@Jamrock411 Good question. I’ve been receiving $13,815 in gift aid in the form of Pell Grant, PA State Grant, School Grant, Private scholarship. I checked the requirements of each. The only thing that’s affected is Pell Grant. It won’t be stripped away but I wouldn’t receive the full amount. I read that I should receive 75% of the grant.
That is the part of the plan I am least sure about and since it’s a pretty unprecedented move, there’s not much info about it. The thing is I will have to struggle to only take 9 credits. There are a few classes I am interested in taking that I won’t be able to because to stay on track, I will only be able to take requirements. On one hand, it does make me feel a little bad to miss out on some of the things I’m interested in taking but on the other hand, how many people take interesting classes, pay more money for them, and wind up in the same place as those that don’t? For example, at my school a 3 credit course costs about $3,000. Yes it would be interesting to take a class on Mexico after studying Spanish for a year in Spain but is it worth THREE THOUSAND EXTRA DOLLARS when I could just read a book about it? Or data journalism which is interesting but I could learn those skills on the job? It doesn’t seem worth it to me.
For two 9 credit semesters, my tuition would be $13,562 vs $17,786 which is the full-time rate. To do a 9 credit semester senior year, I need to take two 3 credit courses at my community college. They offer them online during the summer and january break. Those two classes would cost $840. However, I’d be saving $3,384 by doing this which could be months of saving for a new college grad trying to pay down the loans.