My Twitter feed was full of the same story today, about a writer who lost all her money and thought about not adopting two children and finally decided to go through with it. Sadly she seemed to have missed some basics and said things like they were going to sell everything in the house to pay for tuition. The trouble with doing this is that you end up with an empty house, nowhere to sit and no resources when the next year's tuition comes due.

It doesn't take something as dramatic as losing all of your money for the cost of tuition to break the bank. All you need is to get laid off, or maybe have an injury where you're off work for a few months. Divorce is another time when finances are suddenly disrupted. If your circumstances change then the best option is to apply for financial aid and let the school(s) know that your circumstances have changed. You may think it's too late to apply since the optimal time is before February 1st of the year in which you plan to attend (for instance for seniors who Aare in high school now, December 2009, applications should be in by February 1, 2010) but you actually have until June of the year you attend. So a senior in high school now would have until June of 2011 to apply and get some assistance retroactively for their freshman year in college.

Now if you've already applied for financial aid for the school year you can apply again. You need to talk to the financial aid office for the school and explain what happened and give them the new numbers. They'll tell you what to do next. I believe you'll file a new FAFSA but it's been a long time since I actually had to do this so please check with the experts. If you get someone who doesn't seem to know what they're doing ask to speak to a supervisor.

Also remember you can always ask about work study for your student and get some extra cash that way. Sure not working in college is ideal but if your situation is less than ideal you have to adapt.

You can find the application for FAFSA, the first step in the United States, here: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.