Hello,
I am a community college student, taking total of 12 credits this year. But before applying to college, one of the requirements was to submit my college transcript for previous credits earned in my country (foreign country in Europe).I earned like 54 credits there in dental school. Before submıtting it, I knew that my college credits wouldn’t transfer because I took them in a foreign country, not even in an Internationally approved institution. Obviously, I am not a transfer student, and I also stated that I dont want my credits to be accepted. After the evaluation , seems like they didn’t accept my credits as institutional credits but took them as transfer credits without my permisson. And now, they claim that I am about to exceed maximum time frame of 150%, makes 90 credits , which means I wont be able to get financial aid for the second semester of the next year. How unfair it is…Even though I was enrolled as a new student and not a transfer student…And that previous credits were earned in a foreign country. I will talk to Evaluations Office tomorrow, but I have no hope. Any suggestions?
If they took all those credits isn’t there a possibility that you may be able to graduate earlier than you thought?
If you have taken college courses any where, you ARE a transfer student whether you want to be or not. Your college here does not have to apply those credits towards a degree at all, but fact is…you were a college student previously and that makes you a transfer student. You don’t get to decide if you want to be a transfer or not…you are.
It sounds like you have too many credits to continue to receive aid at your CC. Go and talk to someone and see what you can do.
Are you a U.S. citizen?
No, unfortunately. I am planning to transfer to a 4 year university and most of them dont accept college credits earned in a foreign country. Also , even my school, which claims that they accepted my credits as transfer credits, did this on purpose to gain money from financial aid, not to accept my credits
Wow I didnt even know that. And no ,I am not a citizen.Why you asked?
What aid did you even get from a community college in this country as a non-resident from another country?
Do you have U.S. permanent resident green card status?
Lol this is not the subject here. Why are you even asking ?And yes , I am a permanent resident.
Well…as a permanent resident you could take the Direct Loan and any portion of the Pell to which you are entitled. If not…you really wouldn’t be entitled to anything. That’s why i asked.
It sounds like you have exceeded the number of credits to be able to get aid for this CC.
Go and talk to your financial aid department…but do come up with a Plan B just in case. I’m assuming you have a job.
Colleges have to follow state and federal rules. Federal and state need based grants are based on income, not credits. The number of credits might matter if you have too many to qualify for aid at a community college. After a certain point you have to move on to a 4 year school to continue to get aid.
How many credits do you have toward your degree at the community college? How many more do you need to get your 2 year degree?
A college doesn’t need your “permission” to accept a transfer credit- they see your transcript, they make a determination as to whether it’s a valid college course or not. You don’t get to decide if you’re a freshman, a transfer, a second semester junior or whatever- they do.
Go sit down with your academic adviser and figure out what classes you should be taking this next semester in order to be able to transfer, and to minimize the amount of time you’re going to need to spend in college before getting a degree. Then, head on over to the registrar’s office and sit down with someone with authority- not a student intern-- and go over both your transcript from your previous college experience, plus what you are doing now, and figure out how far along you really are in terms of credits and what options you will have for financial aid.
Finally- you need a sit down with a financial aid officer to evaluate what you can realistically expect to get/pay/borrow/etc. You may not even need to be in CC, and the credits you are taking now may in fact be excess credits which is going to be a problem once you transfer. Taking more courses may not be the answer. There are a lot of students who don’t understand how their aid works and it is not uncommon to discover that you’ve either racked up too many credits without getting a degree (and the aid stops) or that the credits you have aren’t going to transfer to the program you want. You may have taken math- but it’s the wrong math sequence. You may have taken history- but it only counts for Gen Ed credits, not for a social science major. Etc.
So go sit down with the right folks and walk through your transcripts before you run out of options.
I need to have 48 credits more, in order to complete it. About 30 credits will not be covered for the financial aid. But they claim that they transfered those courses even though they were not accepted as credits and wont ever be useful towards a degree
My kid had at least 20 college credits that didn’t apply to her degree. In fact, at her four year college, she had senior year status at the start of her junior year. It didn’t matter. She still didn’t have the necessary courses to satisfy her degree requirements.
And yes…some were CC credits that the college “accepted” but didn’t apply to her degree program…at all.
Go talk to the folks @blossom recommended. Maybe they will be able to tell you what to do next.
The CC accepted the credits from your previous school as “ELECTIVE” credits. They probably won’t apply to your current degree if you changed majors. The same would apply to ANY US high school students who have taken AP units that don’t apply to the major.
You earned elective credit. You are not the only student that has been in this situation. It happens often.
It doesn’t matter if YOU think those credits shouldn’t be used. There are new laws that have been enacted because the States have lost a lot of money on students who don’t matriculate to the next school within a reasonable time frame. Your school has nothing to do with that other than to follow the law.
Please don’t make up false stories about your school. Your school is required BY LAW, to return money to the State and/or the Federal agencies if you have earned too many credits at the CC and no longer qualify as a "lower undergrad student. The CC is NOT ALLOWED to keep any money that has been allocated to you! Everything is regulated and too many credits, for anyone, means that it is returned to the government.
Schools in the US are fiercely regulated by federal and state agencies, especially when money is involved.
They HAVE to abide by state and federal rules or they risk losing the ability to provide funds to students LIKE YOU. If you attended a college ANYWHERE in the world, you have to enter as a transfer student at most public colleges. You could return to your home country and finish up your degree there, since you appear to be unhappy with your current schooling. You almost earned a CC degree at your previous school. Short by 6 units. You are supposed to transfer here at 60 units. Now, you are restarting, your transfer university may not accept your units EITHER. Sit down with a transfer advisor now.
Your school should have an appeal process for this situation. Meet with an academic advisor to map out your classes for the rest of your degree program. You should only take classes required for your degree. Once you have the courses set, you can file a Satisfactory Academic Progress appeal with the financial aid office. There is no guarantee you will be deemed eligible for aid, but you won’t know if you don’t try.
You just can’t t be on FA for ever, you just cannot be a student for ever (instate rates are subsidized by the state tax payers). What classes are you taking at a cc when you have so much under your belt already?