<p>You will need a cosigner for any loans above the Direct Loan amounts. Do you have a cosigner?</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids Oh I got you. Well, since next semester I’ll have $3750, which means I’ll only need to take out about $4200 which isn’t that much, or is it?
And yes, their is UNCG near my home, but as of now, my GPA is too low to transfer (had some mental health problems going on that I wasn’t aware of) AND living at home right now with just 2 classes is hard enough. My family environment isn’t that great but I can deal with it for another year I guess. </p>
<p>@thumper1 umm, my parents MIGHT do it. </p>
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my GPA is too low to transfer (</p>
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<p>???</p>
<p>What? What is your GPA?</p>
<p>how the heck do you expect to get into grad school or a PA program with a GPA that is too low to transfer to a satellite UNC???</p>
<p>What is your GPA?</p>
<p>You seem to be in quite a situation. If your gpa is too low then you won’t get into grad school. If you don’t get into grad school, your prospects with a psychology major is not good. Maybe you should look at a new career path that does not require you to take out 20000 in loans.</p>
<p>I couldn’t afford school because we were “poor” and there was no money in my program because my grades were too “high”. So, I took my time taking 1 course per semester at the CC, while working full time to help support my parents.<br>
Yes, it took a really long time to get through college and grad school, just taking one or two courses at a time, and I had to transfer from my private university to my instate school, riding a bus and bike to get to school and work. But, I had to because I didn’t have a choice financially. I did it by scrimping and saving. If you want an education badly enough, you will figure out how to make it work. It wont be easy, but its what has to be done if you really want to complete your education.
I am very lucky. In my major, there are more jobs than people to fill them. Not so with psych-it’s competitive and doesn’t pay well.<br>
FAFSA is an application, it’s not a real agency that hands out money. (Free APPLICATION for Federal Student Aid). The application information is collected and sent to the colleges and to the government for possible federal aid/loans. It’s not a high and mighty agency that chooses to punish you by not giving you aid-its a piece of paper. The colleges use the application information to see if you qualify for their funds. </p>
<p>I think your dismissing the community college option too quickly. Keep in mind that psychology majors have a good deal of general education credits to earn OUTSIDE their major classes. Community college would allow you to take these GE’s at a low price so when you transferred to the university, you could focus on your major and not stress about English 101 and the likes. Your AP credits and college classes you took prior to CC don’t disappear. </p>
<p>I wish I could offer you financial help but it’s pretty late in the game. School has either already started or going to start soon. If you are dead set against community college, then I would suggest taking some time off to work and save. It sucks that your parents are struggling but in reality, they aren’t required to provide you with a college education. It’s nice when parents can or can at least help but no parent is required to. Credit card debt sometimes happens to even to careful people… getting laid-off, medical problems… maybe they were living above their means but maybe they were also hit with some difficult times that lasted longer than the savings.</p>
<p>Can you clarify – how many years of school do you have left before getting your bachelor’s degree. You said something about wasting 3 years if you went to CC so does that mean you are in your senior year, and if so, how did you get this far? Do you have 3 years worth of credit from AP classes and concurrent enrollment classes? Or have you already been a full-time college student for a while?</p>
<p>Since the money situation seems to be new (suddenly needing loans), I suspect that the first 2-3 years of college were spent elsewhere…maybe at a CC or a commutable UNC. Doesn’t sound like the parents were ever paying for college and the need for private loans (and the learning that FA is often not much money is new.)</p>
<p>Sounds like maybe some grades were quite low dragging down the GPA. If so, wonder how he/she got into the current school.</p>
<p>If the student has been at his/her current college the whole time, then I wonder what was covering all the costs? And what covered this semester’s expenses? half of a student loan wouldn’t do it. </p>
<p>Something is strange about this story. </p>
<p>Another question: Does the state of NC have some grant/scholarship money for good students? If so, did you lose that aid when your GPA dropped?</p>
<p>@TinkLuvsU your best scholarships are normally merit based offered by the school freshman year. It sounds like financially unc Charlotte wasn’t a good fit. Depending on your grades and scores out of high school there are several schools that have full tuition scholarships, see the pinned thread in this section. Coupled with your aid, you would’ve been in a much better position. </p>
<p>Can you live at home, work, and take a class or two at UNC-G as a non-matriculating student? If you can pull up your GPA, then you could transfer. I would be very careful about taking on loans as a psychology major. Without a masters, salary prospects are not very good.</p>
<p>Since you did middle college, I understand you can’t attend community college in psychology (for parents: “graduated from middle college” means OP attended a commutable community college while a dual enrolled high school student and has “maxed out” of CC.)
HOWEVER, considering the Psychology field isn’t that great right now, you could use your local community college OR UNC-G to 1° take classes that allow you to branch out (forensics, biology, and statistics come to mind, if you haven’t maxed out thoise fields while in Middle College) and 2° increase your GPA.
For grad school, you need 3.5 MINIMUM, closer to 3.8 to have a real shot, plus experience in clinical environment and psych labs.
