip.

If you are one of those rare individuals who can afford to pay for his or her complete college education, you don't even need to read this chapter. Just go to the college of your choice and whip out your checkbook. They will be delighted to see you.

Most of us, however, will get a serious case of sticker shock when we check a few college catalogs for pricing information. College is expensive. College can be very expensive. Next to your house or a luxury car, a college education will probably be the most expensive thing you will ever buy. (Unlike those things, however, it will continue to pay dividends for the rest of your life.)

One of the recognized authorities - the College Board - ( http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/family/college/1457.asp ) says that the average yearly cost of a four year education in a public college or university is about $3510. The same education at a private school is going to set you back about $16,332, on average.

Who might help? There are a lot more places to get financial help than you might imagine. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but it is pretty complete:

Your employer

Start your research where you work. Many corporations have a tuition assistance program that might pick up some or even all of your college costs. Some programs cover just tuition, while others also pay for books (which can be very pricey) and fees such as lab fees, student activity fees, parking permits, etc.

"I was in Industrial Relations and the manager said, I didn't know you were going to school, I didn't see any tuition aid forms coming through. And I said, well, my manager told me the company wouldn't pay for it because it's an Art degree. And he said, as long as it's a matriculated program, we'll pay for it."
Helen D., 40 and a single mother, paid for the first two years of her degree out of her own pocket until this chance conversation got her into the tuition reimbursement program at her company.

Many company reimbursement programs require you to prepay the tuition or other covered expense, take the course, then turn in a grade report showing some minimum level of performance, usually a C or better. Then you get some portion of your tuition (and/or books and/or fees) back from your employer.

Where else can I go for financial help?

There are a lot of possible sources of financial assistance. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Your Union: Are you a member of a union? Ask your representative if it offers any sort of help. If it doesn't, ask why not. You might be able to get a program started.

Vets: Are you a military veteran? There is still GI Bill money available in one form or another for a lot of vets, and people who are now in the Armed forces have available programs which are quite generous in exchange for a modest contribution by the service member. There are also scholarships available in some states for vets. Call the local Veteran's Administration office to see if you qualify. Also see the Reference section for some useful addresses and phone numbers.

Veteran's Organizations: Your town probably has one or more active vet's groups....Vietnam Vets, American Legion, etc. There may be scholarship or grant money available from one of them if you are either a vet or the child of a vet.

Disabled Individuals: Both the Federal government and most states have programs to train or re-train people with various disabilities. These programs will often pay for most or all of your expenses, and may even include other items such as computers. Check with your physician, your physical therapist, the campus disabilities office or your college financial aid office.

"I have a monthly payment plan. I made a down payment, then every month for four months I make a payment. It's great for an adult student."
Bette B., 40, put in 23 hours a week as an Aide in her school's work/study program to help pay for her college.

Native Americans: The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the U. S. Department of the Interior administers programs that provide financial assistance to enrolled members of tribes, bands or groups recognized by the BIA.

AmeriCorps Program: This Federal program provides full-time educational awards that can be used to either pay for your school as you go or to repay federal student loans. This program puts people to work in community service, before, during or after college. Check their web site at www.cns.gov/americorps.html for more information.

Do you meet financial aid criteria? Your school, state and Federal government will probably all have somewhat different standards for determining your need. Your best source of information here is your college financial aid office.

Here is a list of common Federal tuition aid programs. Be aware that your state and school also have a selection of programs, and you should investigate those as well. And note that although the Federal FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form is the most common way for funding organizations to collect information about you, both your state and your school may well require that you fill out an additional form.

This information was accurate as of August 2003 but financial aid is an ever-changing, complex subject. See your school's Financial Aid office for complete details.

Can you pay the bill over time?

Schools realize that tuition is a major financial burden for students. That's why many colleges have set up time-payment plans.

Can you take out a loan?

No one should go into debt unless it's a last resort, but for many people it's either borrow money or not go to school. There are a very wide variety of federal, state and school programs available. The most popular Federal programs are noted above in the chart, but many states and many schools have similar programs as well. If you need to borrow money to attend college, don't stop your information search with the Federal programs.

Your financial aid package

Once all the appropriate forms are filed - FAFSA for Federal aid and others for state, school and scholarship organizations - your school will have all the information it requires to put together a complete package of financing from all of the sources to which you applied. This may include grants, loans, scholarships, work-study programs, etc. It may also include some contribution from you or your employer.

Financial aid information on the World Wide Web

There is also a huge amount of financial aid information available on the Internet. Start with these addresses, many of which are linked to other resources.

http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide/2002-3/ : this is the web version of the Federal Student Guide noted above. Contains considerable detail on Federal financial aid programs.

www.fafsa.ed.gov : this is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form on the web. You can fill this out and submit it electronically at this site.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/express.html : The Federal Student Aid site.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/index.html : this site provides help in completing the sometimes-arcane FAFSA form.

http://bcol02.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/org_list.cfm?category_ID=SHE : this site provides a list of state higher education agencies.

Scholarship information on the World Wide Web

There is also no shortage of information regarding possible scholarships. Begin your search at these sites.

The College Board maintains a web site with extensive information on financial aid, scholarships, loans etc. Check it out at http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp

You might also want to investigate a web site called Scholarships 101 from Pinnacle Peak Solutions, co-sponsored by Coca-Cola. This site includes information on how to access more than 8,000 funding sources comprised of more than 600,000 individual awards and includes links to dozens of financial aid sites and sources of additional information. http://12.47.197.196/scholarships101/
www.fastweb.com
www.finaid.org
www.salliemae.com
www.collegenet.com
See the References Section for more financial aid web sites.

Federal help by phone

1-800-433-3243: this Federal number provides general information about Federal financial assistance programs, explanations of eligibility requirements, help with the FAFSA form, and a place to order various Federal student aid publications such as The Student Guide. This office is open 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time Monday through Friday.

Tax implications

For some people, some or all of the costs of attending college may be fully or partially tax deductible. Tax law is pretty convoluted, and this book is not even going to try to address this issue in any detail. But it might be worth a phone call to your accountant or the Internal Revenue Service to ask if any of your educational expenses might be tax deductible. Self-employed people or owner's of businesses might be able to deduct educational expenses as business expenses. It can't hurt to ask.

FAFSA, SAR and other Federal alphabet soup

The Federal FAFSA form - all 4 pages of it plus its 12 page instruction booklet - is typically the beginning point for all applications for grants and loans. It may take as long as a couple of months for it to go through the system, and the result is something called an SAR, the Student Aid Report. The SAR contains all of the information you provided on the FAFSA, plus information on your eligibility for Federal student aid. It will give you a Pell Grant Index number (PGI) and a Family Contribution (FC) number. If the PGI is above a certain number you are not eligible for a Pell Grant; if it is below that number you are.

Start your search for bucks early

The FAFSA should be filed as soon after the first of the year as possible. You can file on the World Wide Web, or through the mail. Other forms - for state programs, scholarships, etc. - also need to be filed quickly. These sources of money are not bottomless, and it's often first come, first served. And you want to be one of those.

Financial aid workshops

Financial aid is a complicated, time-consuming proposition for most of us. That's why many schools run free workshops periodically. These are usually staffed by the folks from the Financial Aid office, and that's a good place to start looking for the dollars you need.

Even though this subject looks pretty complex, it can be arm-wrestled into submission with some work. There is money around to pay for your college. And you can find it. It just takes time and effort.

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