<p>In this house, the “bank of mom and dad” also only provided financial support for four years of undergrad school. We made it clear that anything beyond four years, or any summer study was not going to be funded by us.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is “fairly common” for strong students to take longer than 4 years unless no one is paying attention (flakey kid, parents asleep at the wheel, etc). </p>
<p>I have one child who totally was on top of everything. I have another child who does OK, but can overlook some details, so I did make sure that he was covering all the bases. It’s not hard to print out a major’s requirements and look over course offerings to see what is only offered in Fall, and what is only offered in Spring, to make sure that a student stays in sequence. </p>
<p>I do think that some kids aren’t aware that taking less than 15/16 credits per semester will put them “behind” unless they have a good number of accepted AP credits.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Just to clarify…med schools don’t care if there are AP credits on the transcript. However, they do want to see that you have at least either retaken those courses…OR…taken the next higher level. My son opted to use all of his AP credits, but since he then took higher level offerings, med schools accepted those courses. </p>
<p>I think that OP has answered her own question; you stated that you cannot afford a 5/6 year plan. The conversation that you must have with your child coming out the gate that barring a dire emergency of medical condition that warrants a leave of absence, you are on the 4 year plan. This means taking responsibility for planning out courses and making sure that you take pre-requisites in a timely manner, making sure that you are up and awake when enrollment begins so that you can be one of the first to sign up for class. it means taking a major and sticking with it and not going tra-la-la-la-la flittering around all over the place. What parameters would you put in place if you are full pay footing the bill (because if aid runs out after 4 years, you will be footing the bill)?</p>
<p>At most schools that give need based institutional aid or merit aid, unless you are in a designated 5 year program, you will only receive aid for 4 years. Like thumper, DD knew from day one that she was on the 4 year plan.</p>
<p><<<
My nephew had 40 credits going into UF. It will still take him 4-5 years to finish (he’d taking a semester off right now). He re-took all the core classes over like bio and chem, and just wanted to take other classes even though he wasn’t required to.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Taking a semester off may be a different situation, depending on the school. Often, FA or merit is put on hold during that off-semester, and then resumed when the student returns.</p>
<p>Obviously, taking extra classes for “fun and interest” is nice to do, but if it requires taking unaffordable extra semesters to graduate, then those have to be avoided. </p>
<p>That said, both of my kids took extra classes for fun and interest, but they did so because they had room in their schedules (because of AP credits and taking heavier semester loads sometimes).</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I’ve seen posts like that here on CC. These people don’t “do the math”. Instead, they hear things like, “12 credits is full time” and think that is enough. We’ve seen kids post here that are pursuing double majors, but aren’t close to finishing either one, so they’re told that they have to “pick one” and finish that one. the other major, I guess, becomes a minor or just extra classes on the transcript. </p>
<p>I think all schools should provide “semester by semester” sample schedules for each major for students (and parents) to follow. The samples would take into acct which classes must be sequenced and are only offered during particular semesters (noting that skipping or dropping a needed class will delay graduation). And all of these issues should come up during advising. Students should never get to their senior years and then discover “oops, I’m missing a class and can’t fit it in.”</p>
<p>As far as aid is concerned, institutional aid (and often state aid) has to be limited to 4 years so that budgets for incoming students can be met. When students take longer to graduate, if they were to continue to get aid, then the school would be “short of funds” for the next incoming frosh class. </p>
<p>We didn’t fund x number of years. We said we have x number of dollars. Both kids selected low cost schools. D1 needed summer school after a major change to stay in sequence. She wanted summer classes another year to lighten a super heavy load one semester. It was doable because the grand total was still under budget.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Good idea. That means that, as you noticed, a student who chooses a low cost school has a financial buffer for unexpected extra semesters or other school costs.</p>
<p>We are still in the application phase for colleges, but I was surprised that this wasn’t something I’d seen talked about much on CC, or at least I hadn’t noticed it. I suspect that many are like me and, at least while in the college search phase, haven’t realized that merit and FA often ends at 4 yrs. Hopefully they will when comparing actual offers, but knowing during the search could affect which schools stay on the list. </p>
<p>There are event a few Us that allow students a free 5th yeara of tuition if they don’t finish in 4 (providing they meet conditions). It was mentoned in a few tours we attended, so it IS something to consider and investigate when you are choosing schools. Some Us do have tuition refund insurance, that can also be a useful and good thing to consider, just in case your kiddo has some unforeseen health emergency that requires a medical withdrawal. It is a more common occurance that folks realize.</p>
<p>Most fin aid I know of ends at 4 years.</p>
<p>Some merit scholarships are for 5 years (for instance, Oklahoma’s NMS scholarship). You have to look in to the details of each school’s.</p>
<p>Planning a course schedule is pretty key. If a kid wants to take only 12 hours or whatever and is on fin aid, they need to understand that they better come in with credits (AP/CLEP/CC, etc.) or get credits that are transferable from the local CC if they take classes there in the summer.</p>
<p>Definitely advisable to research graduation requirements before committing to a school.</p>
<p>As for sample schedules, yes, that may help some folks, though really, it’s not that hard to figure out. Granted, it may be trickier if you’re in co-op, though, IMO, co-op for kids heavily dependent on fin aid often does not make sense.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Taking a semester off to work to earn money for school is sometimes necessary for some students from poor families to be able to afford college – if it is a co-op job that is related to the student’s major and career goals, so much the better. However, taking a semester off can make scheduling more difficult if the school offers key prerequisites at a frequency lower than every semester. (Of course, this assumes that both tuition cost and financial aid are “on hold” during the semester off.)</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus:</p>
<p>Some schools also take your co-op earnings out of your fin aid. Also, Northeastern evidently still charges you room&board when you are co-op (other schools may charge you as well).</p>
<p>It depends a lot on how much fin aid you get, what type, and the schools’ fin aid policies. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would expect any housing that the student lives in while doing a co-op job would cost the usual amount of money.</p>
<p>^^^
Is NEU charging room and board WHILE THE STUDENT is living ELSEWHERE doing his co-op? It sounds like THAT is what’s happening.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus </p>
<p>My son’s and my daughter’s colleges each have a strict limit on 8 semesters for the college’s aid. My state’s grant program also has the same limit. </p>
<p>I think many people who take longer than 4 years end up going to college part-time and working. If not properly considered, that has the potential of further increasing total costs, particularly if you are paying close to full-time tuition rates but not taking a full course load. </p>
<p>Often the last few courses that are needed to graduate are upper level ones required in your major, which cannot easily be taken at most other colleges. </p>
<p>If a student is afraid it will take more than 4 years, they should try early in the process to complete some online community college courses over the summer of basic or elective classes (while making sure in advance that the credits will transfer). </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Very true. Being proactive helps. </p>
<p>When looking at the “big picture,” it just isn’t reasonable for schools and states to be providing aid for more than 8 semesters in most cases. The schools know that if they did, suddenly many more kids would drag their heels and take longer to graduate…which would mean less aid for incoming frosh.</p>