Finding help that fits your situation

Start with your situation and work outward

Most campuses run a dozen or more offices that hand out some form of help, and each one sees only its own slice of your life. The financial aid office sees your FAFSA, the registrar sees your credits, and the dean of students sees an emergency when it lands on a desk. Starting from your situation tells you which of them to visit first.

Plenty of students sit in two or three situations at once. A veteran can also be a parent, and a student on their own can also work 30 hours a week. Read every part of this guide that describes you, because the help adds up across them.

Student parents and working students

For a student raising a child, the first stops are the campus child care center, the financial aid office and the state child care assistance agency. Ask the aid office to add an allowance for child care to your cost of attendance, and ask the child care center whether the college receives CCAMPIS funding. The Title IX coordinator handles absences tied to pregnancy and a new baby.

A student who works should start with the aid office and the county or state SNAP office. Working at least 20 hours a week in paid work is one of the exemptions the SNAP student rule recognizes, and the state agency decides how it applies to you. The human resources office at your job can tell you whether your employer pays toward tuition, which the aid office then needs to hear about.

Read every part of this guide that describes you, because the help adds up across them.

Commuters and students who are first in their family

Commuters get the most from the parking or transportation office, the student life office and the aid office. Ask about reduced transit fares, commuter lounges and lockers, and how the school sets the housing and transportation parts of your cost of attendance. Those parts are usually lower for a student living with parents, so tell the aid office if you pay rent at home.

Students whose parents did not go to college should look for TRIO Student Support Services, which offers advising, tutoring and help reading an aid offer, though spaces are limited. A summer bridge program, where a college runs one, gives a head start on campus before the first term. The aid office can also answer questions your family has about the FAFSA, including in Spanish.

Veterans, military families and students with disabilities

Veterans and their families work mainly with the school certifying official, the veterans resource center and the VA itself at va.gov. The certifying official reports your enrollment so GI Bill payments can arrive, and any change in your classes has to go through that person. Spouses and children can ask the VA about Chapter 35, the Fry Scholarship and a transfer of Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement.

Students with disabilities begin with the disability services office, which arranges accommodations once you request them. Your state vocational rehabilitation agency may help pay for training tied to a job goal, and the aid office can add disability-related costs to your budget. If you receive SSI or SSDI, the Social Security Administration has its own rules for student earnings and school money.

Students on their own

A student without family support, whether homeless, in foster care or out of it, should find the campus liaison for homeless and foster youth, sometimes called a single point of contact. That person can help with housing over breaks, emergency funds and the paperwork that supports independent status on the FAFSA. The financial aid administrator can make a homelessness determination or grant a dependency override when the facts call for one.

Former foster youth can ask the state child welfare agency about Education and Training Vouchers and ask the admissions office whether the state waives tuition. Medicaid for former foster youth continues to age 26 under rules set in each state. Whatever your situation, nobody should charge you a fee to file the FAFSA or point you to these programs.