Contemporary College Student Podcast Episode

Rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeith gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweithio'n fawr iawn, ond rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gweith a dyna'n hawdd. Yn arian, nid yw bob amser'r mwyaf hwnnw i weithio gyda nhw, ac rwy'n gobeithio y byddwn yn gallu helpu yn y dyfodol i wneud hynny'n llai anodd. Felly, rwy'n eisiau i bobl feddwl am yr hyn sy'n cael ei wneud i ddod yn astudiant arbenigol ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Felly, rwy'n eisiau i bobl feddwl am yr hyn sy'n cael ei wneud i ddod yn astudiant arbenigol ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Felly, rwy'n eisiau i bobl feddwl am yr hyn sy'n cael ei wneud i ddod yn astudiant arbenigol ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Rwy'n eisiau i bobl feddwl am yr hyn sy'n cael ei wneud i ddod yn astudiant arbenigol ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Felly, rydyn ni'n mynd i siarad am y rhan fwyaf o fy mhobl feddwl ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Felly, rwy'n mynd i siarad am y rhan fwyaf o fy mhobl feddwl ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Rydw i wedi teimlo'r rhan fwyaf o fy mhobl feddwl ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Oherwydd, nid yw llawer o bobl yn fy teulu, yn amlwg, wedi mynd i'r coleg. Ac felly, roedd yn anodd iawn. Y pryd cyntaf roeddwn i'n sylweddoli nad oeddwn i'n gwybod llawer am Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed oedd pan ddechreuais i Ffasfa Cyn y 24 oed. Mae'n Ffasfa Cyn y 24 oed yn bwysig cyffredinol. Rydw i'n gweithio y tu allan yng Nghymru a Lloegr. Ac felly, roedd yn anodd iawn i mi fy mhobl feddwl ar gyfer fy mhobl feddwl ar gyfer Ffasfa cyn y 24 oed. Ac felly, roeddwn i'n dod allan ar ôl fy mhobl cyntaf. Ac roeddwn i'n cymryd ychydig o gydradd. Ac roeddwn i'n dweud, iawn, beth ydw i eisiau ei wneud gyda'r coleg? Ac felly, roeddwn i'n mynd i'r coleg cyntaf ac roeddwn i'n dweud, hei, bobl cyntaf. I heard that there's a thing called being an independent student. Is there any way that I can apply for this? Because at that time, I had become my mother's main caregiver and financial stability. And so they were like, no, we don't think you should go through the process here because you're only going to be here for a year. So like, let's work on helping you get acquainted with people at your next university so we can get you ready to rock and roll there. And so luckily they did. And so when I went to UNC Charlotte, that's when I actually became an independent student within financial aid slash FAFSA. And by that point, I was 21, I think, maybe about 21, give or take. And so they had me fill out specific paperwork about certain things. I'm talking about like, how do we know that you're actually like paying for your mother's bills? And like, how do we know that she lives with you? Like, you know, little things that like, for most people, they'd be like, because I said so. But working with FAFSA, you really truly have to show them that that's what's actually happening. And so I, you know, took my mother's medical records. I took our bills. I took everything that I could take. And they were really able to help me become independent before the age of 24. And so I came to the time to apply for my financial aid for Clemson University. And shocker, I didn't need any of that because I met the criteria to be a independent student. I actually met two of the criteria, being 24 or older and being a graduate student. Those were my two things. So I want us to talk about what it means to be a dependent student and what it means to be an independent student and think about the definitions and the contrasting. So what it is to be a dependent student. So this is a definition coming from FAFSA. It says FAFSA considers a dependent student someone who will receive financial support from their family. When calculating a student's expected family contribution, EFC, remember that term, the FAFSA factors in parents and guardians financial information, which may cause dependent students to qualify for less aid. Okay. Dependency does not mean the same thing for FAFSA as it does for IRS tax returns. While a student might not be a dependent for tax purposes, they could still count as a dependent for financial aid purposes. So now let's think about what is it to be an independent student. So for FAFSA, an independent student is someone who will not receive any financial support for their education from their parents or guardians. This means Federal Student Aid Office does not use parents or guardians financial information to calculate independent students EFC. As such, independent students may qualify for more aid assuming, where they're assuming they have a lower EFC. So there are several factors to determine whether someone qualifies to be an independent student. If the students meet the following criteria, they may be able to consider themselves an independent student through FAFSA, and FAFSA will help them with that. So if they are age 24 or older, so that's what helps me when coming to Clemson, graduate or professional student, again, helps me when coming to Clemson. If they're married, okay, if they're a parent or guardian of at least one dependent child, so some child they claim is theirs, if they are active duty military service, or if they are a veteran, if they are an orphan or ward of the court, if they have been an emancipated minor, or homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. So