Excluded from FAFSA, coping with debt

When I became a student at UTEP, I thought budgeting would be different for someone who lives with his parents and goes to a low-cost (for a four-year university), commuter school. But even under these circumstances I still quickly found not only myself, but my parents in debt.

As 60 percent of all students receive financial aid, according to the UTEP Financial Aid website, I can honestly say that my biggest lesson in college was finding out just how helpful federal aid really is to some, and not so much to others.

I have been attending UTEP since fall 2008 making me a rare four-year graduate this May (knock on wood). But graduating in four years has not been as rewarding to me as I imagined. Including this semester, I have been enrolled in nine semesters (counting two summer sessions that I consider one semester), tallying up quite a tab here at UTEP.

I had to pay out of my pocket nearly every semester given the fact that the only loans I am offered are unsubsidized loans. For anyone not familiar with that type of loan, that means I have to pay interest that has accumulated since I accepted each loan. I have to start paying them off six months after I graduate and I have about 10 years to pay them off.

The reason for that phenomenon is because my parents apparently made too much for me to receive any grants or subsidized loans (where the length of the payoff is the same but I only have to pay the principal and not the interest). When I received my Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) report back, I was told my parents could completely contribute to my school tuition.

Yes, unsubsidized loans are technically considered financial aid but in the long run, will it really aid me?

What FAFSA failed to note is that my parents have three other children they have to account for (who have been in either middle or high school since my college career began), bills to pay and a house to maintain. FAFSA asks just for our tax returns, both my parents and mine, which takes into account mortgage, car and other large payments.

But when my parents had to replace the water pipes at my house during the snow-pocalypse of 2011, when we had to adjust our budget because my sister was rear-ended in a hit-and-run and when we had to pay for two separate funeral expenses, FAFSA seemed not to care.

Over the past four years, FAFSA has given me the same response saying my parents can still contribute 100 percent of the time to my school. Even when my sister enrolled at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last semester, FAFSA still said my parents could pay both our schools.

Yeah, right.

Granted, my parents make enough money to live comfortably with four children but by no means do they make enough to pay about $7,000 a year for school.

I am in that gray area, and residing in that zone does not bode well.

My parents saved enough money for me to go to school throughout their lives, or so they thought. They paid for my first two semesters with ease, then had to begin making monthly payments with a credit card the next two.

During that time, I had a stable job with GECU but I did not make enough to pay $7,000 and make a monthly car and credit card payment. My parents were fortunate enough to make those payments by cutting back, which definitely became a normal routine.

Then the well ran dry. These past two years, I had to take loans out for school for my two summer sessions in 2010 and two full school years. I have accumulated nearly $11,000 in loans, without interest. It could have been more but I was able to save up some money for this year to pay half of it off and I received a $1,000 scholarship last year.

Scholarships have also been a problem for me. I was told I was a finalist for a few larger ones, including one from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund worth up to $4,500, over the years but when they asked for my Student Aid Report (SAR) that said my parents made enough money, I knew it was game over for me. I can't even begin to count the number of times I was told I "didn't meet the financial needs" even though I met the GPA requirements and my resume had journalism experiences since I was a freshman.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when my friends tell me they bought a car, laptop or want to go on vacation with their excess financial aid money. Most of the students I hear this from are the same ones that entered UTEP at the same time as me and are still considered sophomores by their credit hours.

If I've done my part by graduating in four years, interning since my freshman year and holding a 3.35 GPA, why should I suffer?

This is my life, and it's ending one dollar at a time.

William Vega may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.