<p>I do not qualify for financial aid at the community college because I already have a Bachelor's degree. My goal however is to return to school in order to obtain my CPA license. In order to sit for the exam I will need 24 units in Accounting and 24 in business related courses and a total of 150 units. The 150 units will be reached once I finish the accounting and business units. My Bachelor's degree is not in accounting nor business. So, I was wondering how I should go about writing the appeal letter to explain to the Director of Financial Aid my situation? My goal is not to get a second Bachelor's. Thank you!</p>
<p>At best, you will only qualify for Stafford Loans. You probably are better off to work full-time and study part-time so that you can pay for your CC costs out of current income.</p>
<p>I was working full time, but for a temp job. I currently work part time tutoring elementary school students as part of a 'No Child Left Behind" program. I have not been able to find permanent full-time employment here in southern California since I graduated a year ago. Also, I would rather study full time for 2 years worth of education than do part time which could take up to 4 years!</p>
<p>You know that a school has no discretion in disbursement of state and/or federal aid. Once you have a bachelor’s that money is simply no longer available to you. In the case of a community college, there is probably little or no institutional money available to any students. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but I honestly don’t think you have any options besides unsubsidized loans. Are you looking for advice on an appeal so you can get loans?</p>
<p>Yes, I am asking for an appeal to receive loans. I understand that I no longer qualify for grants.</p>
<p>lindseymalia -</p>
<p>The person who would know about this is kelsmom. Send her a PM and ask for her advice.</p>
<p>Our little community college has some scholarships available. Perhaps yours does as well. Many of them are privately funded and not all are even need based.</p>
<p>Lindsey,</p>
<p>Does your school participate in the stafford loan program? If your college does not participate in the Stafford loan program, you may have to pay your tuition out of pocket.</p>
<p>Are you taking classes without planning to get a degree or certificate in a particular field? If so, you are not eligible for financial aid - even Stafford/direct loans. You have to be a degree seeking student at the institution to be eligible even for loans (even if they waive the excessive hours that you have for completing a degree at their institution). </p>
<p>Can you even get 24 hours of accounting and 24 hours of business at a CC? I know at the one I went to they only offered about 6 hours of accounting and maybe 6 of economicas a a few hours of other business classes.</p>
<p>Yes, my school does participate in the Stafford loan program and I am told that I qualify for these loans. I am wondering, though, how do I go about writing the appeal letter given my situation? Also, the community college I am planning to attend offers all business and accounting courses needed. They designed the program specifically for individuals who already have a Bachelor’s degree in a field besides accounting who want to pursue getting a CPA license.</p>
<p>However, you are not seeking a degree. You are just taking courses. Unless you are a degree seeking matriculated student, you will not be eligible for financial aid. Yourbest bet would be to go back take the credits as part of an asssociates degree program and complete the associates.</p>
<p>What about going back for accounting certification? Will that qualify me?</p>
<p>I do not think it will qualify you because you will not be a degree seeking student. Ask your school’s financial aid office if you can pursue a certificate program and still qualify for aid</p>
<p>If you are formally enrolled as a candidate for an Associates degree, that does not mean you ever have to actually complete one. You can conceivably take advantage of whatever financial aid is available to you, complete the coursework that you need, and then move on. Remember, lots of people drop out of various kinds of programs all the time.</p>
<p>And yes, many community colleges will allow you to enroll in an Associates degree program after completing a bachelor’s degree - I have a friend who completed an Associates in a brand new field after earning a Ph.D. Should you find a full Associates degree to be useful for some reason, chances are that a whole bunch of your previous credits will transfer into that program and cover most (if not all) of the coursework that is not specific to your major.</p>
<p>I’m in a bachelor’s accounting program. I’ll have the number of credits required to sit for the CPA exam (225 quarter credit hours) about the same time I finish my bachelor’s. But many of my classmates are in the same boat as you. Either they have a different degree and came back to get enough credits to take the CPA exam, or they’ll finish their bachelor’s before they have enough credits to sit for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>Most of them either work part or full time and take 1-3 classes per quarter, and/or apply for scholarships to help cover the costs. There are several scholarship opportunities at our college for just this exact situation (5th year students). I believe there are even some national scholarships for the same thing. Essentially, everyone in the accounting world understands why the 5th year is necessary, even if you can’t get financial aid, there are programs/scholarships you can investigate to potentially help with costs.</p>
<p>Only problem is, you’ll probably have to show some aptitude in accounting before you can get an accounting scholarship (I tried, but wasn’t able to get any until I posted a quarter or two of good accounting grades). So, I’d suggest you check with your community college, or even better, a 4-year university near you with an accounting program, to see if there are scholarships you could apply for. You might have better luck at a 4-yr, even if the sticker price is higher.</p>
<p>Additionally, does your state accountancy board require a certain number of upper-level business/accounting courses? Ours does. Generally, you won’t get upper division credit at a community college. Intermediate accounting, cost accounting, tax, and advanced accounting come to mind as not usually offered at a community college. I also know that a big concern of my classmates in your exact situation are taking enough courses to have a chance at passing the CPA exam. i.e…if you’re switching majors and have no prior accounting experience, you can certainly get the number of credits required to sit, but you’ll be missing a lot of material covered in the exam. So plan your courses very carefully and good luck!</p>
<p>No the state of California does not require upper-level accounting courses. California simply requires a bachelors degree, 24 accounting units, 24 business related units and 150 total credits.</p>
<p>You are not eligible for loans unless you are in a regular, degree seeking program, as swimcatsmom pointed out. Unless you are in a qualified post bach program (and it doesn’t sound like you are, given that you have to do an appeal), you are probably not aid-eligible. There ARE situations in which you could get loans, but it all depends on your school, your particular program, etc. Before you write an appeal, WHY are you writing an appeal? Find out from your aid office why you do not qualify for aid. Ask them what you can do to qualify, if anything. You can’t write an appeal letter if you don’t know what you are appealing! They won’t give you aid just because you write a letter that talks about how much you want this and how well you plan to do … because the underlying issue has nothing to do with desire or aptitude. Find out what the problem is, why you are not able to get aid. Once you know that, it will be easier to write an appeal.</p>
<p>How will you pass the CPA exam without the upper level classes and how do you get 24 credit hours in accounting without any upper level classes? Unless things have changed over the years, you will need at least Intermediate Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Cost Accounting, Personal Tax, Corporate Tax, Auditing and Business Law to pass the CPA exam. I think it’s great you are going this route, but be sure to check the cc courses to see if they cover everything you need for the CPA exam. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your money.</p>
<p>The program at this cc is specifically designed for students who already have a bachelors degree in any field and wish to obtain their CPA license. I don’t see why they would have such a program it does not get you ready to sit for the CPA exam. The program does require intermediate accounting, auditing, cost accounting, etc…</p>
<p>Hi Kelsmom, </p>
<p>The reason I do not qualify for aid is because I already have a Bachelor’s degree. However, according to my FAO I do qualify for loans, but that would need to be appealed to the Director of Financial Aid. In the appeal letter I would have to document that I have changed my major. Would it be best to do as “happymomof1” said and enroll as an accounting major? </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>