Given the thousands of people who are now out of work in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio because of the Chrysler bankruptcy carquake … I’m going to pick up on a few topics specifically for that audience. And the first question is:

What about college?

This situation may be easier to resolve than you think.

Currently in college or will be this fall

If your student is currently in college or will be this fall, you have most likely already filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and any other paperwork required by your college such as the CSS Profile. The deadlines for most programs that southeast Michigan students quality with the FAFSA was March 1, although some colleges wanted the forms by Feb. 15.

If you haven’t filled it the FAFSA, do so anyway. There may be some opportunities remaining, you just may not get all the funding you would have otherwise qualified for.

Let’s say your income status has significantly changed since you filed that application. Perhaps you are now in a layoff of interderminate time because of the Chrysler upheaval. In that case, many financial aid experts recommend sending a letter to your college’s financial aid office explaining the new circumstances. University of Michigan-Dearborn, for example, has set aside money specifically for hardship cases.

USA Weekend, which is distributed locally with the Detroit Free Press, had an article about that situation today.

For some background, FinAid.com has a detailed article for parents and students on how to maximize your financial aid funds that explains how to work within the existing rules as you submit your applications for grants and low-cost loans.

Now, one of the pieces of “advice” I got when one of my daughter’s previous college financial aid award letters arrived was to apply for any and all available scholarships. I’ve also seen that “advice” in financial news articles in late spring.

The problem is that, by the time financial aid award letters have arrived, it’s a little late in the year for local students to be applying for scholarships.

Most of the scholarships that students in Monroe County, Mich., actually win have deadlines that range from mid-February through early April. There is the occasional scholarship that has a summer deadline, but that’s not how most of them work in our area. Check my archives under keyword scholarships.

College is a year away

If your student will be a senior in high school this fall, be aware that calendar year 2009 income is what goes on the college financial aid applications for the 2010-2011 school year. Since household income is one of the key factors that is used in the college financial aid formulas, your currently lower income will be included in the calculations.

What you want to focus on in the meantime is building up the student’s resume. If a summer job or part-time job can’t be found, then have the student do something useful with community service or leadership skills this summer that will look good on college and scholarship applications.

This is also a good time to review the college recruiting material, look up the college web sites and have more discussions about the campuses you visited as a junior. After all, many of you will be filing college applications this fall.

You can also do some research on how to write a scholarship essay. Some scholarship have deadlines starting in the fall, but many of the scholarships that students from Monroe County, Mich., actually win are announced after Christmas break with deadlines ranging from mid-February to early April.

In the meantime, parents need to look for any possible way to save money on household expenses. I’ve got lots of tips and links in this blog and in my sidebars. Your goal is to keep the bills paid and your credit report in as good shape as possible.

College is more than a year away

If you have other pressing financial matters to take care of because of a layoff, I would not too caught up in the details of college financing.

There are some long-range planning techniques that can be helpful (FinAid.org has a good explanations), so if you’ve already made those arrangements or would like to consider some of those options, that’s fine.

But here is what you have to remember: the rules for programs such as grants, loans and scholarships change from year to year.

President Barack Obama ran on a campaign platform that included big changes in how the federal student college financing system works. Depending on what gets approved and when, the federal program opportunities and rules could be very different by the 2010-2011 school year than what we now see.

A year ago, I reported on this blog about the college financing market – specifically how the credit crisis led to programs getting dropped or changing their rules, leaving parents and students scrambling.

The Michigan Promise grant program has changed its rules repeatedly since it was introduced. One graduation year made a difference as to whether my daughter could use that money for an out-of-state college. (She couldn’t.) There was even some talk a few months ago about dropping the program completely because of state budget issues.

Scholarships also come and go from year to year, based on investment returns and what the sponsoring committees or foundations. Example: a scholarship opportunity that my daughter would have been an ideal candidate for fizzled out her senior year when the sponsoring group rewrote its guidelines.

Another program that is just starting are the Michigan Promise Zones. There are none available in Monroe County, Mich., but Detroit students are eligible for this offer.

So what do you do in the meantime? Encourage your student to pay attention in class, get good grades, and become involved in community service, volunteer projects and leadership roles. That way, your student has a resume that is ready to submit for whatever scholarship opportunities will be available down the road.

In the meantime, save money whereever you can. Here’s my archive on high school expenses.