How does Financial Aid work if trying to get a degree from TESU??

[cookderosa]

Just curious if this financial aid would be an option or worth applying for.

as mentioned, if you're going to take TESU courses, you can apply for financial aid like any regular student. I had a dilemma of sorts when I earned my BA because I qualified for a Pell Grant (gift, not to be repaid) if I enrolled full time. Initially, I wanted to take courses in my major, so that was fine, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to take that many. In the end, I did enroll full time, but you'd have to do the math and see if it's going to be a good value. It is possible (and not smart) to go deeply into debt using financial aid at TESU.

A Pell Grant is awarded to those with financial need, and is close to $6000ish depending.

If you did comprehensive - that allows you to take up to 36 credits. As an out of state student, you're looking at about $10,000. If you qualified for a Pell (you might not) then you'd have about $4000 left to pay on top. Either cash, employer reimbursement, or by loan.

If you did per-credit, and did full time, you could get away with only taking 30 credits and no residency waiver. But that's closer to $15,000. After Pell, you're still at about $9,000 to pay out of pocket.

I don't know for 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that the Pell is still distributed according to what would be your payment plan. http://www.tesu.edu/tuition/payment-plan.cfm

So, using rounded numbers and the payment plan breakdown, if you did the comprehensive plan, you'd have 3 equal payments of about $3300 (minus 1/3 of your pell award- about $2000) for a cash due of $1300 (three times).

The issue, and what was my dilemma too, is that to get the full Pell, you have to stay full time. If you reduce your enrollment, your Pell goes down.

In the end, I was happy to have taken courses in my major, but tuition was cheaper then. It did help me earn a nice GPA for grad school applications, and I did not have to go into debt. Those would all still be factors I'd consider if I were doing it again today.