Can I get financial help while living abroad?

How can I get financial aid to help with my living expenses?

• First I go to Devry, and I am sort of unemployed. I do contract work, so there is no guarantee for my income each month. My EFC was 0, for the life of me I can not understand why I do not qualify for Perkins or SEOG? Right now they have me getting a $500 refund, ARE YOU SERIOUS? I got more than that from UOP when I was getting my Associate's. I know people are able get money to help with rent while they are in school. HOW?? At this rate I am going to have to drop out and get a full-time job, and forget about college because I have children to support. BTW I am not trying to get 2000 a month, just maybe 900 a month to help out with expenses. I mean after all I go to Devry Online, so I do need a place to have internet so I can gain access to my class. My parents are in a bankruptcy and my credit is no good.

• Answer:

  Perkins and SEOG are both federal aid programs that are very limited, so there are several reasons why you didn't get them. The most common reason is you simply didn't file your fafsa early enough (or turn in all your paperwork to the school to complete your file fast enough). This is the most common reason. The school issues these VERY limited aid programs based on a first-come-first-serve basis and they always run out of money before long before they run out of people who qualify. Your name was simply too low on the list to get any money. Prob the second most common reason you don't get these is the school simply doesn't participate or has any funds for them. Many schools don't even have Perkins loans. The schools ability to grant these loans is based on previous students and their current payment history. The school gets a bunch of students who don't pay their Perkins loans back, then they have no new money to grant new students. I would advise you to 1. File your FAFSA on Valentines day every year AFTER you fill out your Pell grant so you get it in as early as possible AND as accurately as possible (since your taxes will be done by then) AND 2. be sure your school even does Perkins loans. If not, then find another school.... personally, it sounds like you are digging yourself into a loan nightmare... not just attending one but TWO for-profit schools. Ug... your degree isn't going to get you a job, but it will get you huge debt you won't be able to pay off when you graduate. No one is going to hire someone with a degree to a school in which the majority of their students career goals is "i really really really want to work in an office". That is sooooo deep. :-)