I have a bit of a situation on my hands. I have been going to college for years now. I am an adult continuing education basically. I attended school full-time at a community community college and received my A.A. degree back in 2012. I then took a break from school. But then I have been doing a full-time bachelor’s in Criminal Justice for the last year and half part-time while working.
Here’s the problem: I was originally going to go to school to become a police officer. However, I had a horrific event happen to me happen to me in 2016 where I was robbed at gunpoint, shot, and nearly killed, but I am fine now physically. It was just a freak occurrence that happened out of nowhere. That being said, I have now developed clinically diagnosed PTSD and can not become a police officer, and even if I could find a department that would take me I don’t think it would be the right decision with my mental health.
Now here’s the tough part: I am taking 6 credit hours a semester in 8 week blocks. I would really like to get a technical certificate in computer programming, since it doesn’t take that long to get and you can make decent money with it. The problem is that my school considers that like getting another A.A. and FA won’t pay for it. So if I were to take classes in my main criminal justice bachelor’s degree and do successfully in them. But then in C semester each semester take other classes at my college towards the computer programming certificate and pay out of pocket for that with my loan money that I am getting…would that be financial aid fraud? If so, what other options do I have?