Financial aid being revoked?

I've had a super busy chaotic schedule for my first term of college- I was taking five courses (one of which was online), constantly babysitting my 17 month old niece, trying to hold onto a relationship AND still maintain a social life...it wasn't working, and my grades slipped a little bit.

I might have missed one exam in two of my classes, and my professor won't let me make them up even though I explained the situation to her...my online course was definitely neglected because of bad internet connections and tons of chaos at my house, and because of that, there is no chance whatsoever of passing that course.

Even if I ace two of my finals, I can't receive anything higher then a D because I can't make up those tests...praying for a B in my english class, and I KNOW I have an A in my math course. problem is, because of those two D's, and that failing online course...I know my financial aid is likely to be revoked because of a low GPA.

I'm not wealthy by any means, nor is any member of my family, and i'm terrified of what's going to happen if i'm not able to receive financial aid for next term- it paid like 80% of my semester this time, and I don't know how i'm going to manage to pay for school if my financial aid is revoked.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I really really need some at this point in time.

Well, there is good news:

Unless your school is particularly evil, your financial aid will not be revoked on the basis of your academic performance in a single semester. At many schools, your financial aid eligibility is not academically assessed until you have completed 2 years' worth of coursework.

The Department of Education's standards require that all financial aid recipients must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 by the time they complete their second year of school. I'm not saying that your school does not have a tougher policy, but there are very few schools that would revoke financial aid eligibility on the basis of one really bad semester - especially if that semester is your first freshman term.

What is far more likely to happen, is that your financial aid department will notify you that you have been placed on financial aid probation. A student on aid probation is allowed to continue receiving all of the aid that they have qualified for - but - the student is on notice that they have ONE semester to improve their grades to some standard that they will explain to you. If you fail to achieve that minimal standard, THEN you will be placed on financial aid suspension, and THEN your aid will be revoked.

Here's what you need to do:

Contact financial aid and sit down with an aid counselor. Find out exactly what your school's policies are for maintaining aid eligibility. Then contact the academic counseling office at your school. I don't mean to insult your abilities in any way, but students who struggle in the first semester can really benefit from some helpful advice on stress and time management, and study skills. I know you have a million excuses about why you struggled in the fall, but it's pretty likely that all of that "chaos" and "babysitting" and "bad internet connections", and all of those other things are going to pop up again, and you're going to need to overcome them. Do yourself the big favor of getting some advice.

I wish you the best of luck - I don't think that your current situation is as dire as you suspect - but I can tell you that it could easily become that dire if the same kind of problems crop up in the spring. Better to get a handle on all of this now.