Yes, you will probably most likely qualify for federal and state financial aid for education. Figure out where you want to go to school and research tuition costs. Try to choose and communtiy college or a state university because their tuition costs are generally the lowest. If you live with your parents and you work, both your parents and your income will be eveluated to determine how much financial aid you are eligible for. It is designed for individuals with low income. If your parents have a low income, you may qualify because there are other siblings in the household and all that is taken into consideration. The lower the income the more aid you qualify for. They will go by last years income.

Once you narrow down your school choices, visit the FASFA website: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and apply (you will have to supply income information for both you and your parents). This is a grant from the federal government (PELL grant) and the maximum award for the 2006-2007 award year is $4,050. You also want to apply to the school(s) of your choice. If you will have trouble coming up with the college application fee (usually $20-$40 in some cases) contact the school and see if they offer an application fee waiver to people with low income.

Additionally, I believe that every state also offers educational financial aid. In NY state, ours is called TAP. From a search I believe that Kentucky’s program is called KHEAA.

Visit this website and look around and apply:

http://www.kheaa.com/

http://www.kheaa.com/prog_home.html

http://www.kheaa.com/serv_pubs.html

Just a word of advice, stay away from loans. As long as you live at home you should be able to pay your tuition and have money left over for books and extras without a loan. You may find that if you are going to go to school full time that you will have to leave your current job but keep in mind that you can also do college work study on campus for a pay check and they allow you to work around your course schedule.

I also commend you for wanting to better yourself, good for you! School might seem overwhelming at first but you’ll adjust if you have determination as well as a support system. Hopefully your family will be supposrtive of your choice to further your education.

Lastly, visit the school of your choice and make an appointment with their financial aid office. Become their friend because they can be very helpful. If you dont understand something, they can explain it to you or guide you in the right direction. They can also assist you in applying for the financial aid if you don’t want to apply for it online. Also, talk to a career councelor at the college, they offer all kinds of info. in terms of where the jobs are and can guide you if you’re not sure what you want to study.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

Take care.

Type in FAFSA on the web, that is for federal financial aid. You can apply right online, and that is the single most source of a large amount of aid. Other than that you can search for single scholarships which take a lot of time, and unfortunately don’t mean a lot of money. The school you are interested in going to also may have people in the financial aid office that can help you apply for money. If you are interested in a life changing income source, an associates degree probably isn’t going to pay off. I would recommend a vocational training school like for computers, or a related high demand field. Bill Gates has a scholarship program that is excellent but I think you have to be selected by the school to apply for it. Your grade point average will also be a key factor on what type of money you can get. Start with FAFSA and make sure you research school options and make sure you are 100% behind the decision you make. Good luck!

Something tells me it’s not being poor that really gets you down as your feelings about your family members. I was from a poor family and like you we were bullied at school because we lived in council/social housing and didn’t have all the material things the middle class children had. I now know that this built my character and having to work for what I wanted rather than relying on hand-outs made me a better person. The difference was that I was lucky enough to have a strong hard-working mother who more than made up for my father’s abandonment. The only thing I would say is keep strong and work as hard as you can at school so you can hopefully one day support yourself and live a more productive life than you feel your parents are. There will always be people who judge you on your bank balance but remember it’s the deeds you do that will be remembered not what car you drove or designer labels.

You can go to just about any college/university and they will tell you to apply for financial aid through fafsa. Most schools when you go to apply they will have you sit right there and they will help you apply for fafsa online. Rarely if at all is a poor person denied. Most schools could even have you enrolled and ready to go within a day or two. For instance at Davenport University they take care of everything all in one day and you just come back afterwards to take your compass test. The compass test is just to assess your level of understanding math and english. You could choose to work toward a diploma, associate degree, or bachelor degree. Now, they have their systems to where any scholarships that you may qualify for you will automatically be considered whereas before you had to apply yourself for each individual scholarship. You could make the process a lot faster by going to ( www.fafsa.ed.gov) to apply before you go to the school you choose. That way they can just look up your info and go on from there. Hope this helps and good luck with your educational endeavors.

You are in a great situation in that FAFSA wise you should be getting the maximum in grants.

I know a girl who was in a similar scenario like yours, big family with 5 kids, the mother doesn’t work at all while the father only works part time (total yearly family income of only $11,000), they receive everything from section-8 to welfare to medicaid to social security disability. So when the girl applied for grants, which was through the FAFSA website, she had an EFC of 0, so she essentially continues to have everything paid for in her schooling. Great situation to be in. I have a feeling you’ll be in the same position too, which is great considering what you described above. Good luck.

Go here http://fafsa.ed.gov and apply for federal financial aid. You will need your 2006 taxes to apply for financial aid if you want to start school in the Spring 08 (usually Jan). I’m attaching a Department of Ed publication.. really good explaining the types of financial aid.

Good Luck.

Fill out the FAFSA and register on www.fastweb.com

FastWeb has a lot of nonsense on it but there are also legitimate scholarships listed.

Also talk to the financial aid people at the colleges you are thinking about attending.