<p>A counselor at my CC told me that if I transfer to a 4-yr without graduating from the school I am currently enrolled in, I will lose my federal aid? She is kind of a dingbat, but I am not going to pretend to know more than her.</p>
<p>In other words, I have completed a year of community college, and would like to transfer to a probably private 4-yr now, instead of waiting another year to get my A.A. I have a 4.0 GPA. Will I lose my pell grant if I do that?</p>
<p>Each college determines your EFC and FA. If you qualify for Pell at CC, most likely you will also qualify at a 4-year. Pell has no restrictions like the one the Counselor mentioned.</p>
<p>Thanks operadad. So what would I lose? Obviously any school-specific aid which I don’t have, but I guess I just don’t see what she’s talking about.</p>
<p>What federal aid could you lose? You would continue to get the Pell grant if you qualify…and the direct loans. </p>
<p>The only way you might lose this aid is if you fail your courses. But that is another issue!</p>
<p>Are you getting any other aid right now?</p>
<p>Nope. Just the pell grant, which covers about half of my tuition costs. I have to cover the rest out of pocket. I am just not a good fit for my community college, and figure I should transfer to a university.</p>
<p>That’s nonsense. You won’t lose your aid by transferring.</p>
<p>You won’t lose the Pell Grant, but a Pell Grant will not be enough to cover costs at private school. You may be better off to do 2 years at community college, or to look at in-state public schools to transfer to.</p>
<p>To add to what kayf said, there are also very few public Us that are low enough in cost for the Pell to make much of a difference. Look at the costs for the Public Us in your state to see if you can afford to transfer now.</p>
<p>Erin, in NY, if a student lives at home, Pell will make a big difference. By saving up while living at home in CC, it can be doable. Not easy, but doable.</p>
<p>Sorry for excessive posts, but Brielle, we are all here for you.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>No there is no legal requirement for you to stay at CC.</p></li>
<li><p>It may be the best thing for you to stay there for two years, in order for you to graduate college in 4 years.</p></li>
<li><p>Not financial aid related, but in terms of transfers to 4 year schools, many times, if you have 2 years/60 credits, the college you are transferring to (other than Ivies, and those in that category) will disregard SATs/ACTs and only look at grades. Your grades look good. Transferring is not easy, private schools may want professor recommendations. That may mean living with your CC rules. Does your CC have a transfer advisor?</p></li>
<li><p>There is some financial aid for grads of CC or people with AA degreed (very limited, but you seem like your grades are good). </p></li>
<li><p>Federal aid is limited, and you will likely only get the following -</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A. Pell Grade.</p>
<p>B. Stafford Loan (likely subsidized, if you are getting Pell Grade). Amount per year varies, but increases from Freshman to Soph to Junior to Senior years. So you get more for the later years. Lets say about 6K in later years. </p>
<p>C. Parent plus loan – this means your parents borrow. If you are on Pell Grant, your parent may not qualify. If they do not, you get more Stafford loans.</p>
<p>In summary, if you want to minimize your total debt, and have the best choice of schools to transfer to, you may want to wait.</p>
<p>Some issues that you need to examine if you are considering transferring: </p>
<p>Which schools will best take your credits so that you can graduate in a timely manner. PELL is over in 6 years, and the Staffords have maximums. When you run out, you are out. If the school you are attending is not one where other schools are taking credits from, I suggest you get out as fast as possible as you may be wasting your time there, if credits will not get you to graduate quickly. You should be looking at this very carefully. Get a list of colleges where you can most smoothly transfer.</p>
<p>You have to be able to afford your next school. As a transfer, getting Pell and Stafford is about all you are guaranteed. It’s tough for transfers to get school mone.</p>
<p>Are you in some specialized program that does make transferring an issue? If that is the case, it’s not so much the loss of financial aid (as everyone is telling you, PELL is transferable as are the Staffords), but the fact that you may not get some certificate in a program that gives you benefits. You need to sit down with a counselor at a potential school that you are eying for transfer purposes and get a good list of options in such a case.</p>
<p>My friends’ daughter was in a vocationally driven community college program that did give an AA and certification after 2 years. A great certificate, in medical billing or some such thing that did open up a lot of job options for her, but transferring to a four year college, meant more than another 2 years in most cases, for graduation because some of those very specialized courses did not transfer over, and there are foundation requirements for a BA that were not covered in that course of study she took, that she needed to get to get a 4 year degree. If she had quit half way through the CC program, it would have put her in an awkward situation as she would not have sufficient credits for a smooth transfer and not have the certificate either. As it turned out, she was making enough money with her course of study from the CC, that she could get a good full time job, enter some working adult focused evening/weekend program, get her degree and make good money doing so. Had she gone the way she originally was bent on doing, it would not have been so smooth going and cost a lot of money.</p>
