Ecstatic about Unexpected Study Grants!

Today Duarte got news that he is getting $6,300 worth of grants to cover his education for the next academic year! Yes, grants, not loans, which means we don’t have to pay them back. As the in-state tuition and fees at the local college is about $2674 per semester for 18 credits ($5348 for the whole year), he’ll even have plenty to spare for books.

We were totally not expecting it, and we had to read the grant letter over and over to believe it! We are so excited, because since I won’t be able to start a degree program until next fall, all the courses I need to take this year we’ll have to pay out of pocket. We were worried about how we’d pay for both of us to go to school full time, since we certainly haven’t saved anything while working in Pakistan.

When we filed our FAFSAs, our incomes were incredibly low based on the US dollar since we’ve been earning in rupees. I think the FAFSA estimated that we could each afford about $345 towards our education fees. I guess the financial aid office took that seriously, and we’re glad they did!