Just got 100 new gray hairs

[pnwmom]

helping the community college student who's been living with us try to make sense of her public university transfer application, and how it fits her unique circumstances. (For instance, they want contact information for her abusive parents even though she has zero contact with them.) The university offices don't seem to take phone calls, and their voice mail just directs you to their website -- which contains contradictory and confusing information.

Correctly or not, she submitted it. We think. She had to pay the $60 since they wouldn't waive the fee without parental income information. (Even though she qualifies for Medicaid and got a "dependency override" on the FAFSA aid at the community college.)

Good luck to everyone else out there who's involved in the college admission process!

What a monumental pain!

[F4lconF16]

1. It is crazy...

Btw just wanted to offer any help if there's something I can do. I'm in the area (UW, right--it was you?) and I've had to do a fair amount of application stuff and talking to their admissions office in the last year. PM if you feel like it.

[pnwmom]

2. Thank you -- and you guessed right.

It's UW that has been driving me crazy.

[JDPriestly]

3. Did it years ago.. It is a painful, invasive procedure. You try very hard to make sure you are

filling the forms out correctly. It is very time-consuming and painfully invasive. That's all I remember.

[glowing]

4. A friend of mine was in a similar circumstance.

When she filed her forms and financial aid forms, she declared she was an orphan. It was the only way she could do it without using her parents info... And basically, she was on her own and abandoned. So, maybe that's the way she should attack the forms.

[pnwmom]

5. I'm very glad that worked out for your friend.

I wish there was a formal, legal way for an adult to dissolve her relationship with her adoptive parents, but there doesn't seem to be, at least in the state of Washington. (Adoption dissolutions seem to be something adoptive parents do to get rid of their kids, not the other way around.) No one seems to think it would be necessary, since an adult can just avoid bad parents -- but it would be helpful to a student applying for financial aid. It would also be helpful psychologically, to be able to legally sever the ties.

[glowing]

8. Admission councillors, if they at any good, are pretty good at finding

Ways around the "parent" issues. I don't know if there is a local university or something, but asking someone face to face is the most helpful manner in figuring out the forms... It was an admission councilor who helped my friend around the form. Why in this day in age any college financial aid package should be considering parental income as a means for payment is ridiculous. There are so many different types of families and families who refuse to help out, even if they have the financial means to do so... It's completely antiquated for the real world.

[pnwmom]

9. When I was in college you could get aid as an independent student at age 21.

Now you have to be 24 or 25. It's so unfair. An 18 year old is an adult in every other setting.

[Shrike47]

6. Bless you. You are a good person.

[pnwmom]

7. Thank you -- but I am mostly a lucky person.

It has been a privilege to have this young woman in our lives. She is an inspiration and I wish every good thing in the world for her.