Читать книгу The Feminist Financial Handbook - Brynne Conroy - Страница 17
ОглавлениеGetting an education as a nontraditional student.
I work in a field where outliers are celebrated, where you’re told you don’t need a college degree because there’s that one guy who built his tech empire without one. Some even go as far as to argue that because a few people built multimillion-dollar businesses without a degree, pursuing higher education is a waste of money.
I’m genuinely happy for those who reach such great success without getting a degree. They have my upmost respect. They’ve worked hard and made something brilliant happen despite lacking formal higher education.
However, they are outliers.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, the difference between the median weekly income of an American woman with a high school diploma only versus someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher was $514/week. That comes out to a difference of at least $2,056/month.
It’s a similar story in Canada. Women with a bachelor’s degree earn 58 percent more than those with a high school diploma only. In a strange twist, women with apprenticeship certificates earned 12 percent less than those with only a high school diploma.
The point is, pursuing a post-secondary degree is still a great investment. If you’re living in or on the brink of poverty, returning to school has the potential to greatly increase your earning capabilities.
Financing School as an American
Even though college costs have ballooned significantly in the recent past, if you are a low- or middle-income adult, there’s a high likelihood that you could go back to school for free. In fact, you may even be able to get paid to pursue an education.
That means no student loan debt. It means not stressing out over how you’re going to pay for books.
It means you can do this.
Choosing a School
There are several different types of colleges out there, and not all are priced equally. Keep an open mind about all of your options as you consider reentering the halls of scholarship.
Community College
Community college is typically the most affordable option. It’s also the one likely to net you the most money. If you don’t have a two-year degree yet, it’s not a bad idea to start here. Credits are usually cheaper at community colleges than at four-year schools, and it’s unlikely that you’ll be the only adult learner in the classroom.
State Schools
If you go to community college first, you’re likely going to want to head to a state school next. This is because state schools usually have agreements with community colleges guaranteeing credit transfer. That means you’re less likely to have to repeat any courses you already took at the community college.
State schools are subsidized by state governments. This tends to make them cheaper than private institutions, although it should be noted that since the Great Recession, states have enacted austerity policies when it comes to state school funding. This means they’ve reduced how much money they invest in the state school system. These policies have played a large role in the rising cost of college tuition.
Even with these changes in policies, state schools are still often the cheapest four-year schools for most students.
Private Four-Year Institutions
Private colleges and universities are typically among the most expensive of all your options. They don’t receive the same subsidies state schools do, and institutional aid isn’t always prolific.
That doesn’t necessarily mean a private school is off the table. You may be offered a great financial aid package or win a ton of scholarships that will cover tuition. But it does mean you need to go into the process with your eyes wide open to potential pricing differences.
Make sure your school is a nonprofit. We’ll get to why in a minute.
Ivy League Schools
The likes of Cornell and Middlebury come with astronomical sticker prices. That doesn’t mean they’re out of reach.
Ivy league schools compete for the best students, and they want the best students whether they can afford tuition or not. To facilitate student acquisition, these institutions have sizeable endowments to cover those insane sticker prices for low- and middle- income students. Some schools will give you a full ride even if your income is in the low six-figure range.
If you get into one of these schools—and most do accept nontraditional and transfer students—you’re less likely to end up with an unaffordable tuition bill than if you went to a non-Ivy private institution.
For-Profit Four-Year Schools
Be extremely wary of for-profit four-year institutions. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has sued many such colleges over the past several years. These schools tend to care less about whether you get a degree or come out of school competent enough to work in your field and more about the money they will make off of you as a student. You may find yourself being offered financing options through the school with terrible terms, and your grants and scholarships are unlikely to go as far as they would at the other four types of institutions.
It’s also important to know that shady for-profit colleges will target lower-income students. They do this because they know you’ll qualify for the maximum in grant awards after you fill out the FAFSA. They want the federal dollars you’ll bring in, but don’t always care as much about giving you a quality education.
The FAFSA
The first step in your financial aid journey is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You can find the application at: http://fafsa.ed.gov.
