So I've been bored and I can't seem to find anything outside of part time employment. I'm not interested in stacking up more loans, Jeremy and I have enough school debt between us, but were I to find money I'd probably go back to school and do something productive with my time. The Pell Grant is an elusive little creature that is gifted money, it has no obligations attached to it. They also seem to not give them to anyone. I looked in to it the other day and I got my results back after filing a FAFSA (which was a pain for just me, I can't imagine how much of a pain it was for my mother to fill it out every year!) and even though the 2008 tax year brought me a mere $11k gross, and I am not anyone's dependent (meaning I don't have any potential income from my parents), I don't qualify for the Pell Grant!
What the heck do you have to do to get one of these things?!
I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I already have a degree, and we don't like to encourage furthering education in this country-- anything beyond undergraduate, we're expected to take out loans for the rest of our lives! And I was applying for an MAT, which means that I'm not expecting to be rich for the rest of my life. I mean, really?
Anyway, this MAT program is about $24k for the whole deal, and that could be spread out over two years, but it's still $24k that I definitely do not have. Perhaps in February I'll run the FAFSA again with what is sure to be an even smaller amount, and see what happens then. Any bets on the odds they'll deny me a Pell Grant again?