<p>Kay and Cpt both bring up good points, especially the 6 year PELL limit.</p>
<p>If you cannot cleanly transfer all of your credits to another school, you will have to take additional classes which can affect your financial aid on the back end (almost finished with the degree and out of money).</p>
<p>I definitely agree with Kay that if you did not do that great in high school, you would be better served staying a little while longer at CC. To transfer now in your first year (especially with only one term of grades under your belt), most colleges are going to ask for your high school transcript, along with SAT scores. If you did not do your best work in high school, then right now you have not put enough distance between you and high school to really make a successful transfer applicant as more weight is still going to be placed on your high school grades (unless you were given a guaranteed transfer after completing a certain # of credits with a certain GPA).</p>
<p>Another reason for staying is that some schools have articulation agreements that will definitely put you in a good position to transfer to a 4 year school if you take certain courses, or degree programs (you can talk to the college counselor about this or google articulation agreements and your community college).</p>
<p>If you transfer after you complete, you associates, the whole degree transfers, sont simply random credits. In most cases, credits which do not fulfill your degree requirements, would be used to fulfill electives (this does not necessarily happen, if you don’t transfer the degree).</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies everyone.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to school (long story. Abusive childhood.). Before this year, I had never set foot in a classroom or written a single essay. I don’t have a high school transcript or SAT scores. Community college was a way for me to gain confidence in my academic skills, and to get me higher in math (math is the only thing I could not learn by reading books growing up. I have an extensive knowledge of history, science, biology, chemistry, and writing, but am in pre-algebra at the CC.). Still, the environment is so negative here, and I don’t drive, making getting to classes and events difficult. Job opportunities are thin here, and I don’t have any friends as I am not originally from the area.</p>
<p>I just think it would be better for me to transfer with the intent to start at a new school fall 2014. By then I will have finished with remedial math, and have enough transferrable credits (30+) so that the colleges won’t require SAT scores. Private schools often offer hefty scholarships, do they not? I am making an appointment with a counselor to talk it over.</p>
<p>You would have to check the policies of each individual school as there are many schools that will still require SAT/high school information regardless of the number of credits you have (most public schools may not ask for SAT scores/transcripts based on the number of credits you have).</p>
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<p>No, they do not. Most of the scholarships, especially the hefty ones are used to woo freshman students. Actually there are very few transfer scholarships. You would have to be accepted to a school that gives very generous need based aid. In your situation, they would want income and asset information from both of your parents, SAT scores, high school and college transcripts.</p>
<p>Brielle, let me just tell you straight up that most schools DO NOT MEET FINANCIAL NEED. That includes private schools. Those that do meet full need, define their own need. Also, even those schools that guarantee to meet need for students often exclude transfer students. In general, transfer students do not get the prime pick of scholarships and financial aid </p>
<p>What you have right now are the government entitlements for education. Beyond that, getting another dime is very difficult. Schools are very tight with their own money. Also, getting enough to pay for room and board on top of the tuition is going to be a very tough go.</p>
<p>Brielle, are you saying you do not have a HS degree? I am not familiar with students in that situation, so I take back my answer, your counselor might be right. I agree with everyone else, financial aid can be very limited.</p>
<p>Brielle, you are not giving us the whole picture here. You are in a highly unusual situation. You have not graduated from high school, taken the SAT or other tests, are under age 24 but being treated as an independents, probably through professional judgement from fin aid officer at that cc, and living with a relative and probably getting state rates at this school.</p>
