Can you believe it? After 20k+ posts, my last kid is facing his last semester of college. =D>
But now a question … He only needs four credits to graduate and plans to take 10. Will not being full time create any problems we haven’t considered? Health insurance is fine, and he’s checking on FA. I think he will no longer be eligible for the good student car insurance discount, but we’ll renew before it’s an issue.
Any ideas what else we should consider before OKing this plan?
Congrats on making into the home stretch!!
The biggest issue is going to be financial aid. While he only “needs” 4 credits, will his F/A cover the 10 credits.
Keep in mind that 10 credits is considered 3/4 time so he would most likely lose 25% of his aid.
Are you ok with that. If the school will only pay for the 4 credits, he will be less than half time which means he may not get financial aid (or a small amount).
Can you fill the gap (especially housing if he is not living at home).
These are the questions that he needs to get an answer to now. If the money does not work out what other options does he have to taking this last course (can he do it on line, as an independent study, etc).
Is he working or interning so that he can’t take a full load? Otherwise, why not fill in with enough credits to be full time?
He can take those classes he’s laughed at previously like the Impact of Rolling Stones Music on Middle America. The biggest issue is the FA or merit aid.
Erin’s Dad, have you seen his proposed schedule??? One of the classes is Gospel Choir!
sylvan, he is so over school. He has a 17- to 20-hour off-campus paif internship this semester and will find another next semester. He’d love to find more work. His goal is to find another paid internship and a second, unpaid one.
sybbie, I am sooo not OK with picking up any costs at this point. I think part of the issue is he’s trying to keep his schedule to only one day so he’ll have maximum flexibility for work/internships (and minimum interference with senioritis partying!)
My daughter took a light last semester - but her 13 credits made her still “full-time” for all college stuff (housing, aid, etc.) This was 3 classes instead of the usual 4 - her 4th class was “find a job” She passed that one - found a job she started right after graduation.
Check the financial stuff- perhaps taking an additional class pass/fail if being a full time student works better. Also- the car insurance could change if they discover he is no longer full time even if he is when you renew it- another detail to be sure of. I remember taking 12 credits my final semester of undergrad college- I was so tired of it and worked plus had my senior honors thesis for chemistry course which could have been a lot of hours if I chose. Congrats to him on managing his time so he has the flexibility now.
I took 12 credits my final semester in college even though I needed less than that to graduate to avoid the risk of jeopardizing the FA portion of my FA/scholarship package by falling below full-time student status.
Even so, it ended up being the lightest semester in terms of credit/workload because I maxed out my credit loads during my first few years of undergrad. Used the freed up time for job interviews for post-college work.
My D was able to go part time (and work part time) her last semester. I checked with the Office of Student Health to be sure she would get health insurance, and the Office of Residential Life to be sure it would not impact her status in the housing she was in (she was in a learning community house and didn’t want to have to move) and that was all OK. I would check with those offices as well as (if appropriate) the financial aid office as I think every college can handle these situations differently. It is important to get the facts straight. I used email so the response would be in writing in case of any issues down the road.
I will say that going part-time her last semester worked out great for my D. She had a little bit of an academic break before grad school, earned a decent amount of money doing research on-campus for a professor (and the paper they worked on should be published in the next few months), and her schedule was flexible enough that she had no problems arranging interviews/visits for grad schools. I hope it works out equally well for your child.
Congrats to all!
Is he happy with what his final GPA is likely to be? If not, this is his last chance to take some easier classes and pump up the GPA a little bit.
This is especially important if he later plans on applying to law/medical school as the GPA they use factors in all college classes taken up to the completion of the first bachelor’s degree. While not relevant to your son, this includes any DE college classes taken prior to college.
Any courses taken after that degree won’t be counted.
If he wants to pump up that GPA, this will be his last chance to do so.
I only took 1 class my final semester in college. I did not need any more credits and was a but burned out on school at that point. Like your son I worked a 20 hour paid internship during the final semester. This light schedule left me plenty of time to enjoy my last college semester.
Thanks, all. He talked to the FA office today, and they said he’d get less aid but also said he’d be charged less tuition so he thinks it will all work out. I didn’t think of the housing issue. I’ll ask him to look into that, too.
He’s reasonably happy with his GPA. He’s not planning to go right into grad school. I don’t think taking extra classes would result in higher grades anyway. He is soooo done. It would just be another A-/B+.
He should follow up and ask what would he charges be and how much aid he can expect to receive.
Also can he take a gym class or something and make himself full time if that works?
I like the idea of a gym class, but I don’t think that will take him to 12. Aren’t they usually only one credit? I’ll ask him to look at that, too.
Student loans might start to come due if the credit hours fall below a certain number.