Pell grant and one of the big 3 in 2019?

[FilMor]

Is it possible to apply the Pell grant towards the fees from one of these institutions? I would like to apply the 140+ credits I have and get a degree but the high amount of fees are putting me off. If you qualified for the Pell grant and just needed to meet residency somewhere to get your Bachelors, what would you do?

[MNomadic]

Pell Grant would go to classes first. If you got the maximum Pell Grant ~$5900 it gets split between 4 quarters -> $1475/quarter. You only get that amount if attending full time(6 credits/quarter). At the moment, it's $366/credit at tesu with the study.com discount.


On a related note: does anyone know if you can take the cornerstone and capstone at the same time?

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Pell Grant would go to classes first. If you got the maximum Pell Grant ~$5900 it gets split between 4 quarters -> $1475/quarter. You only get that amount if attending full time(6 credits/quarter). At the moment, it's $366/credit at tesu with the study.com discount.


On a related note: does anyone know if you can take the cornerstone and capstone at the same time?

The above is for TESU. The exact breakdown would be a little bit different for the other schools. Same principals, though. You only get your max award if you're attending full time.

[Merlin]

On a related note: does anyone know if you can take the cornerstone and capstone at the same time?

I don't see why they would limit that. If someone were to transfer in at least 100 credits including their core/AOS classes and english comp 1&2, then that qualifies them to take the capstone. If they haven't yet taken the cornerstone, TESU would encourage them to take that as one of the first courses taken from TESU directly. As far as I know there is no policy restricting which courses can be taken at the same time or in what order they should be completed. SOS-110 isn't a prerequisite for the capstone.

If it is important, you could take your chances and contact academic advising to ask. Or someone could just sign up for both and see what happens.

The real question is should they be taken at the same time? Luckily, the SOS-110 cornerstone is still is a fairly simple course from all descriptions, so if someone is a good writer and diligent about time management, they should be able to complete both at the same time. I wouldn't suggest taking anything more than that though.

Personally, if I were in the same circumstance, I'd sign up for both to be taken during the same semester, or at most one semester apart.

[FilMor]

Pell Grant would go to classes first. If you got the maximum Pell Grant ~$5900 it gets split between 4 quarters -> $1475/quarter. You only get that amount if attending full time(6 credits/quarter). At the moment, it's $366/credit at tesu with the study.com discount.


On a related note: does anyone know if you can take the cornerstone and capstone at the same time?

---

Pell Grant would go to classes first. If you got the maximum Pell Grant ~$5900 it gets split between 4 quarters -> $1475/quarter. You only get that amount if attending full time(6 credits/quarter). At the moment, it's $366/credit at tesu with the study.com discount.


On a related note: does anyone know if you can take the cornerstone and capstone at the same time?

The above is for TESU. The exact breakdown would be a little bit different for the other schools. Same principals, though. You only get your max award if you're attending full time.

Thank you for the informative reply. So there's no way around the fees by these schools? Are there any colleges with a very low residency requirement at this moment? The lowest I found so far is Marshall's RBA plan. But then again 24 extra credits is 1 year or so of work. I tried UMPI YourPace but their degree is based on competencies so my 140 credits or so only fulfilled 12 or so competencies out of something like 40. That's not going to work either.

[MNomadic]

Beyond the big 3, the lowest residency we typically see is about 30 credits. This is usually at other popular online schools and competency based programs.

[davewill]

Is it possible to apply the Pell grant towards the fees from one of these institutions? I would like to apply the 140+ credits I have and get a degree but the high amount of fees are putting me off. If you qualified for the Pell grant and just needed to meet residency somewhere to get your Bachelors, what would you do?

As stated above, you have to take courses in order to get the funds from a Pell and at TESU, the tuition for the courses would use it all up. I think the best you could do would be to use your Pell at a cheap school like NMJC where there would be funds left over after paying tuition. The left over money can be used for anything you like...although you'd still have to take a bunch of courses.

The honest truth is that the Big3 is the cheapest way we know to get a bachelor's degree, even with the big fees. One thing to think about is debt. Normally, we are very down on debt, but going a $3-4K in debt to actually receive a bachelor's degree isn't the tragedy that taking out $100K worth of loans is.

[cookderosa]

If you can't see the extreme affordability of the big 3, I don't think you've done enough comparing.

The average low-residency school (and there aren't a ton of these) requires 30 credits (transfer in 90). BEST CASE scenario is $300/credit and that's not even any misc fees- so you're in $9,000 plus at least 1 year. Closer to $500/credit is more realistic- so 15 grand give or take.

That you have 140 credits and no degree, to me, means that before you pull the trigger on any plan - financial aid or not- you need to slow down and understand the process. I'm sorry, that sounds harsh, but you're potentially 2 classes away from a degree from one of the big 3. That solution costs a few dollars.

[dfrecore]

TESU has the highest costs, so you're better off elsewhere.

COSC
1 Term, the cornerstone & capstone, with out of state tuition and Study.com affiliation is ~ $2,775 (assuming you bring in 114cr - of the correct credits).

EC
1 year, the capstone, with tuition is ~ $3,120 (assuming you bring in 117cr - of the correct credits).

TESU
The cornerstone & capstone, with out of state tuition and Study.com affiliation is ~ $4,857 (assuming you bring in 114cr - of the correct credits).

[natshar]

Which school you choose could depend on what credits you have. If they are upper level or lower level and what subject they are in. As long as your courses meet all the requirements you could get a degree in two courses.

If you posted a list of credits someone could point you in the right direction. Or if you didn't want to do that just give us an idea of how many are Upper Level (300 or above) and what subjects you have taken coursework in. COSC and Excelsior require more upper level. COSC is cheaper so you are probably better off there as long as you meet all/most of the requirements.

Financial Aid won't pay for all the fees, however, if you get a refund you can use it to pay towards the fees.