College Emergency Financial Aid
Are You in Need of Serious Help?
What happens if you have some type of financial or family emergency while you’re in school and suddenly your college education is at risk?
Before you pack up and leave school impulsively, here is the information you need to make an informed and levelheaded decision.
Before you let your college education go down the drain, consider this: if you had an immediate source for spare finances, to tide you over, would your education be in such jeopardy?
Emergency Loans and Scholarships
Emergency financial aid could come in the form of short-term loans or as scholarship or grant money, money you are not required to repay.
Choose to stay in school. There is plenty of emergency money and available sources to help you through a legitimate crisis.
How Emergency Student Aid Works
Emergency financial aid sources are available, believe it or not, to help in times of financial crisis. And they exist right on most college campuses. Anticipate the requirement that you will be expected to document your situation. As unsavory as this might be to you in the throes of a personal or family emergency, understand that those funds are there only because they are secure and dispensed exclusively for legitimate reasons. This is not some college student’s gas money home for Spring Break or late night beer money.
Good examples of a legitimate situation that could lead a student to be in danger of losing his or her college purse include: allocation of family college funds for a sudden health emergency, loss of a job that was key in providing tuition funds, or loss of college housing.
Here are some common criteria you may have to adhere to when applying for emergency financial aid:
- Most college financial aid offices require you to have filed the FAFSA.
- You may be expected to have a minimum GPA.
- There will often be a limit on your loan or scholarship, usually under $1,000.
- Most colleges will require you to be a full-time student.
- You may be asked to provide copies of bills or invoices if your money was used to cover necessary bills or costs.
Because these are emergency situations, expect a very quick turnaround on funds if you are qualified. Even in college financial aid offices, your application for emergency aid is typically handled immediately.
College Resources
Your college or university very likely has an established plan for making emergency loans or scholarships available to students that need them even if you are unaware of it. Often a college financial aid webpage will include information on emergency student aid. Some schools feature online applications you fill out and file online for express service.
Contact your financial aid office immediately if you fail to find information on emergency financial assistance readily available on your campus website.
Just to show you how varied the emergency student aid programs are, here are a few examples of a few different types:
- The University of Texas-El Paso has a regular program of Emergency Loans that are designed to assist students that don’t qualify for other financial aid. Like most emergency financial aid funds the resources are limited and pretty much cover only a part of the required tuition. After that recipients may apply to setup tuition payments in installments, making repayment of outstanding bills easier to manage.
- The University of Florida maintains a number of endowments that fund the University of Florida Emergency Short Term Loans program. Eligible students may apply for an emergency loan that grants them $1,000. Applicants must have a good academic record and be pursuing a degree program. A 1% interest rate is applied and most loans must be repaid by the end of the semester.
- The University of California-Berkeley features a number of different emergency funds each designed for particular needs or student profiles: Boalt Hall Emergency Loan for law students, International House Emergency Loans, Short-term emergency loans, and general emergency loans. The Short-term emergency loan program is capable of delivery up to $650 in short-term emergency loans in less than an hour for students with legitimate emergencies.
A few colleges and universities maintain separate funds for emergency textbook loans. Seriously short on finances for a good reason you might ask if your college has a program like this.
Private Sources
Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Aid program is available at 31 community colleges in the country as part of a pilot project. The program is funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and is jointly sponsored by the American Indian College Fund and Scholarship America. This is not a loan program. Community college students who present legitimate emergency situations that threaten their college educations and their futures may be granted scholarships designed as quick solutions to short-term setbacks. The Dreamkeepers program is still being created and is available on a limited basis. Administering agencies include Scholarship America and the American Indian College Fund.
