Feeling lost in my college journey

Also, since your parents were denied a parent plus loan, and you still owe an extra 10k for this past semester, that means that your college is costing you almost 30k a year: $9,500 in federal student loans over the two semesters plus the 10k each semester that isn’t covered equals $29,500 for the year that you owe. Multiply that times however many years are left and that adds up to a LOT of debt.

Also— are there any younger siblings who will be going to college anytime soon? If so, that is going to be additional financial stress on your family that you should anticipate and plan for.

2 Likes

They have already billed me for housing and a meal plan for next semester. I can’t cancel the meal plan unless I take off the hold on my account (from the $10k+ I owe). I didn’t cancel the housing yet until I move my things out of the room and return my key. I don’t quite understand why they are billing me when I’m not registered for classes yet.

I’m sorry but do you mean take classes now, like January-May, or some other time? Cause I thought I couldn’t take classes anywhere else unless I have my transcripts and I can’t get transcripts from either university at the moment.

I think I’ll be paying the loans. I believe I’m expected to pay 6 months after being done with school.

Unfortunately, my university doesn’t allow leave of absences, you can only withdrawal.

I have an older sibling that completed their undergrad last year and is now in grad school. I believe they are paying for their grad school on their own with loans.

I’m not sure how many semesters I have left to go, I’d have to get help from advisor, which by the way at my university, the advisors suck and are unhelpful.

At my university, I am required to have at least 120 credits to graduate. But I’m not sure if this includes the minor (at least 15 credits) you are required to have. My university also has extra requirements to graduate like taking African American courses and stuff like that.

So far, I have completed 5 semesters. I don’t think I lost that many credits, but I did lose a few. If I transfer again, I feel like I will lose a lot more cause like I said my university has certain classes a PWI might not require and they probably won’t go towards the major curricular elsewhere.

Have you looked into outside scholarships? I would think with your gpa and specific academic interests, there may be some scholarships which can help. Likely that you would be able to find some smaller scholarships, but those can add up. Look at local organizations, also ones dedicated to the health professions, also ones which are specifically for your ethnicity or race.

As to whether those 120 credits include the minor, you can probably figure that out on your own. Spend some time digging deep into the catalogue.

When I was in college I transferred. Then reached a point where I was considering transferring again. I came to realize that I really just wanted to be done with school. I was a cross cultural studies major, which would’ve have been another two years to graduate. So then I started looking at other majors and figuring out how long each would take me to graduate. In the end, I realized that what I had been majoring in at my first school would be the least amount of time so I switched back to that and finished in three months (we were on a quarter system.)

If your parents could pay they wouldn’t be telling you to go get loans. At the rate you’re going you’ll be over $50k in debt before you’re a junior.

My family is struggling to pay this fall bill of over $10k. I have no scholarships, a small grant, and I basically rely on loans to get me through.

These schools are too expensive for your family. The college is billing you because you haven’t formally withdrawn. You need to contact the school on Monday and start the withdrawal process. If the college staff is on campus I’d make arrangements to move out immediately. If you continue to let this go you’re very likely to miss the withdrawal deadlines and will end up having another $15,000 tacked on to what you owe this college for a semester they aren’t going to let you attend.

8 Likes

I’ve applied for maybe over 20 scholarships and haven’t heard back from any of them. At this point I’m just assuming I didn’t get them. I even showed them my 4.0. I did go for smaller scholarships with the smallest being $500.

However I do admit I didn’t do as much scholarship searching as I should have. It was difficult to during the semester because I always had some type of work to do. On the weekends I’d feel drained out from the week. Over this winter break, I’ve been stressing over family issues to do scholarship searching. But I am gonna start again searching for some soon.

When I looked for scholarships related to my field, a lot of them wanted people that already had experience in the field. It was weird because these scholarships were for undergrad students, yet they wanted them to have some type of experience in the field.

