The housing market crash and the floundering economy are hurting many people financially, but it may help Christie Clark pay for college.

The Frederick High School senior calls it a "blessing in disguise."

An aspiring minister, the 18-year-old will attend school at her first choice — the Oklahoma Baptist University, where she wants to study cross-cultural studies and anthropology.

At $23,000 a year, the private, out-of-state college was not readily affordable for Clark.

But that changed when the housing market slumped, causing Clark's dad to lose his job in construction. Jobs became scarce, and he was only able to pick up sporadic, part-time employment.

And as a result, Christie became eligible for need-based financial aid from the federal government.

"I definitely would rather my father had not lost his job," Clark said. "But it was definitely a blessing in disguise."

While Clark would not say how much she will receive in federal money, she said it will not be enough to cover all of her college expenses. With the cost of books, travel and other expenses, she expects her true budget target to be about $27,000 a year.

But the unexpected windfall has motivated her to start a meticulous search for scholarships and explore any other ways to finance her education.

Clark has applied for scholarships through high school and college, and may have to wait until the end of August before she hears back on some of them. She also tried the Community Foundation of Frederick County, but recently found she was not approved for any additional money.

Clark said that may be partly due to the fact that this year many more students are searching for scholarships than even a year before.

"If there were 20 applicants applying for scholarships last year, now there are 40," she said.

The Clarks, however, are optimistic. In a stagnant economy, when families are struggling to pay everyday bills and college investment funds have gone down with the market, things could have been much worse, they said.

"I have some friends whose college funds have been completely lost," Christie Clark said. "For others, they have been chopped in half."

If nothing else works out, Clark plans to take out a student loan, but that would be a last resort. "It's not the loans that I am worried about," she said. "It's paying them back that is the problem."

Clark considered changing her college plans and going to a state school or a community college, but she decided against that because no school in Maryland offers courses similar to Oklahoma's cross-cultural ministry.

Her father, Paul Clark supports her decision. "It's a great school," he said.

Clark hopes that by the time his daughter has to leave for school, he will have a stable job or they would hear back from her scholarship sources.

"We'll just see how it goes for now," he said. "The outlook is not that good, but my faith is strong."

E-mail Margarita Raycheva at mraycheva@gazette.net.