I received some wonderful news yesterday evening! I was told that my college tuition would be hundred percent paid for by federal financial aid. I knew that part of my tuition would be paid for that way, but I was totally surprised that all of it would be. The funny thing is I had become so frustrated with the whole process of obtaining financial aid that I was on the verge of just giving up.

Last week, I submitted the FASFA – the application for financial aid. After I submitted it I was told I was going to have to provide more paperwork because I had been picked for a process called verification. All that really means is the review people wanted me to provide some kind of proof to back up the things I said on the FASFA. I managed to get that paperwork turned in before Friday’s deadline. Unfortunately, there was a mistake on the verification worksheet – I ended up having to submit it a total of three times yesterday.

Since it was late Friday afternoon before all of my paperwork could be submitted for the review process, I figured that no one would look at it until at least Monday or Tuesday. Instead, the nice young lady I have been working with made sure someone reviewed my paperwork yesterday evening. As soon as they finished looking over everything, and made a decision about my financial aid, I was notified.

The review people came to the conclusion that I had no financial resources with which to use toward my tuition. They based their decision on a document – my Statement of Earnings from the Georgia Department of Labor -that indicated I had no income for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011. Since Jo Bob and I are separated they felt like his income was not a part of my household, and chose not to take it into consideration when reviewing my application.

The financial aid aspect of college was my biggest worry. If I have been told that I was going to have to pay any portion of the tuition, I had no idea how I was going to get the money. I think knowing that my college tuition is taken care of in full will allow me to get more out of the college experience than I would have.

The only thing about this whole process that bothers me is that I can’t share the news with dad. I did cry about that last night.