<p>Are there any fin aid options for a student going back to school for a second bachelor's degree? Any creative options or ideas? Am I eligible to apply for scholarships if I have already earned a bachelor's degree?</p>
<p>No federal grant aid for 2nd degrees. If you have not used all your loan eligibility, you can get loans. Scholarships are unlikely for a 2nd degree.</p>
<p>usually no state or fed grants for a second Bachelors. Don’t think there are many scholarship offers for second bachelors. </p>
<p>I think most have to take loans, work part-time, or get an employer to pay. </p>
<p>Why do you need a second BS? What is your first degree in? What is your career goal?</p>
<p>I am a psychology graduate. The only fields really hiring in my area are healthcare and engineering. I need to rethink my strategy and I don’t want to go to graduate school only to be in debt and still not find a job after getting my master’s degree.</p>
<p>Look for inexpensive certificate programs. I think I addressed this to you before. That can get your foot in the door. Look for technician type and medical billing/transcription courses. Once you are in an organization, you can move up and your BA regardless of what it is in, may come into play.</p>
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<p>I am a psychology graduate. The only fields really hiring in my area are healthcare and engineering. I need to rethink my strategy and I don’t want to go to graduate school only to be in debt and still not find a job after getting my master’s degree. </p>
<p>gnomechomsky22 is online now<br>
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<p>Well, what is your career interest? With a psych undergrad degree, is there some kind of self-designed post-bac you can do at a local CC or local state school that will give you the added classes to qualify for grad school?</p>
<p>For instance, if you’re interested in PA school, med school, pharm school, etc, then you’d just have to take a few more classes at a local school to have the prereqs to apply?</p>
<p>Do you have a high GPA? What career interests you?</p>
<p>What about becoming a therapist? You could apply for a masters with your current degree.</p>
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<p>I think you need to get a handle on your “looming amount of debt” from undergrad, instead of assuming more debt to forestall your payments.</p>
<p>What sort of work/internships did you have during college?
Have you tried relocating? Im assuming you’ve been working with your colleges career center, have you approached your states employment office? Even if you arent collecting unemployment, they have job listings and info about short term training to increase skills.</p>
<p>Since you don’t seem to have a clear idea of where your strengths/ interests lie even after four years of college, I wonder if four more years would be a magic wand.</p>
<p>If my child was in your position, I would advise them to volunteer with organizations in which they are interested. You would be making contacts and getting an idea of job opportunities and skills needed for the field.
But I sure would not suggest they take on additional debt for a 2nd BA, especially if we were in such financial straits ourselves that we were losing our home.</p>
<p>From your other thread:</p>
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<p>I chose pre-med in HS. I volunteered at a hospital, shadowed physicians, loved my biology classes. Then I got to college, spoke with an Engineering professor at orientation and wanted to major in Aerospace Engineering. I did terrible in the weed out classes: physics I and calc II. From there I decided that if I couldn’t do well in my pre-reqs then I should consider something else. Human Factors/Engineering Psychology and I/O psychology are somewhat related to Engineering in the sense they deal with humans and design interface, science/research based subfields. I had always planned on going to grad school eventually. My senior year I was told that psychology is a versatile degree and while grad school is important I would be able to secure a position in HR, as a bank teller or something related to sales. I was told to choose “what I was interested in.” What I didn’t realize is that all the internships and research I have done are essentially useless in the workplace. I am not blaming the advice, I obviously did not perform well enough for grad school and its clear now that I chose an incorrect path. I was an IB student and trade or community colleges were never shown as options to me. I was under the impression that any college degree is better than not having a college degree.
