Financial Aid For Single Parents

Things You Should Know About Financial Aid For Single Parents

By. Weerad D. Arma [caption id="attachment_171914" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Financial Aid For Single Parents"][/caption]

You feel that you have what it takes to be a good single parent. Financial complications usually come up when households of single parents try to have college education covered. This is where you realize that you need aid after all, financial aid. There are certain policies in having financial aid determined for single parents, like you if ever you are one, that are deemed to be highly confusing at times.

If the student admits that he or she did not live with a certain parent more than the other parent, then his or her parent who has provided msot of the financial support in the past twelve months will be the one to fill out the fafsa.

Another situation would be if the student got to live with each of his or her parents with the equal amount of time and also if the parents provided an equal level of assistance, in terms of finances, then the parent who will claim the student for purposes of income tax should be the one to do the filling out of the fafsa.

You must never forget that any child support or any alimony that has been received from a non-custodial parent must alwas be included on the fafsa. Fafsa actually is an acronym for free application for federal student aid. The federal government does not put the income or the assets of a non-custodial parent to consideration, especially when the student's financial need is being determined. Just in case you do not know, many private colleges take into account the assets and income of the non-custodial parent, even if he or she does not want to be included in contributing to college costs.

These said colleges would ask for a supplemental financial aid form from a non-custodial parent. First, the non-custodial parent should not be found nor located. Managing funds has turned out to be a crucial factor for single parents. Single parenting is a challenging and difficult job. Well, you can always count on the financial aid for single parent to resolve your problem.

For getting financial aid for single parent make sure you abide by the following instructions:

• Apply for more than one scholarship
• Ensure providing accurate information

Ways to Get Financial Aid

Getting financial aid for single parents is certainly possible if you are willing to put in a bit of work to find the help you need. It's tough for parents these days with an economic recession in full force. However, for parents that are persistent in their efforts to get financial help, there is help available.

Now, what sort of financial aid is out there for a single parent? In general, you can look at getting loans, scholarships, or grants. Loans are a great way to pay for your education, but as a single parent they may not be feasible. Here is a list of steps you can take a parent raising kids alone to pay for college:

1.     Apply for Federal Student Aid (through FAFSA application)

2.     Apply for different college and private scholarships and grants through your college financial aid office

3.     Join a Work Study program to get extra money

4.     Look at getting federal student loans

Don't expect to fill out a couple grant and scholarship applications and have a free college education. You are going to have to send out hundreds of grants and hundreds of scholarships if you want to cover the full costs of your college education. You can expect between 3 and 10 percent of the single parent grants and scholarships you apply for to actually result in money.