You can’t count on scholarships. You can apply for twenty and get none or one. Try local. One of the other posters prior gave you an unbelievably great thing. @ChangeTheGame

Bottom line…withdrawal, take a couple classes at the local UC, get a job and let’s start to rebuild your life b4 it gets too late.

Scholarships outside of school are possible, but very competitive and unlikely.

1 Like

You can take classes as an unmatriculated student, often through continuing education registration. You do not need to provide transcripts. Transcripts are required for admission as a matriculated student.

Two of my kids went to Ivies and one went to a private LAC, withdrew, did community college and then a degree completion program, two classes at a time, while working almost full-time.

At 30 they will have a BA and a resume of work, some of it related to their field. The perseverance and maturity shown by their experiences impress family and employers alike.

The majority of college students attend in a “non-traditional” way, many of them for financial reasons. There is no shame in this. It is admirable.

Please WITHDRAW asap before you have more charges. Last post here. This thread is frustrating!

11 Likes

Can your grad student sibling explain to your parents that you are out of options besides withdrawing and working? Did you call campus security and speak to a Dean two weeks ago to make sure your account wouldn’t be charged on December 30th? Have you officially withdrawn or just withdrawn in your own head? And do you understand that procrastinating is costing you money…serious money…and that every minute you spend online looking for scholarships is a minute you are NOT spending applying for a job or getting an official hold on your bill so you won’t incur late fees and interest?

I am sad for you that you aren’t getting actual help from your family but YOU need to take ownership of this mess… today…and put an end to the idea that your past due amount can get covered off by more loans. More loans now means a hole you’ll be digging out of for the next 15 years at least…every month, every paycheck, every raise… going towards your past due loans…

Withdraw officially today. Get a job tomorrow. You aren’t dropping out, you are taking your professor’s advice and gaining work experience. I’m your professor…and am telling you that by next week the charges on your account will be even higher than today. You can do this…

12 Likes

They have already billed me for housing and a meal plan for next semester. I can’t cancel the meal plan unless I take off the hold on my account (from the $10k+ I owe). I didn’t cancel the housing yet until I move my things out of the room and return my key. I don’t quite understand why they are billing me when I’m not registered for classes yet.

They’re billing you because you haven’t officially withdrawn. You must completely withdraw or you’ll be billed whether you actually take classes there or not. I’m sorry you’re in this situation. I don’t know of any outside scholarships for transfers that will pay $20,000/year. I understand how upsetting this must be, but if you continue to delay withdrawing it will only get worse.

I had the loan, additional loan from the parent loan being denied, and a grant paying for this semester, but I’m still left at a bill over $10k…and then there will be another bill for the spring…I believe I am almost at $30k in loans altogether from borrowing for my previous university and my current one.

If each semester you have a ~$3250 federal student loan + $4k loan due to PLUS loan denial + a balance of over $10k this college costs over $17k/semester or ~$35k/year more than your parents can pay. You already have over $40k of debt ($30k in loans + over $10k still owed to the college). If you add another ~$17k for spring because you don’t withdraw on time your debt will be over $57k. Even if you could borrow another $70k for the last 2 years it’s not something you should consider.

Before you consider taking on more debt you should make a plan for paying off what you currently owe. You can use college loan estimators to calculate what your monthly repayment might be. If your interest rate is 4.66% the monthly payment on $42k is ~$420. If you wait to withdraw and incur charges for spring your debt jumps to ~$63k. The payment on $63k is ~$600. If your interest rates are higher the loan repayments will be too.

You can calculate your after tax wages to create a budget. If your state’s minimum wage is $7.25/hour then 40% of your after tax income will go toward the debt you already have. That would leave you just ~$160/week for gas, car insurance, and any other expenses your parents can’t cover. And that’s only if you spend the next 10 years living in your current room. If you don’t withdraw before the spring semester deadline the payments will be closer to 60% of your net income. That gives you about $115/week for all your living expenses.

It’s really in your best interest to withdraw immediately so you don’t incur more charges.