If living at home is too uncomfortable, try to find an apartment to share with others. I think G is cheaper than C as a city and you may have to live far away from the university, riding your bike/the bus, but it may help you work things out.</p>
<p>Middle college doesn’t always mean you’ve maxed out on CC. Few kids get all of their GE’s out of the way and few finish middle college as college juniors ready to graduate. Part of this is they still have to complete high school requirements and thus can spend some time in classes that aren’t always wanted by the incoming university. Partly because it can be difficult to get all those classes. My D went to a highly regarded middle college and only one kid managed that… earned 2 associates which still in high school (and he’s at Bowdoin which accepted none of them… total clean slate for him.) Perhaps the OP is like this kid but more than likely, after talking to the transfer department at the university, he’d find there are still some classes he could get out of the way while working to save money and making him a strong transfer. </p>
<p>ok…so is the student an incoming frosh, but has a good number of “middle college” credits? If so, why can’t he transfer to another UNC? Why is the GPA low and WHAT GPA is low (the middle college grades? the high school grades? )</p>
<p>And how is it that UNC-C accepted this student but some other UNC (non CH) wouldn’t?</p>
<p>I gave you some alternatives that you can pursue. You can’t afford to go away to school. That is the bottom line. Most people can’t . It’s like a luxury to be able to go away to school. It’s not an entitlement. You cannot borrow any more because teen agers, young people without a job history and good bill paying history are poor risks for loans. The chances of you ending up in a line petitioning for your loans to be discharged because you can’t repay them is high. </p>
<p>Seriously, check out the programs at your CC that can lead to decent paying jobs you can do. Like medical bill coding, for example. SOmething you can even do somewhat at home, that doesn’t tax your medical condition. Then when you are making the money, you can buy a car, get your own place, pay for your own education.</p>
<p>As for the issues with your credit, do get them straightened out, and close down those accounts. I would not say anything about who might have done this even if you know, but you can let your parents know that someone screwed up your credit and is in part might be the reason you can’t get school loans for college so that you are shutting this down and reporting it to the authorities. Go online and see what you can do to protect yourself for this sort of thing and get your credit reports, go through the process of getting those accounts you did not open so identified and monitor you credit from now on s that the month anything goes on your report, that you did not do you can immediately address it. </p>
<p>Mom2K, I agree, we’re missing one crucial detail: WHICH GPA is low? How low? How can it be too low to allow for a transfer from one UNC to another?
If UNC-G is not possible, then OP needs to take classes (as audit, as non degree…?) to increase their GPA. </p>
<p>OP, cptofthehouse’s advice regarding protecting yourself against credit card theft (from relatives) is excellent, try to follow it today if possible, or asap.</p>
<p>Um…if you audit, I don’t think the course will improve your GPA.</p>
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<p>The parents likely already know that the student knows that they opened these accts and charged them up. They can’t be “closed” until they are paid off. They probably can be changed so that no one can charge on them anymore…look into that.</p>
<p>However… If he/she annoys the parents too much, they likely will stop making payments and the student’s credit will be further hurt. If the debt is “up to date”, I doubt that IT is the reason for a low credit score. </p>
<p>That said, the student needs to see what OTHER accts are opened up in his name. Do they have balances? Even if they don’t have balances, they will hurt your credit.</p>
<p>The student, right now, isn’t going to be a good credit risk in any case because he doesn’t have the job/income to support add’l student loans.</p>
<p>Wasn’t there another student a while back whose parents opened up credit card accounts in her name AND took money out of her savings accounts? A bunch of us advised her to close the accounts and shut dome the credit card. She just couldn’t seem to do that…at least initially. </p>
<p>It is not an easy situation when that happens. Even at best when you are a victim of identify theft from some stranger and go after it gang busters, it is a difficult process to clear it all up. When someone that is providing your support is the culprit, it’s even more dicey and precarious for the victim I suggest no accusation to be made,and to remember who is buttering your bread and even providing it. Just say that you have to clean up and clamp down on your credit because you can’t get school loans and get on with your life with your credit record as it is. Then follow the steps as given on a number of internet sites to do this and maybe go to a credit counseling group. There are some out there that do not charge, and they can help you through the ordeal. Then you have to monitor every month when you are unlucky enough to have someone who knows your SSN and other details and might take out loans in your name. It’s a difficult line to walk, but until you are able to go out on your own, it’s not smart to confront a benefactor with this sort of thing. </p>
<p>That’s why OP would be best served finding some certificate or Assoc Degree program at the local CC that could put him into a job that makes a living wage, so that he can get out of that situation, become independent, save for college and pursue his psych degree at a later time. It’ll take longer but he can get there just the same. Many of my oldest son’'s took a while to get into their fields of work. His SO is in a grad school program at age 30,a good 8 years after getting her degree. Many didn’t use their degrees or go into fields of interest from when they were in their early 20s. It’s not like the OP is going to be that far behind. In fact he’d be better off if he could get a living wage and a decent job now, and then look into going to school full time at age 24 as an independent for a bachelor’s and then look into grad school.</p>