Please don't judge me!

[sanantone]

To totally hijack this with my own question, would the OOP expenses really be that much? I was thinking around 2k too. Honestly the fact I'd need to be enrolled full time to get the full pell wasn't even occurring to me even though I know how it works from experience at my CC. Alters my plan a bit but thankfully I'm still at the beginning planning stages and I don't mind the idea of taking 'real' classes instead of testing out. Anyways back to my question. If you do the comprehensive plan which is $7,190, signed up for 24 credits to get the full 5550 pell grant... that would leave you 1,640 unpaid. Obviously not including book costs in there or any outside testing you chose to do. Am I missing a catch to it? Does FA not go toward comprehensive, only the enrolled? I did the math last night I believe and the cost still is somewhere around the 7,000 range maybe a few hundred more for enrolled taking 24 credits.

The enrolled option probably will be more expensive than the comprehensive plan when taking 24 credits, but I think that includes the graduation fees because I used TESC's tuition calculator. Unless you're a New Jersey resident, your grant is not going to cover the whole tuition. You'd have to pay the rest out of pocket on top of the money you'll spend on tests. I would recommend going to a local community college if you have one that offers online courses. I only pay $56 per credit at mine and I have thousands of dollars left over from the Pell Grant for books and testing.