Saturday, April 5, 2008

The tough part begins

We just received Cory's preliminary financial aid award notification and it's not good. We're about $20,000 short of covering his first year in college. *sigh* The way the financial aid office has proposed us to cover the shortfall is for Cory to take out a $3500 loan and for us to take out at $16,500 loan. YIKES!! There is no way we can afford to take out another loan for that amount.

At this point, I don't know what we're going to do. He's got a few more scholarship applications pending. We won't know final amounts from those until June. Even if he gets every single scholarship he's applied for it won't be more than about $3000.

He's looking for a part-time/summer job right now, and he's got a little bit of money in the bank, and we've got about $500 in savings bonds to put towards tuition. I just don't know what we're going to do.

I hate to even contemplate the options but he might not be able to go to the school of his choice this year. He may have to stay home and go to the community college, which would just break my heart and really disappoint him. He's such a bright kid and deserves better than he's getting. It's just not fair, I think, because his parents are "middle income" he can't get any financial aid. I'd like to know where they think we can afford a $16,000 loan?!?!

I have to put this in the Lord's hands because it's too big of a problem for us to handle alone. I know He has big plans for Cory and I have to trust that He will work this out. In the mean time, we keep applying for scholarships and hoping Cory can find a part-time job soon!