Transfer? Wait 'til I'm 24/find a FAFSA Husband? State school? CC? Financial Aid Fiasco

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello lovely CC-ers,</p>

<p>I would appreciate any positive and helpful input on this topic. </p>

<p>I am currently a first-year student at a small Midwestern private college on a full-tuition scholarship. Doesn't that sound nice?</p>

<p>I am miserable and want to leave desperately. Academically, it is not a good fit (not offering the courses nor major path I would like) and socially it is disastrous. I swear I'm not an outcast! Anyways, I'm having a terrible time of it and plan to leave.</p>

<p>I have applied as a transfer student to expensive private colleges based on their programs in my field (I plan to do Education and Sociology, am open to the idea of Economics, with the goal of going into Ed Research and Policy) and their location on the East Coast. I was hoping the financials would sort of work out, or that my parents would come around, or really just anything would happen to turn out right at all, but that doesn't seem likely. I am planning on leaving my current school for next year and if school isn't in the cards, being an Au Pair or WOOFing or doing something that would clear my mind of the worldly chaos that is college.</p>

<p>Anyways, it seems like my options are the following:</p>

<p>-Take a year off and come back to Sad Midwestern College, tail between legs</p>

<p>-Transfer to a school that <em>hopefully</em> accepts me
---Perhaps deferring a year, if possible? Staying at home and working? Take classes at a CC and maybe they'll let me come in as a junior?
-Try convincing Financial Aid Office to give me more money?
---Parents won't contribute jack. I have about $30k stashed away (thanks grandma!) and am able to take out the Federal Stafford Loans, but their "EFC" is around 25-28k.</p>

<p>-Take several years off, try to do something productive/meaningful/not mind-dumbing and go back to school when I'm 24</p>

<p>-Try calling up State U and see if they'll give me some merit aid (I never applied as a freshman because I believed in the liberal-arts thing (AND STILL DO) but hey why not). Maybe that would work better? I'd probably take a year off first and Au Pair.</p>

<p>I dunno, CC, I'm 18 years old and none of these options look awesome. Help and advice would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>oh god I am seriously so sorry for all of the typos. I swear I’m smart! Just exhausted from talking to my dad and hearing the “hahah nope we’re not helping you” spiel again. :)</p>

<p>Another option just came to mind …I don’t know how to edit posts: I could go to school part-time at Fancy Private College and work my butt off? Not my favorite option, as it would be nice to “have friends” and “have a social life” and “not watch Netflix alone all the time” …it would be much harder, I imagine, to make those valuable life-long connections when I’m stuck waitressing every Friday/Saturday night.</p>

3

<p>It seems to me that bad things happen when a student works in a job too much during the school term. It’s obvious you’re a smart cookie. Does your scholarship cover study abroad, a domestic exchange, or a full-semester independent project? Just ideas for getting out of Dodge while still benefiting from your current FA. What part of ed policy and research interests you? Network with folks in that field and see what they advise. Check out “transfer scholarships” that some colleges offer. Just spit-balling. </p>

4

<p>Saw this, but haven’t read: DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education Paperback by Anya Kamenetz </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/DIY-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-Transformation-Education/dp/1603582347”>http://www.amazon.com/DIY-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-Transformation-Education/dp/1603582347&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Might be of interest/inspiration. </p>

5

<p>$30k from savings plus the federal loans will not get you very far. There is very little merit-based aid for transfer students, and most of what there is is focused on transfers coming from community colleges. If your parents won’t contribute one cent, you basically have these options:</p>

<p>Work full-time and study part-time at a community college or in-state public U.
or
Stay where you are and just slog on through the rest of your degree.
or
Drop out of college entirely, work, save money, shop around for an employer that will help you pay for your education, and then return to school part-time while you work for said employer.</p>

<p>Go sit down with your advisor. Find out what happens to your big scholarship if you take a one year leave of absence to WOOF/Au Pair/whatever. Find out if your big scholarship will cover a semester or year abroad, and sort out how soon you could do that.</p>

