Hi, I graduated from an early college program with 75 college credits. I got accepted into Chapel Hill which would transfer those credits, but decided to attend a private liberal arts school instead because of the small classroom sizes, location, and the fact that they meet 100% of my financial need with no loans.
My issue is that I am essentially missing out on two years of college credits to go here. None of my credits will be transferred and in a way, it feels like loading up on so many college credits has shown for nothing. On the other hand, since I will probably not have to worry about graduating with debt, finances are not an issue.
Many of my friends stayed in state and had their credits transferred. Has anyone been in a similar situation? and would you recommend graduating college early or staying if finances are not a problem?
Will the LAC meet your full financial need even if you go above the normal 120 credits required to graduate with a bachelors degree? There are rules re: how long you can have financial aid for. If the LAC is requiring 120 credits on top of the 75 you already have, that’d put you well past 180 credits - the 150% mark, where your aid normally would get cut off. Will your aid get cut off at this LAC at the 180 credit mark? Find that out now, because if it will, then you need to go to Chapel Hill, so you can graduate before that 150% mark.
I don’t think either is right/wrong. For some students utilizing dual enrollment credits is very important in lowering college costs. For instance my daughter has 62 credits. She is attending a private school that gave credit for all classes though some are just free electives. She is planning on taking 3 years. We are middle class so not much financial aid but not enough money to just easily pay any amount. It will definitely help us financially to trim off a year. Fortunately she has a large merit scholarship that helps that doesn’t consider financial need.
Her friend has about 70 credits. He is going to a different private university that only accepts some dual enrollment credits even though he earned an associates in high school. I have know idea why but he waited until after he was accepted and said yes to find out that many of the credits won’t transfer. I think he wanted to just do two years for financial reasons. I heard he is taking a gap year and taking some classes to transfer in thinking that it will be cheaper that way.
If finances aren’t as important then I don’t think it matters. Some people enjoy being in a college and some can’t wait to get out in the working world. If you like college and the money isn’t an issue I see nothing wrong with taking the traditional 4 year program. Since some work will be repeats it might give you more time to work and/or get involved with college activities.
I’ll try helping. I think you should go to a school which will accept your credits you already completed. If you go to a school which is essentially making you waste your time to repeat classes it’s not worth it. I remember the phrase “time is money”. You can see this being plies to college. Go to a four year in state university which will take all or the majority of your credits. Don’t go to one you can’t afford and start working / applying to scholarships. If you absolutely need to do a loan. Work for companies that give you tuition reimbursement.
@RoaringMice That was actually a really good point. I went to go check in with the school and since they are not taking any of my credits, my financial aid continue for the usual 4 years it takes to complete my degree there.
@momtogirls2 I ended up doing the same thing your daughter’s friend did. I thought at least a year would transfer over, but things were different than I expected. Yea I think I am the type to use college for the entire time I can be there. Something about studying makes me really happy and if working after graduating will be anything like my current part time job, I’m not too excited! haha I guess when I hear so many people from my high school talking about graduating early, it got me a little worried. Totally agree with taking advantage of activities at school.
@Kidzfun True, time is definitely money. I didn’t have to pay for the dual enrollment courses thankfully as they were covered by the high school. It is inconvenient that I’ll be retaking classes, but since my school didn’t have AP courses or anything, I’ll just consider them as taking a rigorous course load.
Even if the college does not accept the credits toward the number of credits to graduation, will it accept the previous course work for advanced placement and subject credit, so that you do not have to retake the same courses again?
If so, then you can make more use of your time in college to take additional electives of interest, including more advanced courses that are more unique to four year schools, rather than the lower level courses whose material you have already taken.
No sadly only AP courses can be used for placement.
The school in question is Swarthmore College and it says they normally don’t accept early college credits. I haven’t asked them directly since it seems to be a set policy. I know for another school I was looking at, they would allow me to petition for my credits to be considered. I guess it’s so that we aren’t placed in too high of courses that students become stressed.
So if you have taken some courses which you want to use for advanced placement (math? foreign language?), contact the relevant departments. You may want to try the old final exams of the Swarthmore courses that appear similar to courses you took to check your knowledge.
Go to a public school, transfer credits, and graduate in 2 years starting working int he work force earlier (but as a younger person who may not even be 21)
Go to Swarthmore…excel in classes you basically have taken already/get into more advanced classes. It might be easier to get involved with professors and research and such as you will do well in those classes.
Yes exactly. That’s what I was debating about whether or not it really is an advantage of graduating early. Since UNC is a great school itself, I didn’t mind going. I just prefer the much smaller community.