Has anyone’s kid ever tried attending a four year college full-time, and also attending a community college part-time concurrently? My daughter has decided to pursue a dance major at a national university, but she’s realistic about getting a job (any job) after graduation with a bachelors in dance performance, and wants to study a medical tech field at a community college at the same time (shes thinking dental assistant). She figures between summers and maybe an extra class a semester, she can have a backup that leads directly to a job to pay the bills while she’s trying to be a dancer after graduation.
I’ve looked at this plan in a number of ways and can’t really find a flaw in it, especially since she can do it almost entirely in the summers if the scheduling doesn’t work out during the school year with classes/rehearsals at her regular college. She won’t have any debt from her dance major, and has enough savings to pay for the community college out of pocket- but I’m not sure if she’ll even need to. She is eligible for enough in Pell grants to pay for community college, and she isn’t using FA at her university- can she apply and use her Pell in the summers to cover the CC costs?
Do the colleges have any policies relating to enrollment at other colleges concurrently?
Obviously, if she takes a full load at one college, that may mean busy days to take extra courses at a different college. Especially if they are time intensive (as performing arts and lab courses often are).
She will have to be enrolled as a degree-seeking student at the school to get a Pell grant, and she can only get Pell at one school at a time.
She would only get pell at one- the other she doesn’t even have to file a fasfa. I’m guessing you can’t be degree seeking at two schools?
She’s considering doing full time summer at the CC, so it really wouldn’t interfere.
If the school allows her to enroll as a degree-seeking student, she can get Pell. Usually, students enroll at CC in the summer to pick up classes to transfer to their university. It doesn’t sound like she will be doing that. As long as she keeps the classes for the two schools/degrees separate, she should be fine.
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What is her goal in this? My D took a summer class at a community college to fulfill a requirement for a program she was in. She first had to get permission from her 4 year institution to use the class for credit towards her program.
Her goal is to also graduate from the CC with a useful career path laid out. Her main school does accept credits for summer work elsewhere but that isn’t something she’d pursue, as classes in dental assisting (or the like) would have nowhere to transfer in a regular college. It would be two parallel but entirely separate tracks.
Interesting. I would guess she would need to find out if the community college would offer all of the necessary courses in the summer to reach her goal and if the community college would allow her to enroll as a degree seeking student while she is enrolled at a 4 year institution and visa versa.
My D was a Dance major at her university and took the necessary classes to apply to Doctor of Physical Therapy programs. She is now a DPT student. I’ll grant you being a DPT student is more expensive than the route you are suggesting. Another route might be to find out what courses are required for various medical tech degrees from Community Colleges and take those at her 4 year school. Most courses from a 4 year institution should transfer to a community college. She might still be able to take some courses over the summer but any clinical skills courses would be taken after she completes her Dance degree. Good luck.
I don’t know how to put it best so I won’t try, but my daughter won’t be going to graduate school and it’s not just due to the costs involved. That said, the courses for the tech programs here do have gen eds, but she’s already done them in high school. Had she gone to the CC she would’ve done just the tech specific classes and had her associates in a year- there isn’t anything she could take to transfer in at this point.
Another option would be to take the few summer classes she would need to bump her up a graduating class and transfer them into her four year school so she can graduate a year early, and then just do the fourth year at the tech school when she’s done her dance degree- I think she’s 3 classes short of being a sophomore when she starts… In some ways that makes more sense.
I did it - as an adult returning to higher ed. I took my required major courses at Chapman University and my “electives” at the local community colleges (those community colleges are connected) - there was a massive cost savings for me, my electives cost me $28 each, whereas if I had taken them at Chapman they would have been about $2,200 each - saved myself a fortune. I did have to have full guidance from Chapman’s counselling center - but my counselor thought is was super smart.
So yes, with guidance, it can be done.
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