If you look into the TEACH grant, it is a federal grant to assist students who plan on becoming teachers in a high-need field in a low income area. Not all universities participate and administrate it. WVU has one of the qualified majors listed as elementary and special education dual degree.
You also have to agree to work in a low income school district after graduation (I think tbe dept of education has a list of schools/districts that qualify) for a certain number of years.
We’re ~80 posts in and back to the original question: how can a low income student with a ~3.2 GPA who wants to live with her boyfriend and attend an OOS $40k/year school get ~$26k/year to cover the expenses that aren’t covered by the $7500/year federal student loan, $5k Pell grant, and the $4k loan that you received because your parents were denied a PLUS loan? The short answer is that you can’t. The reason most students attend cc or commute to their local 4-year school is because states don’t have enough money to pay for kids to attend their state’s residential college. They certainly don’t have enough to pay for OOS students.
I was a low income student so I get the desire to be financially secure. The way to do that is to focus on your education and make sacrifices so you can assure your own financial independence. Trying to borrow ~$28k for 2 years of OOS tuition plus whatever you need to pay for an apartment, car insurance and repairs, utilities, food, books, entertainment, and personal expenses (after applying your ~$4800/year income) isn’t going to help you become financially independent.
The place to get money is at your former school in W. VA. where you were paying less than $100 year out-of-pocket. Sacrificing to secure your future may mean putting off living with your boyfriend for 2 years. What you don’t want is for him to attend college and get a degree while you’re bagging groceries. Get an education, then pursue whatever future you want with him. As a former low income student who worked full-time and took classes as I could afford them (over nearly an entire decade), my best advice to you is to make getting your degree (with minimal debt) your top priority.
contact RMU to let them know you’re withdrawing for the semester, or they’ll charge you even if you dont attend.
find an online college. Beware that it will be difficult to get recognized for education, and it’ll be impossible to transfer credits if you go through WGU since they don’t have traditional grades and transcript.
I agree with @austinmshauri I think you need to take the affordable brick and mortar option in WV and get your teaching credentials there. If your boyfriend who loves you can’t support your achieving your educational goals, the way that you are supporting his educational goals, then you have a lot of talking to do.
From a parent’s perspective I would strongly discourage my child from being with someone with a lot of educational debt (may make exceptions for med/law school but then she made law school choices that gave her very little debt.). because it provides a window as to how they handle finances and it may affect their long term ability to purchase a house/car/vacations/kids (because educational debt is not dischargeable through bankruptcy)
WVU or the school you attended for low cost before RMU would be the optimal choice. WVU is apparently no further than CalU you could take TTh only perhaps?
Barring that, find a legit online program.
(What about Penn state world campus, do they have education?)
To completely withdraw from RMU you have to contact their registration office to withdraw from classes, residential life to withdraw from housing, and the dining office to withdraw from the meal plan. You can ask to be transferred to those offices after you talk to the bursar’s office to set up a payment plan for the $13k you owe for last year.
My suggestion at this point would be to,get your finances in order first. As you noted on your other thread…RMU is not going to release your transcript for last year until you get that $13,000 that wasn’t paid…paid. Some schools will let you set up a payment plan and some won’t. Talk to them to see what they will do.
Unless my arithmetic is wrong, you have the $13,000 in debt PLUS an additional $11,500 in Direct loans for last year (because your parents were denied a Plus). So…you have $24,500 in debt just for last year.
In my opinion, it is not a good move for you to take out any more loans at this time.
Perhaps you should consider working full time at one job, and then get an additional part time job. Take a year OFF from attending college. Pay off the $13,000 debt to RMU.
If you do take a year off, your Direct Loans will come up for repayment in December (6 months after you left college). Pay on those as well.
Then find an affordable college for the 2019-2020 school year where you can finish your bachelors degree. This will also give you a year to really figure out what you want to do…you have mentioned several majors on this thread. It seems like your primary goal is to be a elementary school teacher…I think. So find an affordable way to complete that degree.
If nothing else, you have learned that you can’t just continue college without a way to reasonably pay the bills.
Agree…make sure you completely withdraw from RMU…as soon as possible. You don’t want to get charged anything for this upcoming academic year. TBH, with an outstanding debt of $13,000 from LAST year, it’s unlikely they will allow you to attend anyway…but you MUST withdraw or that debt will increase.
Is there any chance your boyfriend can consider moving closer to where YOU can afford to attend college?
The priority right now is to completely withdraw from RMU, set up a payment plan with them for the $13,000, contact your loan servicer and choose the repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment (income based or similar) for your student loans, and get a fulltime job. Is there a Walmart nearby? Or Aldi pays pretty well.
You do not want to let the debt at RMU go. They might send it to collections, and that will negatively affect your credit rating and you will owe more money.
You cannot attend college right now, until you pay this off, and then apply to a school where your federal and state aid covers your costs and doesn’t require more than the student loan.
Maybe you can live with your parents or boyfriends’ parents for a year to get this balance paid off.
Then figure out your next step with affordability in mind.
Remember if you let your federal loans go into default you will not be eligible for federal aid. You need a plan to resolve your current issues before you entertain the thought of more debt