as you can tell, I not once said anything about having a dependent person that was not a child. Working with my financial aid office, I was able to make an option for myself that helps me become independent. And so some financial aid offices will work with you to get those aspects of things. And so I really want to kind of like, okay, let's think about it for a second. So we've talked about what it is to truly be an independent student for FAFSA. We've thought about what it means to be a dependent student. So what's knocking at the door next? So next thing we're gonna talk about, after we open the mysterious door, is the good and bad about becoming an independent student for financial aid. So let's talk about the positives. So first, a positive is that now students do not have to talk about their parents or guardians income on the financial aid paperwork. Great. Amazing. Don't have to worry about that part. So a negative is that, you know, this makes it easier for the student as they will be able to claim themselves when it comes to both federal aid, state aid, and institutional aid. So thinking about those three. Now to think of a negative or two, let me put it like this. Think about who most students receive their financial aid from. I'll give it a second. Most get federal, student, and institutional aid. Ah, the same thing we just talked about when talking about a positive can also be a negative. Um, now say if a student does not work and their parents make less than $30,000, um, just came from one of the financial aid websites I have been using, and I will talk about those later, um, they have a chance of owing less money to the school. Whereas if a student is working and making a certain amount, ding, ding, ding, they will owe some money to the school, possibly more than a dependent student. So in the long run, there'll be times that your student will want to be a dependent student because, uh, if that student is losing out on financial aid, then they are losing out on quite literally three different levels of financial aid. Um, another reason a student may not want to become financially independent is because their federal loan limits will increase. I personally noticed this myself. When I was at Wingate University, my loan amount was very small. My mother had to take out a parent plus loan just for me to go through my first year there. And so think about this. While I was watching a video, um, the presenter talked about, um, the following increase within an independent student's loan amount. So he talked about how a dependent undergraduate student, um, and this is for direct Stafford loans, um, their first year, they can have between, um, $5,500, give or take, um, second year around 6,500, third year around 7,500. Now for a independent student, their first year around $9,500. Wow. That's a lot of money. Now, second year, $10,500. Whoa. Whoa. Last third year, plus third plus year. Um, we're looking at about $12,500. Yowza. It's a lot of money. A lot, a lot of money. So why become an independent student at all? You may ask. Hmm. Time for the next door. Well, it's simple. It's truly up to you or if there's a financial aid or student first professional listening, your student. By the time a student hits 24, the government kind of assumes a couple of things about the student, which makes it easier for them to just automatically become an independent student at the age of 24. Most time they think they're married. Maybe they have a kid. They're assuming by 24, keyword assuming here, you have a bachelor's degree at least, and potentially already working towards a master's, which as we all know, is not always the case. This sometimes makes it hard for people to justify going to school to begin with, especially right out of high school. And as you notice, there has been a slight increase within the nontraditional student route. And so you have to just kind of think of the fights that you're ready to show up for in your students. But as a student, what battle are you ready to face to become an independent student? In the end, there may be positives and negatives to becoming an independent student, especially for financial aid early. But it's all about how you create that experience. There was the episode I was talking about. It is from a man named Ed Zamora. He is an amazing person. He does a lot of talks about such things as five important controversial but effective ways to increase financial aid. He talks about the 10 important changes to the financial aid for this year. He talked about that for the 23, 24, and the 24, 25 year. And he really helps with that. I also used Best Colleges, and they talk about dependent versus independent student, which are you. And they kind of help you figure some things out. They talk about the calculations and they talk about what if you're a dependent student without family support. How does that look? And so I was able to use that as well. And last but not least, I was also able to use US News plus the financial aid website to also get the information for the FAFSA and for this podcast, Laugh Out. And so it's been fun chatting with you all. I mean, mainly it's just me chatting. So it's been fun. But hopefully, you've had a great time listening to me talk about a subject that I truly have a great passion for and listening to such a slay podcast. And so let's kind of close this podcast out to what FAFSA would say to all of you. So part of a song called Got Your Money is about how you can get your money back. Featuring Kellis. Thanks for listening.