<p>Ok so I am currently a sophmore/junior at University of Texas at Arlington I have 59 hours and after this spring semester I will have 71. I am currently a communications and broadcasting major but my ultimate goal is broadcasting meteorology; which leads me to OU. OU has been my dream school since I was a freshman in high school, being that they are one of the top schools for meteorology as well as the National Weather Service being based in Norman and I just recently got a summer internship with NWC REU program there at OU. I really wanted to go there but when I applied i got ZERO financial aid back so I stayed home and went to UTA to get my basics out of the way. Now that I am a junior I really want to finish out my major in meteorology at OU so i reapplied for the fall 2014 semester and am awaiting to hear back now, my question is I know that I am going to have to take out loans since I didn't meet there scholarship deadline but I'm just scared if its really worth it or not to take out all that money, cause for non residents its almost $33K to go there so I really want to be sure before I pull out the loans and coming from a single parent household my mom reaally does not want to cosign for such a large sum of money. so thoughts, suggestions?</p>
<p>Why would you have to pay for an REU at OU? I thought the only expenses incurred were room and board (which are incredibly cheap in Norman compared to most areas of he country).</p>
<p>I don’t have to pay for the summer internship OU paid for everything through there research grants. this would just be the overall academic year in general.</p>
<p>What are your options? TTech? I don’t know, only that the local broadcaster I follow was doing masters meteorology stuff there. </p>
<p>If this was your dream school and you wanted to transfer there why did you miss the deadline?</p>
<p>Is Texas A&M - College Station a possibility?</p>
<p>“Worth it”? That is a question that can be answered by many people, many different ways. That you have done two years of college, still want to go there, have a program in mind is good. That you missed an important deadline, not good. But would you have gotten any aid anyways? Is it worth sitting out a year and trying again? Can you swing it even with your loans and other aid? How are you planning to get $30K a year? You thinking of trying to get Mom to borrow for you? </p>
<p>Usually, I’m all for taking some chances for those who have had their mettle tested by doing their first two years of college locally or where ever and who then are looking to transfer to get that degree that cannot be obtained at the local schools. I would talk to the dept chair and find out what kind of money you could have expected to have gotten had you made the deadlines. Explain to the chair what your family financial situation is. If you missed out on some huge amounts, it might be a good idea to maybe take a gap year, and look for a job in the area there and try again. Do the internship, maybe move to OU and see if you can find a job on campus and ask for help to keep your skills current so that you can resume your studies the next year with aid. How much in debt are you already? </p>
<p>My cousin really wanted to be a meteorologist and did well his first two years at college, and flushed out of the program his junior year. He’d wanted to be one since he was a kid, but the advanced math and science courses were too much for him. But the only way to find out is to try. It’s just a matter of whether your mom can afford to take that kind of financial risk. That’s a lot of money to have her on the hook for.</p>
<p>I applied back in January but they said they had to wait for my spring 2014 transcripts to post because my GPA was too close to their requirements (at UTA I have a 2.8 my calculated GPA at OU was a 2.38 because my grade exclusions do not follow me to another university which i was completely unaware of so for this reason I was not able to meet the scholarship deadline. I have talked to alot of people on this matter and I plan to definitely talk to the department chair as well as financial aid to talked numbers but I am just afraid of the burden I’ll be carrying come of out college with almost $65K in student debt,</p>
<p>At UTA my current loan total is $12K and that is just the federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans, I didn’t have to take out any PLUS or private loans because of grants, scholarships, etc. I did look into Texas A&M as well but when I visited I just didn’t really see myself being a “fit” nothing of how I felt when I visited OU. Texas Tech really only focus on the meteorology minor rather than it being a major so I canceled that one out.</p>
<p>Currently, I am looking into the University of Louisiana at Monroe which offers the out of state student waivers and an upcoming atmospheric sciences program and their tuition is almost around the same as UTA’s ($8800\yr) and the transfer scholarship deadline isn’t until August 1st. I still really want to go to OU but this will be my runner up if all else fails. </p>
<p>I think you may want to re-consider the program. If you only have a 2.8 at UTA and you want to go to one of the top programs in the nation, you are asking for trouble. It is one thing to really want to go to a particular school or program, but it you don’t have the ability or the determination to excel at UTA, this program will not be good for you. Not trying to be mean here, but your energy would be better placed in doing well at a less challenging program. Paying a lot of money to be miserable does not sound like a good start in life.</p>
<p>Also a side note, what makes many of OU’s meteorology undergrads so employable is not their meteorology major but rather their quantitative and technical skills.</p>