You don’t have to know exactly where you’ll be attending school to fill out the FAFSA. The most important thing is to fill it out as soon as possible. Applications open on October 1 of every year. So if you were applying for the 2020-21 school year, you would want to file your application as close to October 1, 2019, as you can.
Filling out the FAFSA used to be a tiring process that involved pulling out a hard copy of your tax return, but in recent years it’s become far easier. Now the FAFSA simply pulls your tax and income data from the IRS. The tax information will be pulled for the year before the year in which you are filling out the FAFSA. That means if you’re filling out the FAFSA in October of 2019 for the 2020-21 school year, the FAFSA will pull data from your 2018 tax return.
You will be asked if you want to enter your parents’ income information. If you’re age twenty-four or older, you are considered independent, meaning you can check the “no” box. Only your income will be counted. If you’re under the age of twenty-four, you may qualify as an independent student if:
•You’re married.
•You’re going for a master’s or doctorate degree.
•You’re currently on active duty serving in the US armed forces.
•You have children or will have children at the time you’ll be going to school. You must be providing at least 50 percent of the support for these children.
•You have other dependents who receive at least 50 percent of their support from you.
•You’re an orphan, were in foster care, or you were a dependent or ward of the court.
•You are or were an emancipated minor.
•Someone other than your parents had legal guardianship of you.
•You have been a homeless unaccompanied youth—or at risk of becoming homeless—at any point since July 1 of the year in which you are applying.
If you don’t meet any of those criteria, you’re a dependent student—whether your parents do anything to support you or not.
There are several ways you may receive aid via the FAFSA. Let’s delve into each one of them.
Pell Grants
Grants are money that you don’t have to pay back. You’d only have to pay this money back if you don’t keep your grades up.
The government issues grants based on your income. You may be surprised to learn that you can get Pell Grant funding even if you don’t consider yourself “low-income.” This is especially true if you have kids or other dependents.
We could get into the income formula here, but it’s complex and not something with which you need to be familiar. What you do need to know is that almost every single year, the government has Pell Grant money left over. There is funding available; you just have to apply for it!
For the 2018-19 school year, a full Pell Grant is $5,920. Half will be paid during the first semester, while the other half will be disbursed at the beginning of the spring semester. Keep in mind that you can get a partial Pell Grant, too, depending on your financial standing and household size.
Here’s where things get interesting: The average cost of tuition and fees at an average two-year public institution was $3,570 for the 2017-18 school year. That means that if tuition stayed the same, students attending an average community college could pocket $1,175 from their Pell Grants each semester for books, housing, transportation, and food.
Yes, you can get paid to go to school. This is an especially viable route if you are lower-income.
If you decide community college isn’t the right path for you, the average state school charged $9,970 in tuition and fees for the same school year. That means a full Pell Grant recipient would only need to drum up an additional $4,050 to cover the cost of attendance. And that’s totally possible without digging into your own wallet.
FSEOG Grants
FSEOG grants are issued only to those in dire financial straits. However, if you do qualify, you can currently get anywhere between $100 and $4,000 depending on your financial need. These grants do routinely run out of funding, which is a major reason why it’s so important to file your FAFSA as close to October 1 as possible.
TEACH Grants
If you are planning on majoring in K-12 education, you may be eligible for a TEACH grant. TEACH grants are unique in that they come with a service obligation. In order to qualify, your college and your specific program must be associated with the TEACH program. You’ll also have to keep your grades up.
When you accept this grant, you’re agreeing that for at least four of your first eight years out of college, you’ll teach a subject in a high-need field at a low-income school or educational service agency. You can learn more about current high-need fields at StudentAid.gov/TEACH.
If you fail to meet this service requirement, you’ll have to repay the money plus interest.
If you meet all of these requirements, though, you can receive up to $4,000 in grant money every year.
Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
If your parent or guardian died after 9/11 as the result of military service in Iraq or Afghanistan, you’re eligible for this grant. The maximum award is the same as the Pell Grant. But this one isn’t refundable. That means if you have financial aid in excess of your tuition, the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant will be reduced, and you won’t be able to pocket any of the money for other expenses like food and shelter.
Federal Work-Study
You may be eligible for a job facilitated by your school. The job may be on or off campus, and in most positions you can decide whether you want your paycheck to go straight towards your tuition or if you’d like it to be deposited into your bank account.
