I’d like some advice if anyone can offer any or has any experience with something like my situation, please.
I’m currently an undergraduate student. I’d like to complete two degrees, but that would require staying a fifth year. My university (Lehigh) offers a fifth year free program, but the GPA requirement is unfortunately a little too high for me. I’d still really like to stay a fifth year, but my parents are not willing to contribute to it financially. I know there are always scholarships and other standard financial aid methods, but with the way tuition is at my university, there’d still be a lot to pay.
I know the way many people pay for graduate school is by working as a TA/GA and either doing research or teaching classes and having the university pay for the degree. I’m curious if this is something I could also do as a fifth year undergraduate. By my fifth year, I’d have completed my first major, so I would be qualified for TAing classes in my major assumedly. Do you think it would be possible to do something like that while I finish a second major? Or is anyone familiar with other financial aid methods for fifth year students completing a second major?
I hate to say it…but is it essential that you get this second major? If you don’t have the GPA to get into the grad program (which is likely where most TAs come from), why would you think you would be chosen to TA as a fifth year undergrad?
I would suggest considering graduating with your one degree. Get a job. Save money…and then pursue your second degree as a masters student.
I think your school will expect you to pay for a fifth year as an undergrad.
As a fifth year undergrad, you would have to be enrolled in a degree-seeking program to continue receiving aid - and if so, you would be eligible only for loans at the maximum dependent level for your year in school (senior, most likely) - unless you are independent due to age or marriage/dependent.
You need to finish the ONE degree. You are at serious risk of ending up with NO DEGREE.
You can’t just find the funding to cover that 5th year. If I were your parents and paying for Lehigh, I would be insisting that you finish that one degree.
If you are getting any aid from Lehigh you may find that that aid ends after the 4th year.
You would have to ask your school if they have any such program. I have not heard of undergrads getting tuition waivers like grad students. Double degrees are usually unnecessary, I would think again about that.
Lehigh has a strict 8 semester limit of financial aid for undergrads.
Lehigh is also a major research university and has plenty of grad students who need funding who work as TA’s. As I understand it, funding for grad student comes from funding from research that they do and is obtained by professors.
Lehigh does have a couple of masters programs that are only a year and they might have aid available but they have a deadline for applying.
Instead of asking us, the thing to do is to ask the financial aid office and talk to the department head in your major and see what options they can recommend. They are your best resource.
I can’t imagine a scenario where the benefit of the fifth year outweighs the serious downsides (financial being the most obvious). But there’s also an opportunity cost of spending a fifth year as an undergrad- forgoing the income you’d have had if you’d just graduated with one degree and gotten on with your life.
Plenty of time to figure out grad school after you’ve been in the working world for a few years. Sticking around for year five isn’t going to be as much fun as you think it will be.