After her original application for aid was denied in July, Diaz said she had to submit a letter from her mother's former employer saying she had been laid off, statements of her mother's unemployment insurance payments and 2008 income tax information. She also presented a foreclosure notice her mother received in June on their house in Rockville.
Her request to Montgomery College was rather modest. To cover the cost of tuition for three courses and books, she would need about $1,500.
"It's all relative; to me that's a fortune," said Diaz. She has applied for three part-time jobs and also volunteers as an emergency medical technician with the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad.
"I'm not some deadbeat asking for charity," she said. "I'm trying to improve myself so I can help somebody else someday."
Aid advisers have little hope that the demand for aid will lessen in the next year. But they hope they're offering enough relief that students like Diaz won't have to take semesters off or discontinue college.
At College Park, where the cost is $21,163 for in-state students, Bauder said 12 percent more students have filed federal aid forms, an increase driven by families making $150,000 to $175,000 a year.
She added that the billing office has been as lenient as possible and will allow students at least three extra weeks to pay their registration fees for the fall semester. She expects to hand out $3 million to students who have appealed their aid packages, double what the university paid last year. And the university has started a donation fund called Keep Me Maryland to supplement its aid budget.
"The vision we have for our office is that no student will leave UM based on a lack of financial resources," she said. "We've been very successful in that effort. For those students who appealed, we don't know of any that have left the university for lack of resources."
Student loans
College students can apply for federal loans to offset their tuition costs. They are eligible for:
* up to $5,350 in federal Pell Grants
* $2,000 in unsubsidized federal loans
* $5,500 in federal Stafford loans