Federal Student Loans
There are several types of federal student loans, and those will be offered to you on the FAFSA as well. These loans are almost always preferable to private student loans from your bank or other financial institution.
But we’re going to try to get you through school without debt, so we’re not going to spend a lot of time here.
State Grants
After you complete your FAFSA application, you will likely be prompted to complete a financial aid application with your state. In my home state of Pennsylvania, income-based grants can be in excess of $3,000. That’s another three grand for school that you don’t have to pay back, or depending on your situation, another three grand you can keep for your living expenses.
If you’re not immediately redirected to your state’s financial aid application, search for your state’s department of higher education. Call them directly to make sure you have everything you need to apply, but the application will most likely be online.
Institutional Aid
You must fill out your FAFSA to even be considered for any financial aid from your college. If you qualify, you may be issued need-based grants. You may also be offered scholarships, which are another type of funding you don’t have to pay back. Scholarships are typically merit-based but are sometimes included as a part of your financial aid package.
It’s important to note that at some schools, your institutional aid will be reduced if you bring in money in excess of your tuition. For example, if you got a full Pell Grant plus a state grant of $3,000, you’d have $8,920 towards your tuition. The average state school costs $9,970. That means the maximum amount of institutional aid the school would offer you would be $1,050.
Let’s say they offered you $1,050 and then you brought in an outside scholarship worth $1,000. The school would then reduce your institutional aid to $50. That means you can’t pocket any of the money to help with your books or living expenses.
This is not an ideal situation, especially as a nontraditional student. You can find out if your school will allow you to keep money in excess of your tuition or if the school will reduce institutional aid by contacting the financial aid office before making your final decision about which college you want to attend.
Scholarships
If you’re not immediately offered a scholarship right out of the gate, all is not lost. There are a ton of ways to get your hands on scholarship money. If the stipulations of the scholarship allow you to use the money for expenses outside of tuition, this can be a great source of money to help fund day-to-day expenses like rent and food while you’re a student.
Where to Find Scholarships
Ashley Hill, a scholarship search strategist located outside of Atlanta, Georgia, says you should start your search at the hyperlocal level.
First, she says nontraditional students should check local colleges and universities—even if they don’t plan on going to school locally. Some of the scholarships they offer may be exclusively for their students, but others—known as external or private scholarships—do not have an attendance requirement. Hill says that typically, the primary factor in eligibility is local residency.
Hill’s next line of attack is your city or locality. She recommends checking your city government, nonprofits, and local chapters of any industry association linked to your desired major for any scholarship opportunities they may provide.
The third sphere Hill says you should check is your county. Your county government or organizations that serve your entire county may offer scholarship opportunities if you’re willing to look for them.
Finally, check with your state. Just as many states offer grants, some may also offer scholarship opportunities. It’s also a good idea to check with statewide organizations.
Besides scholarships based on your geographic location, Hill encourages nontraditional students to look to their employers for any scholarship opportunities that may exist. She says some employers also extend tuition reduction programs to their employees, saving students anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Do You Have What It Takes?
Before you apply for a scholarship, it’s helpful to know what the committee is looking for.
“At the heart of the essay, scholarship judges are looking for evidence of leadership experience, either through working or serving the community,” says Hill, who judges scholarship competitions herself.
She notes that if you’re a nontraditional student, you might not have the same amount of time on your hands as a teenager does to get out in the community and work on service projects. That doesn’t mean you’re an inferior candidate. Instead, you can draw upon your experiences in the workforce to demonstrate your leadership capabilities.
“Simply having a job and being on a team, working towards completing a project—it requires some leadership skills,” says Hill. “You don’t have to be the manager or the president or the CEO to be a leader. You can lead right where you are.”
Writing Your Essay
The pièce de résistance of most scholarship applications is the essay. What is asked for will vary from application to application, but remember that what you need to showcase is those leadership skills and how you will use them to serve the community through your work in the future.
While you do want to use your essay to feature those skills, Hill cautions that it should not turn into a “brag list.” You will be asked about your past academic performance and any awards you may have received on the scholarship application, so unless they are relevant to the story you’re telling, they shouldn’t appear in the essay.
