On Friday, as the partial government shutdown drew closer to becoming the longest such in U.S. history, an estimated 800,000 federal employees went without their scheduled paychecks.

But the impasse in Washington is affecting more than just those who work at temporarily shuttered departments and agencies. Michelle Moraa, a freshman government and politics major at the University of Maryland, is struggling to get her financial aid for the spring semester, which starts in 14 days.

“I wish people would take into consideration how this shutdown is affecting more than just government workers,” said Moraa, who lives in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Poolesville, Maryland. “That’s something I didn’t think about until I realized I was going through it.”

For days after the new year, Moraa scrambled to no avail to reach the Internal Revenue Service, where only about 12 percent of workers are still on the clock. She needed a copy of her mother’s tax transcript to send to this university’s Office of Student Financial Aid so the office could finish processing her FAFSA application and confirm her financial aid award for the spring semester.

But when she tried logging on to the agency’s website, she was met with a notice that the site was “unavailable due to system maintenance.” And she had similar luck when she tried dialing into the agency’s office: she repeatedly got an automated message that “live telephone assistance is not available at this time.”

[Read more: UMD is enrolling more out-of-state students — and hiking their tuition]

University spokesperson Katie Lawson wrote in an email that the school works with students individually to confront hardships they face.

“We are very committed to keeping students enrolled and pursuing their education,” she wrote. “This is central to our mission.”

Indeed, the day after ABC7 interviewed about her situation in early January, she said the financial aid office reached out to her to say they’d accept her mother’s tax form — which she already possessed — in lieu of the transcript while she waited for the IRS to get back to her.

Yet Moraa said it will still take up to a week for the financial aid office to process the tax form — and in the meantime, she doesn’t know how much money in financial aid she’ll be allocated for the upcoming semester.

[Read more: Some Maryland students could receive up to $5,000 for community college]

Since she’s still working to pay off last semester’s cost, without this information she isn’t sure whether she will be able to return to this university in the spring.

“I feel like I’m on the fence of, ‘Am I going back to school next semester or am I not?’” she said. “It’s frustrating not knowing… if I personally have to take a semester off, maybe work, or go to a local community college.”

Money is tight for Moraa, with two other siblings in college and a single mom. In an attempt to draw in funding, Moraa set up a GoFundMe page called “Please Help My Siblings and I Stay in College.”

While the page’s goal is $20,000, Moraa said any amount of money raised will help. As of Sunday night, $50 had been raised.

“There was really no downside [of creating the page],” Moraa said. “This is something where it would help if people contributed. And if they don’t, at least I tried.”