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Student Loan Crisis and Lack of Knowledge of Financial Aid for Students

We hear it everyday the student loan crisis. People can't find jobs and cannot pay their student loans.  Everyday we get calls asking us if students can discharge their school loans in bankruptcy; which is an unfortunate no. What does surprise me is that people in New Jersey don't apply for financial aid. I went to high school in New York when I was applying for college we knew that there was help available for people who could not afford to pay for college.  If I was going to stay in the State of New York in addition to the Federal Aid from the government I was also entitled to State grants such as TAP. Plus whatever the school decided to grant me based on merit.  I have to say it must be that New York does a great job in educating students once they are about to go to college. 

I talked to my clients about their economic situation everyday.  They always comment about school. What always shocks me if that they have never heard financial aid.  I end up having to educating then about the available aid for students such as the FAFSA which is the application you will use to apply for the federal student aid programs provided by the department of education.   There is also TAG which is the Tuition Aid Grant for the State of New Jersey and New Jersey Stars, etc.

People have borrowed 40K to 50K student loans per year without even applying once for financial aid.  We have to take responsibility and do our research before getting seduced into taking a student loan. Below you will find some links hopefully they are helpful. Please comply with deadlines the early you apply the better. You have to apply every year.

Federal
https://fafsa.ed.gov/ (you need to get a pin first. Apply as early as possible)
New Jersey
http://www.hesaa.org/Pages/NJGrantsHome.aspx

Once last piece of advise when you get your financial aid package from your institution appeal it .
You can also ask for a waiver of the school's application based on need.

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