Good catch!
Your post title says: “What can I do to afford an expensive university?” and the answer has been stated by previous posters: You can’t do anything because there is no more money available to you. Where would it come from?
More loans are not the answer: How will you qualify for them? How will you repay them?
Plus, I hate to put cold water on your goals but the ROI (Return on your investment) is not good for your major. The wages for health educators is not very good. Then having to repay those loans will be an added burden.
My niece graduated with her BS in Health Education; she struggled to find a job (She’s a POC and it didn’t help). Because she was in California, most facilities preferred or required a nursing degree to be employed. Her classmates were experiencing the same issues. (Note that pay, for Health educators with nursing degrees, was excellent). So, without checking with HE major counselors, she attended graduate school, on loans, assuming that more education in Health Education would help her. Wrong. She acquired debt.
She ended up leaving the state, to another location where the requirements were minimal, and got a job in a very rural county. Her “patients” did not follow the recommendations of the county health department and she never felt that the patients were ever listening to her. Plus, her pay was just over minimum wage and she needed to repay her loans. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/health-educators.htm
She’s returned to California, after several years of submitting applications, and is working in a remote area. She is still repaying her loans and lives on a spartan budget. (Her parents refused to fund her college education and she went instate, but she still had several large loans.) Maybe this wont be your experience, but as you think about your future, you need to seriously consider your expenses. Do you always want to struggle financially?
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I JUST RECEIVED THIS!!!
Rice Office of Admission admission@rice.edu
To:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thu, Dec 16 at 3:32 PM
TALENT DESERVES OPPORTUNITY
What if attending a world-class institution meant having no student debt?
The Rice Investment, our signature financial aid program, makes education affordable for all domestic students who demonstrate talent, initiative and drive to positively impact the world. This year, we’re furthering that investment two ways:
- Rice University is now a loan-free institution. Our financial aid packages will meet 100% of every student’s demonstrated need without loans. Going loan-free means students have the freedom to build their own path at Rice without worrying about student debt.
- We’ve expanded the income levels for the Rice Investment, meaning that a Rice education is accessible to even more students.
We’ve always been committed to affordability, which is why this expansion provides more students from low- and middle-income families access to the aid they need. Learn more by visiting our website.
@WinchesterMom The OP has a 10k balance at her current institution. She cannot enroll in another until this debt is cleared up. And then there is the little point of getting accepted as a 2 time transfer student to Rice.
Your advice on this thread is incorrect and is detrimental to the OP’s situation.
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Isn’t this what Rice has been doing for a couple of years?
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What is the relevance of this letter? This student is not attending Rice.
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So looking at this here, I’m not considered “independent.”
Also just wanted to add in here, (not to you specifically but to some previous posters), I hope I didn’t give anyone the wrong idea that my parents don’t support me AT ALL. My mother paid for me and my brother to be in catholic schools for several years. Then, my mother paid for my tuition in my previous school (and it was constantly an issue with holds on my account). But long story short, I did have the support of my family, but in THIS current institution, I feel like I do not have much support. I underestimated the cost to come here and now we are in a situation where no one can honestly afford it. My family has left it up to me to basically take out private loans and hope for the best to stay here, or transfer to another institution. Basically, do I love it here that much to go into tons of more debt and struggle with every semester bill? Or would I rather find another institution that is 100% willing to give me money and figure out another plan from there.
Rice is also need-blind for domestic students.
Hello!
You make a good point. Health Education and Public Health is more or less the same thing, but I am actually looking forward to going into Public Health specifically. However, my current university only has a grad program in Public Health, but they have Health Education as an undergrad so I thought that would fit.
I am still doing research on Public Health specifically to see what career I actually wanna go into to. My future is still a little all over the place, but people keep telling me “you have time” since I just entered my 20s this year.
My only issue with this university is the location. This would be several hours from where I live unfortunately 
I might have missed it, but what state do you/your parents live in?
I knew you were not independent, and mentioned awhile back that you could wait until you are 24. I do not believe you can borrow enough to stay where you are. You have to leave, pay off what you owe (maybe your parents can help with this), and either apply to another school that will meet full need w/out loans, or work and attend community college, then transfer to a public university or college (unless you can find merit scholarships).
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Funny enough, I’ve been looking at John Hopkins for a while because I heard they had a strong Public Health program.
Maybe an option to consider is to look into the Target employee business-degree program and then in a few years apply to a masters program in Public Health. That way you would be earning money to pay off your debt and also support yourself and would additionally graduate debt-free with a marketable degree.
Then you would have all sorts of options for graduate school, plus a couple more years of life experience and education to help you figure out more precisely what you would like to do for a career. (And a business-type degree is usually helpful on terms of future employability, regardless of your final career choice).
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You would not qualify for private loans. You have no income, as far as I’ve read, and probably little, if any, credit score.
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You owe $10K. Your current school will not release your transcripts, which are required, by any institution that you hope to transfer to.
You need to work, and pay that off with the payment plan that you set up. You wont be able to transfer until that debt is paid.
One of my daughters was accepted to Johns Hopkins. (Yes it is “Johns” Hopkins). They are stingy with their funding for new freshman. She received better aid everywhere else. The scholarships and best funding is reserved for entering freshman. I can’t imagine that a transfer student would do better. Their tuition and fees are over $78K. When they say $0 in loans to students, that means that the loans are taken by parents.
Generally, transfers get very little monies at the universities. This is why the posters are telling you that you should consider places like Target, Home Depot and McDonald’s that will actually help to fund your education.
Did you use the NPC on the Johns Hopkins’ website? Each school has a Net Price Calculator. You input all of the financial information from your parents and the calculator will give you an estimate of what you might receive and pay. Sometimes, it’s accurate if there is no divorce or business ownership in your current history.
You need to be looking for transfer dollars through the NPC’s. My priority would be looking at instate schools that are less expensive.
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So even with a decent credit score, I still can’t qualify because I do not have a job?
I haven’t tried the Net Price Calculator since I didn’t have my parents’ information offhand.
Wow I thought it was just my current uni not providing money for transfers. I guess it’s like this everywhere.
Banks and Lending offices need collateral. Something they can sell if you default.
If neither you or your parents has money/properties, and their income does not go up considerably, and you have limited assets (stocks, savings, properties), but considerable debt, they stop lending you money.
Your parents were denied a Parent Plus loan. This means private loans are not going to happen.
You personally don’t have a significant work history and nothing they can sell if you default. So where will the money come from???
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The net price calculator (NPC) is very important. Every college will have one on its website.
Before you apply to any new schools, you need to get your parent’s financial information and run the NPC for each one to see if it is something you and your family can afford.
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