Community college vs tesu financial aid related question.

[Ep2016]

Not sure this is the right forum for this question. I have to take 5 prerequisites for grad school. They are all offered at tesu and also at my local community college. I do qualify for financial aid and hopefully will not have many credits to take a TESU to get my bachelor by taking exams for credit. I will stay have a cap stone to take and wondering if I should take all the 5 prerequisites so that I will not have to pay for residency waiver.

This is my first time using financial aid so I am still confused how it works. I understand that it can only be awarded to one school. Is that per semester or annual?


Thanks.

[bjcheung77]

I usually don't like financial aid unless it's free grant/scholarship money you don't have to pay back. :coolgleam:
Let's do a little math and find out which one is your best option: 3 credits per course, 5 courses = 15 credits
For the per credit tuition, it's $499/credit x 15 = $7,485 and you have to take a capstone, thats roughly 9 grand.

If you go through a community college or another cheaper option, such as Saylor or Straighterline, Study.com
For Saylor, it's just 5 courses at $25/ProctorU exam = $125
For Straighterline, it's $100/month membership, $49/course X 5 = $345
For Study.com, it's $200/month but you get 2 exams, if you need 6 exams, it's just $600 total

I don't know which state you're in, nor how much your cheapest community college charges.
My recommendation is to use the Residency Waiver of $2000
You should have money left over and you won't need financial aid.

[rebel100]

What aid did you get?

[Ep2016]

Pell grant. I have to actually get a grade for it for my prerequisite to grad school.

Does it give a grade with the exam options such as straight liner/
Study.com

[rebel100]

You should consider a consortium agreement which would allow you access to all your PELL monies https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...ayxFcJQZDA

I did this at COSC with cheap courses at CSU Pueblo. Using this mechanism my last 8 courses to finish my undergrad were free.

To get the full grant you will need 12 credits per semester, for half you will need 6.

[rebel100]

Or just apply as a degree seeking student somewhere cheap and knock out your pre reqs.

What classes do you have to take?

[Ep2016]

Physics algebra based 1 and 2
Chem 1 algebra based 1 and 2
Stat

Will try the constrium agreement. Thanks for the input.

[rebel100]

Or just sign up as a degree seeking student at a CC that has all that. New mexico junior college may have all that....and you would get a check in the end for the difference.

[TrailRunr]

Be careful about taking online sections with science lab classes intended as prereq for grad school. I don't know what grad program you're going for. But the grad school may not like it if they find out if it is online, if it is a take-home lab, or if it is missing the lab section altogether. If they don't find out, then it's all good.

[cookderosa]

Physics algebra based 1 and 2
Chem 1 algebra based 1 and 2
Stat

Will try the constrium agreement. Thanks for the input.

Here's the thing, physics 2 and chem 2 mean you're doing a 2 semester sequence no matter how it falls out. So, you won't get your full pell grant unless you're doing 12 and then 12 credits each of those 2 semesters. This is totally rough- but a full pell is about 5600 and you're only going to be eligible for about 3/4 of it, which means you're getting about $4200 for the year. That rolls out to about $2100 per semester. If you did physics 1 and chem 1, that's 8 credits (and then again the second semester) with either the first or second for stats.

So.... use 8 credits as your base. $2100 / 8 = $262 per credit to spend. If you keep your tuition UNDER $262 per credit, whatever the excess ends up being, you'll get it back as an overage that you can use for books and lab fees.

TESC costs double what you're getting. I'd look for a MUCH cheaper option (any CC should fit) and while the GRADED won't APPEAR on your TESU transcript, you will have graded credit to meet your prereqs. You will need to send both transcripts. This is common, since transfer credit doesn't usually appear as graded credit. In other words, if you'd already taken these classes BEFORE you applied to TESU, they wouldn't appear as graded then either. So, the transfer brings only credit, but you'll still have the grades.

Go cheapest possible- grad school will be expensive.