When I first got accepted and received my financial aid package, my family was in an okay financial situation. We could pay the tuition costs. When I first entered and got my first bill, the amount we had to pay was really low. About $480 a month. However, my family’s financial situation has quickly plummeted since then. We don’t really go grocery shopping anymore, we get our food at a food bank. My dad, who is really prideful, is suddenly thinking of getting help from the government. This is huge considering no matter how bad our situation got, he never would have even thought of welfare. I have been making monthly payments of $500, so there is never a month where I don’t make a payment. However, the monthly payment went up from $480 a month to over $1,000. Therefore, I owe $2,000 and I want to transfer to a community college. I was wondering, is there any way I can transfer to a community college and keep making payments to my current university until it is all paid off?
Oh honey. This is so difficult. I’m so sorry that this has happened to you.
First, please talk to the bursar’s office at your current school. See if you can arrange the payments to be lower each month with ZERO added interest. You may want to try the “gentle squeaking wheel” approach and keep going back until they say yes to low payments at zero interest. THEN GET THAT IN WRITING. They can send you an email while you’re still sitting in the office.
Then go to the college of your choice that’s cheaper.
Depending on your grades, you could try transferring to colleges the pledge to meet 100% of need. Vassar, Grinnell, etc. Your community college may be able to help you also transfer to a good in-state college with lower cost. If you live in NY, consider attending a CUNY as they have rock-bottom prices.
I am not a financial aid expert so I’ll let others comment on other strategies.
If your financial situation has changed it may be possible to get your tuition reduced. The best thing to do would be to speak with the bursar’s office and maybe the FA office. I know with proof of higher medical bills or loss of job many colleges will lower rates.
I have to ask why these financial issues didn’t come up in your three other threads in the last three days. Do you have financial issues or is this still trying to justify transferring? If you can’t afford it you need to transfer, but you won’t get a transcript without paying your existing bills.
If finances are an issue, and you don’t like the current school either…then transfer.
Were you receiving a Pell Grant? Did you take the Direct Loan? Will you be commuting to the CC?
When where you paying $480? If this is your first semester, how many $1000 payments did you make and how much is still owed?
Your best best may be to take the spring off, pay off this college, and start at the community college in the fall (or next summer). You won’t get a transcript from this school until you pay off anything you owe and you’ll need that transcript to transfer.
“The school is too expensive and I can not afford to pay it and it isn’t even worth paying the tuition for a school that I hate with a burning passion.” And I copied and pasted that from my previous thread. I thought that would’ve given people the idea that, well, I CAN NOT AFFORD TO PAY.
Get a job or two in the spring semester and summer and get the bill paid off. Then get your transcript and transfer to community college.
We get that you can’t afford to pay.
You asked if you could transfer to a community college, and you can but you’ll need the transcript from this school and usually they require you to pay in full before you can get that. You’ve had several suggestions to go and plead your case to the university, explain that you thought the monthly payment would be $480 and is now $1000, and that your parents’ financial situation has changed. I missed that you owe $2000. It will take you 4 months to pay that, and you may not make the second semester. It’s okay, don’t panic, the schools will still be there in the summer or fall.
Just pay what you owe when you can and move on.
Have you asked for s special circumstance adjustment from your current financial aid office? They might be able to do something about what you owe for this semester.
You need to take a leave of absence at the end of the semester and finish paying off whateve it is that you do owe your current college or university before you can apply anywhere else. You won’t be able to get your transcript until the bill is paid off.
What changed for your family between last spring and fall?
Where are you getting the money to make the payments?
Something isn’t right. The fafsa for the current school year, 2016-2017 uses the 2015 tax and income information. You should have known about your financial aid for this year well before the start of the school year. If you had more income from 2015 than 2014, did you not know this?
Were your assets significantly higher when you filed your FAFSA?
What changed?
Were you selected for verification?