<p>Also I started college at 17, but I was finishing high school level courses. I used financial aid for that. Now that i look back I suppose that was a bad idea</p>
<p>Since you can’t use Pell for high school, it sounds like you were using Pell at a CC to pay for sub 100 level courses. Why didn’t you take those courses in high school? And, how many sub 100 courses did you take?</p>
<p>Regardless of what anyone thinks about the path the OP has taken, the fact is the OP made plans based on the rules in place when they started, and then the rules changed in mid-stream. It doesn’t help to get all righteous about it, the OP was following the rules.</p>
<p>So I can understand the frustration.</p>
<p>OP - do you have any Stafford loan eligibility left?</p>
<p>The op was taking advantage of the rules as written- agreed.
However part of the maturation process is learning to plan for contingies.
Not take out $20,000 in loans every year just because you think your first job after college will start at $80,000. Not insist on attending your dream school - because it is beneath you to attend anywhere else & not depend on the taxpayers to fund two bachelors degrees when most people don’t even have one.
:)</p>
<p>Hmmm maybe or maybe it’s bending the rules to use federal funds for 2 associates degrees and 2 bachelor degrees. Nonetheless I do hope the OP can wrap up the undergrad years and get on with whatever is next. Kelsmom gave the correct advice. Call finaid and see what the tally is…</p>
<p>I dont know why people keep telling me to graduate and get to work…as I have said i;ve been working this whole time. I dont need to be lambasted about how much time i have taken in school.</p>
<p>I was just wondering about other people in similar situations and how they managed.</p>
<p>I still dont feel like i was cheating a system or anything, the rules when i started was 9 years…i had no intent to go that long.</p>
<p>I fully intend to follow the rules, so yea…dont need to make me feel worst than I already do.</p>
<p>Less education = less sophisticated country = more jobs sold overseas</p>
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<p>I dont recall saying I wont use my degrees…Also i dont mean it necessarily in my case. I think there are a lot of people out there who were struggling in the past, but may now be on the right track that this law could be the last straw for. </p>
<p>Another thing is yes in other countries you can go to university for free and get more education. This is what we compete with when keeping our jobs in country. Clearly we see somethings differently but but its rather irrelevant now.</p>
<p>Like I said before, the laws the law and I attend to follow it as i always have…</p>
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<p>Thanks for the concern and understanding. I am still getting some Stafford loan. I will be ok I think. My friend is helping me get in another job this summer helping on his farm, so hopefully between two jobs i will be able to manage.</p>
<p>Thank you momofthreeboys as well for your understanding. I am calling financial aid on monday to see what I will need to come up with.</p>
<p>Also I want to make it clear that I was working with my financial aid office the whole time i was pursuing these two degrees. They never said it was " against the rules " or anything like that. The rules clearly said as long as I made satisfactory progress i could pursue a double degree…I dont see this as bending the rules at all, taking advantage of yes…but not bending.</p>
<p>idk I am pretty sure the rules differ from school to school, so maybe it does seem like I was milking the system to many of you :/</p>
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<p>Personally, I do wish Congress would phase-out changes such as these, since it really is a bait-and-switch, or at least changing da’ rules in the middle of the game. But unfortunately, that’s politics.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>It would have been simple to have the new rule take effect for NEW Pell grants only. Yes, it would have cost taxpayers a tad more during the transition period . . . but it would have saved students such as the OP from having the rug pulled out from under them.</p>
<p>Originally, that was supposed to happen. The change was going to be 900% Pell, rather than 600%, and only Pell received in or after the 20080-09 aid year was to be counted. All of a sudden, Congress changed it to 600% and ALL Pell counted. I don’t think it’s quite fair, but my thoughts don’t count.</p>
<p>In fairness to the OP, I suspect two bachelors degrees means a double major … since Pell is not available to anyone who already has a bachelors degree.</p>
<p>I dont recall saying I wont use my degrees</p>
<p>I didn’t say “degrees”. I wrote: It was your choice and a luxury for you to pursue one of those extra bachelors degrees in a subject that you’re not going to even use. So, how does that lead to “more jobs going overseas”?</p>
<p>You suggested in your post #7 that you’re only 2 classes short of one of your degrees (liberal arts), but that isn’t what you’ll be using for your career. That answer was in response to the post that said that you need to complete one of your majors ASAP and get working.</p>
<p>And when people say that you need to graduate and get working, they mean working a full time professional job…not a more typical part-time job that a student might have. If you qualify for Pell, then whatever you’re doing for work is not a career type of job otherwise you wouldn’t qualify.</p>
<p>For whatever reason you were taking the extra time, you no longer can do so and have it paid by PELL, as you can see. Just focus on getting a degree. This is the same advice I give to my own kids, by the way. Yes, some have the luxury of advising on this major or that, or getting a double or a minor or a concentration, but in our family, it’s OUT with a Diploma in 4 years even if it’s in Basket Weaving or something you don’t like and/or don’t intend to pursue. It is difficult enough for us to pay for 4 years of college, and with all the kids we have, we made that clear. My son is paying for a course out of his earnings this summer because he wants a certain major and even switching after freshman year, he’s behind the 8 ball for a degree in 4 years. His reasoning is sound, it all makes sense, but we simply don’t have it in the budget to pay more. We are tight as it is. So is he, and he is learning first hand, how tough it is to make these tuition payments as things do come up in life. They often do. </p>
<p>I sounded harsher than I meant to sound in my earlier post, OP. But I wanted to convey the message that college is a luxury and a privilege. There are not enough funds out there to cover the most basic degree for everyone with all of their needs. So that you have a limited amount of time to do this is understandable to me.</p>
<p>I am sorry that you got caught in the middle of change in policy, however. Talk to you financial aid advisor, pick the easiest path to get that degree the soonest and be done with it. I say no differently to my own children.</p>
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What is a luxury is having parents that make it possible to graduate in 4 years, without having to reduce your class load or even take semesters off to earn money, care for sick relatives, or handle with any of the other curveballs life throws you.</p>
<p>I think y’all are being way too harsh, the OP is doing quite well considering the cards they were dealt.</p>
<p>I agree that students often have to take a gap year or two along the way. But unless you have learning disabilities, you should be able to finish an undergrad degree in four years of full time enrollment.</p>
<p>Yes, and my kids are privileged and have that luxury, IF they stick to 4 years. We’re doing what we can to make it happen for them, but even an extra term is just not in the financial picture. </p>
<p>College is not an entitlement. It is also a privelege and luxury that we currently have some systems in place so that most student coming out of high school can get a college education with PELL for those in the lowest income brackets that will pay most in state tuitions and Stafford loans for those whose financial situations do not qualify them for PELL and for those who extra funds. I’d like to the program expanded to cover every one, but feel strongly that a 5-6 year or dollar amount limit be in the picture. It’s unlikely we’ll be getting MORE funding for college education in the near future. It may well become a matter of redistributing what’s available.</p>
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Pretty much every school I’ve come across counts 12 credits as “full time”. If that’s all the credits you can take in a semester for whatever reason, there is no way you can graduate in 4 years, most programs require 120 credits at a minimum.</p>
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I don’t disagree, but many are jumping all over Fortheo for changes to the program he had no way of foreseeing, and telling him “well you should have done it differently, you should have known it was going to change”. Not fair IMO.</p>