Gulp!

We got a frantic call from Diana yesterday. She had gotten her disbursement check from the Financial Aid office.

The problem was the check was for $600.00. She has three months of rent plus food she needs to pay through December.

Her rent alone is $449 a month... You see the problem? (Holy crap - where did all her money go???)

I knew something was off. She has grants & scholarships that should prevent her from needing to take out any loans. I was already going to get her to spend the weekend with us anyway, so I got approval to leave work a little early, and I went up Friday afternoon.

We are really kind of new to the whole Financial Aid part of college. I didn't need it when I was in school, and I don't think Lee did either. Trevor had to take out loans, so we knew that part.

Diana & I raced over to the Financial Aid office -- she hadn't gotten the letter from them stating she needed to turn in our tax information to them, so I had brought that along (note to self, make at least 2 copies of taxes for each student - one for the FAFSA, one for the college). Once we'd turned that in, I asked for a breakdown of where Diana's funding had gone.

Turns out only the Ford Scholarship has paid so far. So the $600.00 is what was left over after fees & tuition were paid for the term. The other grants & scholarships will all be disbursed to her once they are in :) *Whew!* That's a good chunk and will easily cover rent, and probably the food.

She's going to get a work study job anyway - it's part of her financial aid package, but they may give her a little money above & beyond if she earns her work study time off. Then she's got a little extra.

Also, because her lease is for the full year, she'll need to have a source of income over the summer. The financial aid scholarships & grants only cover the school year.

On the plus side, she has a really sweet deal with her room. It's off-campus, like an apartment, so they aren't actually part of the campus. The actual dorms are so packed with students that the rooms for 2 are getting cots for a 3rd student to come in, and the singles are all being made into doubles. I have no idea how they are going to store anything for the extra students in the dorms! Yikes!