Child going to college

[donmas]

I am in the process of filing chapter 13. Don't know what my payment will be yet but from what I am reading they take all your disposable income! I have a daughter going to college in the fall of 2008. How am I going to pay tuition and what are my options?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[lrprn]

I am in the process of filing chapter 13. Don't know what my payment will be yet but from what I am reading they take all your disposable income! I have a daughter going to college in the fall of 2008. How am I going to pay tuition and what are my options?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It's not likely that your trustee is going to allow you to reduce your monthly payments to allow money to finance your daughter's college. Your daughter is probably going to have to find her own financing for college.

She will need to fill out a FAFSA application to find out what federal student scholarships and loans she qualifies for. The problem for most students with parents in bankruptcy is that you will have to fill out a FAFSA application as well, but there's no place to indicate you're in Ch 13 . The forms make it look like you have all this income that because of Ch 13 you really don't have

Our daughter fought this after we filed to finish out her last year of school - luckily she ended up finding her own student loans, thank heavens!

Other members here have faced this very same situation with their teens and young adults. Hope they'll be posting here about how they worked through what to do.

Hang in there - all is not lost - just more complicated now that you've filed.

[cso5@]

Some people on this forum have found luck with writing a letter to the financial aid office of the school your child will be attending -- I tried that, to no avail.

The FAFSA DOES make it look like there is money for the family contribution -- there is no place to indicate you are in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

My daughter and I really scoured the available scholarships for her school, and fortunately she was awarded one. My employer pays part of employees' children's tuition, and she chose to go to a cheap local community college. My out of pocket expense for her first semester -- just for tuition -- was some $325. Her books actually cost more than we had to pay for tuition!

She works part time to pay for gas for her car, and incidental expenses along the way -- I am not sure what is going happen when she graduates from the 2 year school and tuition costs more -- we'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess.

She has seen me struggle with student loans payment forever. She chose the local school because it meant no loans for her.

[donmas]

My situation is my husband is not filing, just myself. Should we just apply for loans through him? Now that I think about this we might be better off when applying for financial aid because it will only be one salary and not two combined. Has anyone had any experience with this situation?!

[rrockinggramma]

when applying for student loans, household income will count, not just 1 income. I was fortunate in that my kid's father and I were divorced. He hadn' worked in years so we used all his info and the kid's were able to get grants (not have to be paid back) and less in loans. But we were divorced and because of our divorce set up, he got to claim the kids on his taxes (we had 3) so 2 and 1 every other year. I let him claim the kids in college for those years instead of alternating and he got them their financial aid. But if you are married, then all household income is figured for financial aid, not just his. And my kids worked, and their income counted too and reduced what they qualified for. You might want to let your child know up front what you will pay for and how much so they can start banking now and be looking at schools that fit the budget

[woeisme]

I went to college many years ago, but when I did go, my parents couldn't afford the amount the forms said they could either. They hadn't filed bankruptcy, but had debts that they were making payments on. That's the real problem with those forms, they don't take into account actual expenses at all, just what is coming in, so almost everyone who has a kid going off to college has the same problem because almost everyone has a lot of debt and expenses that are in no way accounted for when they decide what your fair share of payments should be.

Because my parents didn't have the money (I think I was short around $2000 a year after scholarships and grants) I took out student loans to pay off the rest. Not great to get your kid started off with debt, but it's a reality, and once you get out of your Ch 13 you may be in a much better position to help out with the payback then.

I did have one year where my Dad was hospitalized and missed about 6 weeks of work and because we didn't have insurance, had huge medical bills to pay. I went to my financial aid office with the paperwork showing his bills, and the college upped my workstudy amounts so that I could work more hours at my on-campus job, but that's all they could do to help me at that point. (Workstudy is just like a regular job, just for a department on campus. They have limits on the total hours you can work though because the payrolls are subsidized. Say I do workstudy for the library, the library only pays a percentage of my wages and the remainder is state or federal money, or something like that, so once I run out of workstudy hours the library won't put me on the schedule anymore because they can get 3 or 4 workstudy students for the cost of paying my full wage if it's non-workstudy.) But I now work at a college and know that our financial aid office works with parents in special circumstances. I feel very lucky that we are doing our Ch 13 now because my son is only 12 and we will be done with this before he goes to college. Plus I will get free tuition for him since I work for the school, so will just be paying his books and other expenses anyway.

Good luck! Have your child look around for all the scholarships and financial aid awards out there. It's worth the time spent applying! Community College for the first 2 years is also very cost effective, just make sure she goes to one where the credits transfer easily to wherever she wants to go for her 4 year degree. And it will really depend on the major she wants to do as well, some community colleges do not offer the curriculum needed for a pre-med person, for example.

[dscurlock]

I am in the process of filing chapter 13. Don't know what my payment will be yet but from what I am reading they take all your disposable income! I have a daughter going to college in the fall of 2008. How am I going to pay tuition and what are my options?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

As long as she goes to school at least half time (6) credits, then she should start applying for any type of loans through the school, stafford, gov't - the one good advantage to these loans is, payback does not normally start until 6 months after she finishes...maybe even a part time job would help also...

as someone else has already said, depending on how much you make, you almost have to be
dirt poor to get any free money such as pell grants, i know when i attened a class years ago,
my parents made under $30k/year, and pell only gave me $200, and that barely covers books.

no child left behind means just that, as long as she is not in default of any loans, then
she will get the loans for each term that she requests them.

[MOMof3]

Please talk to your child's Financial Aid Department!! When I was in school I worked in the FA department as my work study job. There used to be alternate forms that would take into account special circumstances that schools could use to qualify you for aid like Stafford Loans & Pell Grants, etc...! This was ---yikes --- over 10 years ago, but I doubt it's much different now.

[dscurlock]

Please talk to your child's Financial Aid Department!! When I was in school I worked in the FA department as my work study job. There used to be alternate forms that would take into account special circumstances that schools could use to qualify you for aid like Stafford Loans & Pell Grants, etc...! This was ---yikes --- over 10 years ago, but I doubt it's much different now.

I think schools are just the middle-people, they have
nothing to do with the out-come of any grants or loans, they just
provide the grants/loans to the students. I dont think she
would have any problems getting loans, grants are another
issue, but doesnt hurt to try.

[SinkingFast]

As Lrprn said, the BK Court does not view you paying for college for your children as a necessary expense.

Depending on your income level, your daughter may qualify for some Grant monies. Our kids did not qualify for State Grants, but our daughters did get some Pell Grant monies each.

There are loans available.

Stafford Loans are not credit dependent and are given to pretty much all students who apply. You cannot have a drug related conviction, and a couple of other stipulations, but that's it.

Also,.......... You can apply for Parent Plus Loans and be denied. Then go to the Financial Aid office, meet with a Counselor, and explain your predicament. Fin Aid Officers do have the ability to make Case by Case decisions based on undisclosed situations and need.

[ruspider]

I am in the process of filing chapter 13. Don't know what my payment will be yet but from what I am reading they take all your disposable income! I have a daughter going to college in the fall of 2008. How am I going to pay tuition and what are my options?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I just wanted to say that when my dh filed, our daughter was heading into her junior year in college and we had been paying her full expenses. Our trustee objected, our lawyer did some research on the subject , we let the judge decide and in the end ,it was allowed. My son started school this fall.The judge knew 1 child would be finishing school while 1 would be starting.
Our attorney found case law to support reasonable college expenses.
Since you will already be into your 13 by the time your child begins school, I'm not sure how that would play out.
Good luck