<p>Just about every LAC in the country has an Education program and a Sociology major. Take another look at where those programs are at yours, and check out what your home-state public Us have on offer. People get into Ed policy and research from all kinds of no-name places. You do not have to go to an expensive private LAC on the east coast in order to do that.</p>

6

<p>I’ll work on a more detailed reply to all of your <em>awesome</em> answers, but wanted to make one thing clear: My school WILL hold my full-tuition award for a year of absence! In all of my exit paperwork, I’m planning to make them hold the scholarship. :slight_smile: (unless I transfer colleges…then they won’t keep it, but I’ve been told my my advisors that they’ll let me back in with something close to full-tuition if I decide to come back)</p>

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<p>@dyiu13 – definitely going to check out that book! I think, in the core of my being, I am quite anti-structure (especially with this whole higher education disaster and debt and money and what have you) but feel obligated to conform to this crushing norm of “four years of blissful scholar-tude” …I digress. My scholarship covers all of that, really it’s a great deal (this year has just been MEGA terrible) and I have definitely looked into ways to use their money to not actually go to school on campus!</p>

<p>@happymomof1 – 30k + loans could get me through two years of college with ~30k debt, which, according to my father, is "reasonable."I am well aware that no debt is better than some debt, so I really don’t need to hear that repeated, but I need some viable options, and debt might be a part of that answer. Thanks though!</p>

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<p>I fell off the first page! Oh no :(</p>

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<p>You can’t borrow $30k on your own for two years of college. The federal student loan limits are $7,500 for junior year, and $7,500 for senior year. To borrow more than that, you will need a qualified co-signer, or your parents will have to borrow a PLUS loan and make a private arrangement with you to pay that loan back.</p>

<p>$30,000 is a bit more than the total student loans available for all four years ($5,500 + $6,500 + $7,500 + $7,500 = $27,000) and falls pretty close to the range that the mavens in the Financial Aid Forum consider to be reasonable for most students. Whether you yourself could easily pay down that debt (and possible further debt for graduate school in your expected field) is a different thing. Do a bit of googling, and find out what entry level salaries are, and how long it might be until you are making more than that figure. Take a look at cost of living in the places where the jobs are located too. That will affect how quickly you can get your debt paid down.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

10

<p>@happymomof1 – I was planning on borrowing for sophomore, junior, and senior years–which actually leaves me at about $21,500. Still, I’ve got some personal savings–so I estimate the gap to be within a few thousand dollars (which seems like a lot but in the grand scheme of things, is not. If it’s within just a few thousand, I think I could maybe borrow from my sister or try to get more work study hours). Taking tuition increase into account…it would be a stretch, yes, but it would be barely doable. </p>

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<p>I hate bumping but would totally appreciate some more input!</p>

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<p>24 yr old man, finally about go go to university, speaking here.</p>

<p>What I fear, from personal experience, is that you will waste 5 years of life of your prime, your 20s. Do you have any connections or hookups with jobs? I have heard a few people doing well without college degrees but they are by far the exception. It is very hard to break into a “real” job without a degree. It is very easy to spin your wheels in circles and not go anywhere in the real world. </p>

<p>Waiting until you are 24 is a hell of a price to pay 23k of aid; ~17k of which will be loans. You could take 1 or 2 years of classes at a CC but you would still be 26 when you finally get your bachelors degree. It’s important to understand you won’t be a 19 year old kid when you go back to college, although I am sure you will still be able to make friend, you will notice a difference being older. I would really recommend sitting down with your parents and discussing your options. (2 yrs of CC, then transfer to a public?)</p>

13

<p>@bomerr – That’s my fear about waiting until I’m an independent. As much as I love working at restaurants…that’s the reason I’m going to college! To get a job that requires me to be myself and not a breathing body.
Anyways, point taken, and thanks for posting!</p>

14

<p>~feeling like a nerd, but thread fell off the first page, and would really appreciate more insight! </p>