She says that as you’re writing the essay, you want to keep the prompt for the essay in mind. But you also want to be sure you’re telling the panel a story that features your leadership skills and how you plan to apply them moving forward. Weaving the prompt and your personal story together is the key to success.
“It’s not about the number of hours [in leadership positions] you have,” she says, “but about the quality of those experiences.”
Fellowships
If you are going back to college to attend grad school, looking into fellowships can be worthwhile. Fellowships, like grants and scholarships, do not need to be repaid. They are issued to graduate students pursuing their master’s or doctorate degrees and can bring in $50,000 or more to fund your research and living expenses. They do tend to be extremely competitive, and not all are in the five-figure range. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth pursuing.
To find relevant fellowships, Hill says you can start by googling “fellowship + (your major here).”Another great place to get more information is from the financial aid office of the school(s) you want to attend.
Doing the Math
Let’s say you’re going to a state school to complete an undergraduate degree. The tuition is $9,970 per year. You qualify for a full Pell Grant and a state grant of $3,000, bringing your total financial aid thus far to $8,920.
You’re over the moon that you only owe $1,050 towards tuition, but you know you can do even better. You apply for refundable scholarships, being careful to read the terms and conditions on each application. Of the ten you apply for, you are awarded five. Each scholarship is worth $2,000 to be spread over two semesters. That means that partway through each semester, your school—which you know allows refundable scholarships because you checked before you applied—cuts you a check for $4,475.
It might not cover your living expenses for the entire semester, but $4,475 twice a year definitely reduces the number of hours you have to work, alleviating some of the stress of going back to school. If you want to eliminate work completely, it can be done. You just have to search and apply for and then be awarded more refundable financial aid.
You’re not only going to college for free; you’re getting paid to do it.
Financing School as a Canadian
The sticker price of university in Canada is lower than in the US, with undergrad degrees averaging $6,571CAD/year. Because college attendance actually reduces median income for women, we will not be reviewing financing options for apprenticeship fields. We will only be looking at financing the cost of university.
Funding Through the Government of Canada
There are a few federal grants and programs that may help you fully fund school as a nontraditional student depending on your income, family situation, and province or territory of residency. Because they run their own financial aid programs at the provincial or territorial level, residents of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Quebec are not eligible for the following grants from the Government of Canada.
To apply for these grants, you will need to contact the organization overseeing financial aid in your province or territory. Each province or territory has their own application process, but typically you only have to fill out one form to be considered for the following types of aid. Be sure to ask about the specifics in your area before filling out the application. To find out which organization you need to approach, check out the information for your province or territory on the Government of Canada website.
Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students
If you’re enrolled in a full-time program of study, the Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students can give you up to $3,000 per year as long as your school qualifies. Again, grants are money you don’t have to pay back.
If you’re single, you can currently get the full grant with a gross income of up to $30,000 CAD. But a prorated amount can still be awarded to you if your income is up to $61,513 CAD.
If you have three kids, or a partner and two kids, you can get the full grant with an income of up to $60,000 CAD. You can get a prorated award if your income is $112,817 CAD or less.
The income limits are liberal, going all the way up to $138,897 CAD for a family of seven.
Recently, this grant became even more attractive for nontraditional students. As of August 1, 2018, if you’ve been out of school for over 10 years, you are eligible for up to $1,600 CAD in additional funding each year, bringing the potential grand total to $4,600 CAD.
If you qualify for this grant, you now only need an additional $1,971 CAD to cover tuition at your average university.
Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students with Dependents
If you have children, this grant could net you an additional $1,600 per school year for each dependent you have under the age of twelve. If you have a dependent over age twelve, they still count if they have a disability.
For this grant, you do have to qualify as a low-income household. These income thresholds vary based on your province or territory of residence. As an example, we’ll look at Manitoba, which has the highest income threshold—and New Brunswick, which has the lowest.
A single mother of two children under the age of twelve in Manitoba can earn up to $38,143 CAD and still qualify for this grant. That same woman in New Brunswick could only earn up to $32,041 CAD. These numbers go up depending on the number of children you have, maxing out at $65,953 CAD for a family of seven in Manitoba.