<p>You are on shaky ground in a number of categories, and to get financial aid without your parents’s involvement, and state residence involves some college fin aid officer to make a lot of overrrides in your particular case. I think you had better get your AA degree, at least and hopefully the counselors can direct you to someone they know for the next four years of your degree.</p>
<p>Some issues that strike me are whether you are going to run out Stafford loan money before you are done You have 6 years of PELL, but if you are taking the Stafford maximum loans out each year, as an independent, you are going to be bone dry in 4 years. That is the UG maximum. </p>
<p>You are in Illinois which is expensive for even instaters for college costs, so staying in a CC as long as possible makes sense. Also, room and board is expensive. That you have a friend or relative that is helping with that cost makes a big difference. </p>
<p>I commend you for getting yourself where you are after so much trauma and doing well in college . I think getting a degree and letting a counselor help you with the next steps is a good way to go. </p>
<p>This board is really more for mainstream students and when you come up with all of these exceptions to the rules, what we have to offer in advice gets to be murky, especially when you have not given us all of the facts. Yes, your aid is portable, but if you are not straight out entitled to it without professional judgement exceptions made for you, this has to be done at every single school where you apply. The pro ju does not extend to any other school, just the one you have gotten at yours. If you want to try to go through the process elsewhere, go on ahead, but it is late to do so, you are talking about a max of $16K you are working with as an independent, and you are in a state where the costs are higher than that if you room at a college, and you are thinking of replacing your current situation complete with a paying job as well as a cot and 3 squares with going elsewhere. Ummm. Not gonna be easy without an SAT, high school degree,etc.</p>
<p>So things that are usually the focus, such as portability of federal aid, great grades in community college are not the only essentials here when you need pro ju for independent status, state residency, no SAT/ACT, no high school diploma, no home school curriculum to show.</p>
<p>I live alone. I have a job, and pay my own bills with no assistance from anyone. I pay half of my tuition costs because the Pell doesn’t cover much. My parents live 1000 miles away, but as far as I can tell, I am stuck being classified as a dependent for three more years. I don’t have a loan. I am very careful with my money, and am planning on waiting to take out a loan until I transfer.</p>
<p>I trust this board more than I do the counselors at my school! I was told to not worry about where to transfer to (there is only one in-state public with my major), to not make money the major factor of college choices until after I send my applications. Now I am worried that my counselors don’t know what they’re talking about.</p>
<p>Technically, I have a high school diploma. They cost $30 for homeschoolers to order online. It is what most homeschoolers I have talked to used. More important is a transcript, which I have - just made up.</p>
<p>Then how are you getting ANY aid? You can’t get PELL or anything more than the Stafford unsub basic amounts without your parents filling out the FAFSA. If that is all you have… the unsub Stafford and you can make a go of it with that, that’s a whole other story. </p>
<p>Technically, you do not have a high school diploma, as you have clearly stated you were not really home schooled, but left to your own devices at home. There may be colleges that will accept any shred of paper you give them, including transcripts, but really, when you start getting into school where the professional there are looking to select, your shams won’t hold water. </p>
<p>You have probably taken some transition courses at CC to get you where you needed to be as a student. If you think you can financially swing a move elsewhere, find a job,etc. Go on ahead. If you can pay your way, that’s fine. I think an AA degree,and maybe a GED would go a ways in helping you with the next step. One thing the counselors at your CC are the best in doing, is letting you know where they have the most success in their students going and getting the funds from their CC. We can’t do that as we don’t have the stats in that niche that they do. </p>
<p>So what financial aid are you getting as a dependent with no parents filling out the FAFSA? What financial aid are you worried about losing? You don’t have a loan, you can’t have PELL without the parental part of the FAFSA? I don’t understand the point of this post which is "Losing Financial AId for Transferring w/oGraduating
.</p>
<p>Brielle, if there is only one in-state school with your major, that may be your best choice. As to how valid your HS degree is, I am not familiar with that. Not taking the SATs - when my DD transferred, only the most selective schools looked at SATs AFTER the student had 2 years/60 credits. I suspect that most of us here would say the same thing as your counselor (that you have to stay instate), but for different reasons, or put it differently.</p>