I also want to encourage you to talk to your current school’s financial aid office again to see if you can get a payment plan for the past-due amount, not for the upcoming semester. If the first person says “no”, ask to talk to a supervisor. Often a supervisor can help when the first person who answers cannot. You should explain your situation and ask if there is any way they can help you get on a payment plan AND release your transcript upon signing the payment plan so that you don’t have to wait until everything is paid to move forward.
But you must find an affordable college to transfer to, or do the target plan, or go to community college if that is still an option. You can’t take on more debt, or you will be in this same situation again next semester or next year.
I just e-mailed them asking about a payment plan for the balance, so I’m waiting for a response. But if they do say yes, would a job be able to pay this off for sure? Like thousands of dollars may be due each month, so a job will be able to cover it? Or I guess it just really depends on the job, like Target.
I may consider community just so I’m still technically in school and I can get some type of credit.
Target’s minimum wage is $15 an hour. Full time there, 40 hours a week, would gross $2,600 a month. I bet a payment plan would end up being less then thousands a month. It might take you a bit but you can do this.
IIRC, you will need a masters degree or higher for any public health job.
The programs at Johns Hopkins are masters and doctoral programs, not bachelors programs.
Many folks entering public health major in other things in undergrad school. Family member here majored in Spanish as an undergrad…which has been extremely useful in her career as an international public health specialist.
Another family member majored in health sciences as an undergrad, and got a masters in global health and infectious diseases, which positions him well working in the public health field.
You need to get your bachelor FIRST. So…as I said earlier, you may need to think outside of the box…working and taking classes part time could work. Working for a company with some kind of tuition assistance is another way.
You have to be careful with your unit count. Some schools will not accept students with an overage of units.
You need to work full time because that loan will have interest. You’ll be paying the interest first. A lot of jobs won’t give you 40 hours, so you have to find the ones that do.
Also you will need to officially withdraw from your current school. You need to go to each office and withdraw-housing, bursar, etc. You can and will be billed if your records are not cleared.
It will take you a while to pay it off. Don’t assume that you will return immediately. Assume 1-2 years.
I think you have it backwards. Your masters or doctorate (or both) would be in Public Health.
Your bachelors could be in something related or useful…Spanish, health sciences. Whatever.
Once you get where you are going to college sorted out, please go and talk to an academic advisor. Tell them you want to work in the field of public health. Ask them what undergrad paths are options to pursue.
This is my understanding and might not be uniformly true…I’m sure someone will correct me if I am correct.
We know a number of people working in the field of public health and if they have degrees in public health…it’s either a masters or PhD or both.
What kind of work do you actually want to do in “public health”.
Also I would definitely recommend talking to your academic advisor before you leave, in the hopes that they can help you investigate a couple of possible academic plans for the future.
Let us know what the college says. It would be unreasonable to expect a student to pay thousands of dollars a month, so if they agree to a payment plan I wouldn’t expect the monthly bill to be that high.
If you owe $10k then you should be able to pay it off over time, but how long it takes depends on how many hours you work and how much you can afford to pay per month. Companies like Target have tuition assistance programs for current enrollment. They don’t help pay bills that are due from previous semesters.
Check the withdrawal dates for your school. It’s important that you notify all of the offices before the deadlines. Talk to the financial aid office to find out which departments need to be notified. I think financial aid, the registrar, the housing office, and whichever office handles the meal plan will all have to be included, but they may have different deadlines.
So I asked them about making a payment plan, and they said the fall payment plan is closed and they do not offer payment plans for past due balances…
I have been kinda talking to my parents about this issue and one of them says getting a job to pay off over $10k is going to take years. They’ve been really pushing me to try a private loan even though I told them that would be the worst idea for me. They want to me to stay at my HBCU for the spring semester and figure out another plan for the fall. But I told them that plan is unreasonable because even if I DID get this $10k+ bill paid off before the spring semester, the spring is ANOTHER bill to worry about.
They are pretty much putting the blame on me because I didn’t think this school through. But literally ALL of them encouraged me to apply for this school in the first place to see what would happen.
Whatever I do, I need to move quick. This school is already starting to charge me for housing and the meal plan for next semester and I still need to move some stuff out the dorm before I cancel housing completely.
I will still continue to have a discussion with my family on the best decision moving forward.
The reality is you’re not going to get a private loan by yourself. You can’t pay the amount you owe so you’ll have to get a job to earn money to pay it. You can pay that amount off in a year if you get a full-time or near full-time job. You can’t do spring semester while owing money. You need to withdraw now. You will get through this, it’s just going to take a different path for a bit.
I have been kinda talking to my parents about this issue and one of them says getting a job to pay off over $10k is going to take years.They’ve been really pushing me to try a private loan even though I told them that would be the worst idea for me. They want to me to stay at my HBCU for the spring semester and figure out another plan for the fall.
If your parents think it will take years to pay off $10k why would they encourage you to dig yourself into a hole at least twice as deep? You can’t borrow $10k/semester on your own, and even if you could it’s not in your best interest to take on that much debt.
They are pretty much putting the blame on me because I didn’t think this school through.
Your parents are older and have much more life experience than you, so they have more of a responsibility to think these types of decisions through. But placing blame isn’t helpful and takes time that you don’t have.
It’s unfortunate that your school doesn’t allow payment plans for past due balances, but it’s good to know that now. If you can’t pay the $10k due for the fall you won’t be allowed to stay for the spring. But if you’re kicked out for non-payment after the withdrawal deadlines you’ll still be charged $10k for the semester. You really need to withdraw now to limit your debt. Work full-time and pay down your debt as soon as you can so you can transfer to an affordable school.
Other than your laptop, there is NOTHING so valuable in your dorm room that it’s worth risking getting billed for the spring semester! You need to move your stuff to a friends room ASAP and turn in your key!!! Do it tomorrow morning, then verify with the bursar’s office that there are no new charges going to be added to your account. It’s one thing to owe 10K for a semester where you actually lived in your room and took your classes- it’s another to owe MORE money when you weren’t even there.