<p>My D is a going to start her senior year at our state school, doing some final planning out for the fall courses. She wants to take a managerial accounting class that is a prerequisite for another class she wants to take next spring (which would be her final semester). This particular accounting class at her school has a reputation of being very poorly run, with many complaints. She wants to take the class at the community college in town instead, in conjunction with her other classes at the state school. We checked with the school and there is no rule against doing this. The only thing we are wondering about is whether carrying less than a full -time load at the state school has any negative effect we are not thinking of. (Her total credits would be full-timejust split .) She is full pay, so there are no financial aid issues. Do you know of any other factors that we need to consider? Taxes? Health insurance? Grad school applications and assistantships?</p>
<p>What is considered “full time” at her university? At many places 12 is enough to get a student full time status. If she has 12 at her university and 3 or 4 at the CC she should find that the workload isn’t onerous.</p>
<p>I’d give her current U a call to see if there are issues you may not have considered. For medical insurance, how is she currently covered? Our kids were covered as long as they didn’t age out from family policy. Other policies, especially any connected with a U may have different requirements. </p>
<p>Does she need credits from this course to graduate? Will her U accept this? Will they accept the CC course as the pre-req? Only they can give you these answers.</p>
<p>If they’re posted already, look at the finals schedule. Even if the courses themselves don’t conflict, it’s worth the time to see if the finals will conflct.</p>
<p>At my university, credits from a community college cannot be accepted after a student has reached junior status. If that is the situation at your daughter’s university also, then I think there is no problem if she just wants to learn the material that will be needed for the spring class. If she needs credit for the course she is planning to take at the community college as well, then you want to double check that she can receive credit for it, under her university’s rules.</p>
<p>Thanks all, for giving us things to think about. The university has a consortium agreement with the CC, so students who have financial aid that require full-time status can fill out a form that link the courses to one transcript. It really is a nice agreement. The office just couldn’t tell me if this provision exists for students without aid. In fact, the lady I spoke with wondered why we even needed her to be full time is aid was not an issue. Maybe there is no reason…just makes me a bit nervous.
Happymom1, although her fall credits do not add up to a big number, the courses are tough (econometrics, advanced math class beyond diff eq) and she does not want to take too much load. Without counting the CC credit, her university credits will add up to less than 12.
Good call on the finals schedule! We did not think of that…I’ll check on it. I’ll also double check on the process of transferring credit and make sure it is still possible to do during the senior year.</p>
<p>Just a Mom, I did something like this in a post-bacc accounting program. The equivalent class at the community college was well-known to be a better class than the one taught at the university: better professor, better organized, better prep for various testing and professional purposes. The post-bacc program accepted the transfer credits and I got a much better class with an excellent professor for a lower price (and at a more convenient time, to boot!)</p>
<p>Make sure that she has her ducks lined up at the CC and get an idea of the relative availability of courses. I wanted our daughter to take a finance course at her CC but she was never able to get into one. They filled up very, very quickly.</p>
<p>The CC may require paperwork and advising to take a course and it can sometimes take a while to get an appointment. In the meantime, other students are enrolling for scarce course seats. It might be a good idea to find a friend with a student at your local CC so that you could ask them what they suggest in setting things up.</p>
<p>Do look into the health insurance. I had to pay COBRA for my 19 yr old when she dropped to part-time for a semester.</p>
<p>some colleges require a student to be full time, on campus the last two semesters as a graduation requirement or to take the last so many credits on campus in the semesters prior to graduation.</p>
<p>Does she live on campus? Some schools require full time status to qualify for on campus housing.</p>
<p>Make sure the cc class qualifies as the pre-req for the spring class she wants, at her college. Ie, not just that her credit transfers.</p>
<p>There may be a limit on taking credits outside the school during the final year - double check on this. Often, there are waivers granted, but this could delay graduation if not done through official channels.</p>