I am currently a UC student. I am nearing my 2nd year of college and it has been extremely rough for me since day 1. I plan on dropping after this quarter is finished and will be starting an online university degree program later in the fall. I am not transferring.
My question is regarding my student loans. I know that when I am no longer enrolled I have a 6 month grace period before I start paying into them. I am worried that because I am not transferring colleges (merely starting over) that I will have to pay them off while I’m in school since there will be a brief period between colleges when I won’t be considered a student. In case anyone is wondering the online college I’ll be a full time student at in the fall also uses fafsa financial aid.
What happens to my loans? Do I have to start paying them off after 6 months? Or will the payments be deferred due to the fact that I will become full time student again during the grace period? Has anyone been in this similar situation?
The time you are not enrolled is part of the 6 month grace period. If you are out of school for 3 months then you are using 3 months of your grace period.
Did you let this online university know that you have completed two years of study? Did they ask? Sounds like a shady operation if they did not. You only have two more years of federal loan eligibility left, the feds will know.
First of all…you can’t just start over. If you plan to matriculate for a degree…I’d be betting the college will want ALL transcripts from ALL colleges previously attended.
With regard to financial aid…you might want to play this one honestly. If you have NOT met satisfactory academic progress, you would not be eligible to receive aid at your current school. Your “new” school will have its OWN SAP requirements. You need to understand…that if you receive any financial aid giving incomplete or false information…it’s considered fraud.
So…plan to send that transcript to your new college.
If you are NOT matriculating as a degree seeking student, you cannot receive aid at your new school…and it doesn’t matter how many courses you are taking.
It sounds like you are NOT planning to provide school number two with your transcript from school number one. Is,that correct? If so…I think you need to read their policies very carefully.
If this online university is reputable they will find out about your previous study and likely expel you. If it is a diploma mill they won’t care.
Oh…and to answer your question…if you haven’t matriculated as a degree seeking student…your loan payments will come due.
Let me clear up some confusion.
The online degree program I will be attending is Baker college. It is accredited and has a great online computer science degree program. They do ask for previous education, but all that is needed is a high school diploma to get accepted. No SAT/ACT, no gpa. One of the reasons I chose this college, besides the degree program, is the fact that their acceptance rate is extremely high due to only needing a high school diploma.
The online program is year round. Meaning I apply whenever I want to. I plan on waiting until I am officially dropped before I apply so I’m not overlapping colleges. I have not actually applied to this college. I do not know if my college GPA will affect my chances of getting into the program, although I’m sure it will. I am simply assuming I will get in for the sake of this question.
Either way I do plan on attending some form of college (CC or online) so my question still stands. I do not care about future financial aid opportunity. It is irrelevant to me. I only care about what financial burden I am going to expect starting later this year.
Edit: Both of your answers are conflicting.
You need to be enrolled in a degree seeking program, at least half time…in other words…you need to apply for,admission and be accepted…or your loans will come due.
Make sure you list your previous colleges on the application. You don’t want them to offer you aid that you’re no longer eligible for because you’ll have to pay it back.
@Kelsmom (who works in financial aid) can confirm, but I think there are a certain number of credits you have to take and you gave to be matriculated (working toward a degree) to qualify for the grace period. You can check the FAFSA.gov website for the rules too.
Good luck at Baker. I’m taking online courses through one of NY’s state schools and it’s lots of fun.