7 Likes

Hi GoldenMindset. Just checking in. Did anyone at the college respond to your emails or calls yet? Their inboxes are probably pretty full. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to them directly. Let us know how it goes.

7 Likes

Hi,

No one has responded to my emails just yet. They are supposed to be returning to campus this week so I could imagine them trying to get through a lot of emails. I’ll most likely end up calling since I won’t be able to get up to my school to talk to them face-to-face.

Also, I have expressed to one of my parents how I truly feel about the situation, they are beginning to slowly understand this situation. So, they brought up the idea of taking classes as a non-matriculated student at a university in my hometown. We aren’t too set on stone on the idea since neither of us knows exactly how it works, so I’m gonna do some research on how it works for this particular university. The plan would be to maybe take 2 classes and look for a job. This particular university will also be virtual for the first 2 weeks, so I won’t have to worry about that transportation at the very least. However, the semester starts really soon so if I choose to do this, I’d have to move quick, IF this is an available option.

The other parent still wants me to go back, and just keeps telling me they have a plan but never said anything about it. They wanted to try a private loan even though I said a million times I didn’t want to. I applied anyway and was told I needed a co-signer. Used one of my parents and was told I had to use a different co-signer with stronger credit. Just glad this idea is finally thrown out the window and I proved to them it wasn’t gonna work.

The only reason why I’m waiting to withdrawal is because of some items still in the dorm. With COVID spreading, the university told everyone only essential personnel should be on campus. However, I know someone suggested to talk to campus security, so I think I’m gonna do that.

My hold up is for someone to get me to this school. It’s 3 hours away. Things have been chaotic in my house, but I’ve been trying to express that this is super important too. Because no one can afford extra charges made onto my account.

So that’s pretty much what has been going on lately. They are at least talking about it.

3 Likes

I’m glad it seems your parents are at least starting to wake up to the reality.

I’ve been following your thread and hope things work out in the end.

I think getting a job will be good for you in many ways. In the end you’ll get to your goal, it will just be a little different path. Hang in there.

3 Likes

Okay, just a quick update on this:

Tried to call the housing office no answer. So I called student affairs, no answer. I even called campus security, and I got the " your call cannot be completed at this time" message.

Either they are really busy or they haven’t returned to campus yet.

Does the college have an emergency number you can call?

I know this isn’t a medical type emergency but is is still an issue that requires urgent action . Hopefully campus security can let you in ASAP, even before the campus reopens.

Can you withdraw online? It doesn’t matter that you still have stuff in the dorms. Withdraw online if you can.

I am glad you are considering taking two classes as an unmatriculated student, with part-time work. When you reach 24 by the way, financial aid will be based on your income, not your parents’.

Again, withdrawal is separate from getting your stuff. Please hurry.

6 Likes

@GoldenMindset , I took a few days to consider how to respond and I couldn’t come up with anything better than what @ChangeTheGame said.

My bottom line is you’ll have to attend a place that is affordable. If your parents do not qualify for Plus loans (or don’t wish to take them out,) and you can’t land enough outside scholarships to cover the cost, you’ll have to attend a school that makes itself affordable to you. That may not be your current institution.

I’m sorry you’re in this situation. I’m sorry no one was able to help prepare you for this time and give better advice about where to apply/attend. But now that you’re in this situation, please listen to the good advice here (while taking heed that not all of is is applicable to your situation) and I’m sure you can turn this in a good direction.

Check with your current college’s FinAid office and plead your case. If your current college fails to be affordable, talk to them about wrapping up your accounting and withdrawal as soon as possible. Your most affordable path to a degree may end up being living at home and attending whatever public university is closest. But to do that you’ll have to leave your current school with a clean exit - don’t just stop attending classes and not talk to the proper offices.

7 Likes

I believe I can withdrawal online. On the school website I found a undergraduate withdrawal form.

I was only considered about getting my stuff first because I was afraid if I withdrawal before taking my stuff out the dorm and returning the key, they’d still charge me for an improper checkout fee.