Lies, Lies, Lies & More Lies

The Financial Aid Department, where they "help" students obtain the money to assist with college funding. Here is lie number one - the name of the department includes the word aid.
The definition of which is - to give help to somebody: to provide somebody or something with help or with what is needed to achieve something.
They do in fact by definition assist students in achieving their dreams of obtaining a college degree. To accompany their degree graduates will find that the Financial Aid Department has also assisted them in acquiring an astronomical debt. The people who work in the Financial Aid Department actually believe they are doing their jobs and helping students attain their dreams. In reality they are taking advantage of hopeless souls that desperately want to go to college and really have no idea what the financial outcome will be when they finally get their degree.

A student, panic-stricken and hopeless, enters the Financial Aid office for the very first time in the hopes of finding some genuine financial assistance. Beginning of lie two, there is no genuine assistance available. Within a seemingly immovable, anxiety induced trance the student barely hears the rules, regulations and explanations being churned out at the speed of light, as if the speaker were in a speed reading contest. High hopes and a desperate need for financial relief, help the words begin to penetrate the fog. The legal e’s make no sense, but the assistant seems very excite about the application and the funds available. With misery and distress dominating the forefront of reality all that remains is the one thought, “I need a great deal of money and these people can help me get it“. As we all know the price of higher education is beyond unreasonable. The thought repeating over and over, “get the money by whatever means necessary”.

Young and naïve most new students believe the people in the Aid office are there to help them and will facilitate the loan process, helping get the money they, for all intents and purposes, cannot live without. The third lie - your told the loan will only cost you $50 a month. As my father always said if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. This is not technically a lie, unless you consider signing one loan application, which is later converted into four loans, does this not constitute a lie. This lie is justified in how the loan is distributed. Although your signature appears on only one loan application that loan is distributed in four dividend payments, one for each of the four semesters of the year.

What this means is what was applied for once, a loan your were told would be $50 a month is now four loans, totaling $200 a month. Continuing at this rate a Bachelors degree, if your able to complete it in four years, will bring you a graduation gift of an $800 a month loan payment. If, like most, you cannot finish the degree in four years for reasons such as:
Class availability - most classes are only available once a year
In-house completion - meaning the class must be taken at that college - no correspondence
or transfers
Limit on credit hours per semester - most are limited to 15 hours per semester.
If any of these problems arise in your degree plan, which will now take five years, your loan payment will increase to $1000 a month.

Lie four - what are the best forms of financial aid. The Financial Aid Department does not make it a point to let students know first and foremost about money available that does not require repayment. There are many ways of acquiring free money, meaning no repayment required, for college including:

Grants - Pell grants Government (too numerous to list)
State Work Study
School(High School & College) Local (City, County, District)

Scholarships - Federal State
Local Carr
Athletic Music
Band Art
Journalism Class Position
GPA University Alumni
Achievement awards Young Scholars

There are scholarships available in almost every category or subject, some scholarships are not available until the second semester because they are based on grades. Some government grants and scholarships may be difficult and time consuming to apply for but when the money is free what is time.