Financial aid at Excelsior

[skybirds]

I plan to use my Americorps education award at Excelsior.
Given my circumstances I assume I will be eligible for the
Pell Grant and Perkins loan. I plan to earn a BSc. In Liberal
studies. I completed the applied sciences 60 credits+ ACE
FEMA and courses
abroad which ECE will evaluate. I assume I have earned about
ten arts and sciences credits. This leaves about 50 credits
that I will test out. A major expenditure would be putting
FEMA on a Fredrick or Clackamus transcript. I plan to buy
text books on Amazon. My expenses will be tests study aids
perhaps a few courses. Beyond that I will pay the resgistration
fee graduation fee and other fees that all Excelsior students pay.
I expect to pay minimal compared to tradiational college.
I would like to hear other peoples stories of using financial aid
at Excelsior. It seems you can keep your expenses down and
get by with the Pell Grants and Perkins loans without going deep
In debt.

[TMW2010]

I plan to use my Americorps education award at Excelsior.
Given my circumstances I assume I will be eligible for the
Pell Grant and Perkins loan. I plan to earn a BSc. In Liberal
studies. I completed the applied sciences 60 credits+ ACE
FEMA and courses
abroad which ECE will evaluate. I assume I have earned about
ten arts and sciences credits. This leaves about 50 credits
that I will test out. A major expenditure would be putting
FEMA on a Fredrick or Clackamus transcript. I plan to buy
text books on Amazon. My expenses will be tests study aids
perhaps a few courses. Beyond that I will pay the resgistration
fee graduation fee and other fees that all Excelsior students pay.
I expect to pay minimal compared to tradiational college.
I would like to hear other peoples stories of using financial aid
at Excelsior. It seems you can keep your expenses down and
get by with the Pell Grants and Perkins loans without going deep
In debt.

I'm not exactly sure what the question is but...

I used the Partnership program (through POAG - there's a bunch about this available via forum search). The partnership program gives a lot of benefits and only one downside. The downside is that you must take a minimum of 12 credits through EC to fulfill the credit agreement.

The benefits included -
Dropping the Enrollment fee from $895 down to $135
Dropping the graduation fee from $495 down to $135
The credits that you attempt at Excelsior are discounted (I think it was a discount of $30/credit or so.)
Eligibility for a partner scholarship award. (I received a scholarship award which covered the cost of one of my classes, and several other members have benefited from this as well.)

For the actual costs beyond the application & enrollment fee, I used student aid consisting of Pell Grants, and both Sub'd and Unsub'd Stafford loans (and the aforementioned scholarship.) If you have to use Stafford loans, I would advise stripping them down to only what you actually need to cover the cost of the books and the courses, so you don't end up with $20k loans for $4k of schooling.

Another piece of advice RE: books. Used books are a blessing, but you'll want to make sure that the required book doesn't come with any special subscription to online resources. I know a bunch of people in my Biopsych course bought their books used and were required to go out and buy a subscription to Pearson's online subject matter for the course. (which really put a damper on the savings involved with the used book.) There was only one book for my 7 classes that I didn't buy through Amazon, and that was because it wasn't a normal stock item, and people were trying to sell it for 2-3x the price that MBS Direct had for it. And then I didn't use the damn thing once throughout my whole course. That was a waste. At least it's tax deductable. That's another thing, save all the copies of the receipts for your stuff so you can claim it on your taxes, as well.

[rebma85]

Hi TMW2010,

Thanks for sharing the info about POAG. Very informative. I'm a member but had no idea about the scholarship. How do you apply?

TIA.

[TMW2010]

Hi TMW2010,

Thanks for sharing the info about POAG. Very informative. I'm a member but had no idea about the scholarship. How do you apply?

TIA.

All I did to get it was to send FA an email asking if I was eligible for it and they sent me a message back saying 'Oh, btw, you've been awarded a partner scholarship'