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<p>What about Occupational Therapy? Do you have the prereqs for that? Would you like that kind of work?</p>
<p>OT also came to my mind from OP’s other post.</p>
<p>Is there an OT assistant program nearby?</p>
<p>This is a really tough situation and I sincerely wish you all the best in finding work.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4, I’m not going back to get a bachelors “to find myself.” I’m going for an accelerated nursing program or a web development degree program that will land me a job right when I finish school and something that has a long term growth potential for employment. I could finish nursing school in a year with a small amount of debt. Its better than trying to get a graduate degree in psychology and still coming out on the bottom. I am just looking at my options, I never said this was a definite thing. </p>
<p>I posted all about going to the career center, etc. in the other post on the parents forum. I am not collecting unemployment because I am working as a server. I worked in retail/as a sever all throughout undergrad. I did an internship at a hospital and I have 2 years of research experience.</p>
<p>I’m not asking for a magic wand. I need a job…and sometimes that may mean considering more training in an employable field.</p>
<p>OT would definitely be interesting, although I think it may be easier for me to get a nursing degree because there’s an accelerated program for students who already have a bachelors degree.</p>
<p>Talk to those at the hospital where you were interning and find out where the job shortages are. You need to talk to people who are hiring and in the businesses to find out what jobs are available, not just looking on line and thorugh google because these things are very local at at times. You do have to be intrepid in finding opportunities. </p>
<p>Though nursing might a possibility, how much are those programs and how long do you have to go to them to get that degree? Do you have any loans now? The programs here are often 3 years in duration and very expensive, real money makers for the schools.</p>
<p>Personally I see zero value in another bachelor’s degree. I would look into a community or vo-tech in your area and see what might “match” your psych undergraduate degree but only after you set a career goal for at least the next 5 years while you work, save and get your loans in a handle-able situation.</p>
<p>Can’t you get your RN degree from a CC? </p>
<p>Are you sure that you only have one more year to get a BSN? Clinicals are usually 4-5 semesters, aren’t they?</p>
<p>I’ve been applying left and right for psych tech and research assistant positions at local hospitals. Those are the only positions I qualify for with a bachelors degree in psychology that are directly related to the field. In psychology, if you want to go farther YOU HAVE to get a graduate degree. There is no room for negotiation, that is just how it is. I didn’t know this as an undergrad and thought I would be able to secure a position in HR or as a bank teller, something in administration. I have been unsuccessful even trying to get hired as a cashier at Target.</p>
<p>I have been to my career center and apply to about 3 jobs a day. I have had my cover letters, resume, etc critiqued and I have done practice interviews. The problem is getting the interview, it seems impossible to land one. I talked to my internship leader and he told me to get a nursing degree or go to school for clinical psychology. The shortages are actually in nursing teachers-they need people to teach nursing school. </p>
<p>There really are no cc “matches” for psychology. I tried a paralegal certificate for a semester but it was too expensive to pay out of pocket with no aid and I really am not interested in it at all. Medical transcription and coding is another field that’s overflowing-there are no jobs in that either. The nursing school at cc is so overfilled it would be a six semester wait after I finish a few pre-reqs. They are taking applications for Summer 2015 now. There aren’t any job openings for cardiac techs, respiratory therapists or ultrasound techs in my area. The issue is also time, the second nursing degree will take, sorry yes I meant 2 years, not 1 after I am admitted. The school is my undergrad, a public state university. The tuition isn’t cheap but its only slightly more than the cc overall and I would come out with a BSN which is more competitive than an AA where I live regarding nursing jobs and it would essentially take the same amount of time. The connections the university has help a lot more with job placement as well. </p>
<p>The problem is saving and getting a handle on my loans doesn’t work when I am barely making ends meet at a serving job. I literally have enough money for my bills and nothing left over. I don’t buy tons of groceries and I have a small car, but I still need money to eat and put gas in my car. I am stuck in a bad situation right now and putting off finding a career that will help me to be financially stable isn’t a good idea. I am desperately trying to find a job but my psychology degree is screening me out of everything. My options are to go to graduate school or find something I can gain immediate employment in. I don’t have the option to relocate right now unfortunately or I would.</p>
<p>Perhaps your energy would be better served in managing the issues that are preventing you from relocating.
Do you have children or relatives that you are responsible for?
Forbidden to leave the state?</p>
<p>I am not forbidden to leave the state but I have no relatives out of state that I could move in/stay with and no finances to go on job interviews out of state. Entry level jobs rarely provide relocation expenses. My car is old and worn out and not capable of taking road trips. Plus the cost of living here isn’t terrible if I could find a decent paying job to stabilize my finances.</p>
<p>I just don’t see any way plausible for me to relocate right now. If things get really bad my boyfriends parents offered to let me stay with them, but even their town is only an hour away and employment openings there are about the same here.</p>
<p>I don’t think a second degree to make yourself employable is a bad plan at all. However, new grads in nursing are not having an easy time getting hired. Check CNN and allnurses for the stories. It’s a good field, but breaking into it, at the moment, isn’t easy. Now, if you are passionate about nursing and desperate to be a nurse, those accelerrated BSNs have your name on them! BUT, if you think you want to be a nurse because it’s a good job, I might steer you more towards that web design option. </p>
<p>Just a question. Would any of those graduate positions in psych be funded? I got my humanities grad degree paid for and earned money with a TA stipend. Don’t psych programs use RAs and TAs as well?</p>
<p>Really? That really concerns me, I will look into it.</p>
<p>Some of them do. But master’s programs have very little funding, so much of it would be out of pocket or loans. The PhD is a better funding option but I do not have the grades right now and its so competitive to get into the field: there are so many problems. Even if I could secure a teaching position, the PhD requires a certain amount of time to write the dissertation, if you do not get an RA position that means I will not have funding for my dissertation and certainly means more loans. Plus, I would have to plan for at least 5 more years of debt accruing and all of the interest on my other loans. If the financing options were better I would consider it but I don’t honestly think there’s a way for me to finance a grad degree right now. I just don’t want to end up in mountains of debt.</p>
<p>Loans for a second bachelor are limited - if you are still a dependent due to age, the total for all undergrad loans is limited to $31,000. If you are in a post bach program, you are limited to a particular amount (often $12,500) for a one year period … and that’s all you get.</p>
<p>Thank you. $12,500 would be more than enough to pay tuition. I am an independent student now because I am 24 this year and I was previously enrolled in graduate coursework that was eligible for aid. I plan on going to the financial aid office and talking with them, but I just wanted to see if there were other creative options I haven’t thought about.</p>