First, good for you! It’s tough enough going to college full time but also trying to juggle the 2 kids means you’re really dedicated to bettering yourself.

Depending on your income / credit you could try to get a private student loan. If you have no income, which I suspect, you would need to have a co-signor with a stable income source and decent credit. It can be any adult relative. Hopefully you have someone in your life that is encouraging and proud of you in this endeavor and they may be willing to help just by co-signing a deferred private student loan.

There are a couple places to try, Chase Bank has a private student loan division you can reach online through http://www.usadegrees.com/chase/ Also try Student Loan Advisors at http://www.StudentLoanAdvisors.com

Even if you don’t know of someone right now that can co-sign, it may not be a bad idea to apply to see what is available if/when you find someone.

Try finding scholarships, there are several search engine type sites. You can find details about them at http://www.ReviewScholarships.com/ . Apply for every scholarship contest you can find. There is nothing better than ‘free money’ for college.

I hope some of this helps, good luck. And in case you don’t have anyone you think is encouraging and proud of you… know that I am.

When you go to the fin aid office you can ask to take out a federal student loan. If you had an EFC of 0, you probably received a federal Pell grant to cover the cost of your tuition. So were never offered a loan.

I’ve attached a Dept of Education publication about the minimum and maximum amounts and the different types of loans. The best interest rates are the Perkins and the Subsidized Stafford loans. Since you are on campus already, I’d really consider doing federal work study as well. Maybe you could work a few hours a week in the departmental office you are majoring in… or better yet in the scholarship office or the library….

I did it and it helped me to be “connected” to important people on campus.

There are a lot of options with financial aid. The only real restriction is the Cost of Attendance at your school. This is an amount that is set by the school for each year. It can be either living on campus or living off campus. In your case, at a community college, there might be only one amount. The Cost of Attendance and your FAFSA are what determine how much financial aid you receive. After you receive your financial aid from the school, you can take out a private student loan to cover other costs, up to the amount of your COA. Here’s an example. Your school’s COA is $10,000. You receive $4,000 in aid through the school. You can then take out a private student loan for $6,000. Good luck with everything!

There is a good chance that, say the equity in your home and/or some other components of your net worth and income will be held against you in the calculation of your SAR (summary of the financial aid you can expect to receive) of your FAFSA. This does not mean, however, that there are not ways to reduce the financial burdens of the college education expenses.

You can find useful info on this subject at

http://www.collegecashplace.com

Oh my God don’t you think you have taken enough from us? You are already getting free tuition courtesy of all of the other taxpayers. If you cannot go to school full time and take care of your children then you should not be going to school full time. Go to school part time and work in the day. I am not responsible for the situation you are in, and I am already paying for your tuition as well as my own. Take out a loan and pay it back once you get your degree like most of us.

And to you others- don’t encourage this kind of behavior. If everyone did this then there wouldn’t be enough money to go around and NO ONE would be able to get financial aid. Does anyone ever think of where this money is coming from?

you can request that you receive the maximum loan amount and that includes living expenses.

i am a financial aid assistant and anyone who deals with financial aid knows everyone’s situation is different. so you have to talk to your financial aid office at your school because they know you, i don’t.

extremely tough thing. browse in google. that will could actually help!