Excelsior- cheapest route?

[Jenniferinfl]

If you know you're going to grad school, keeping your undergrad as low as possible should be your #1 goal. Though you may not be required to start repaying your undergrad student loan immediately (if you re-enroll in college it gets pushed) but your debt is piling up while you're in school.

I received a Pell Grant award for my degree at TESU, and frankly, you have to be careful or it can put you deep in debt. When I attended, tuition was still cheap enough that I could minimize my out of pocket (12 credits was *just a touch* more than my Pell award each semester) but at Excelsior, in order to use that Pell, you're going to end up borrowing a lot.

It's kinda like using a coupon. Item A is $1 and item B is $5 but because you have a coupon for $1 off item B you go with item B. At the end of the day, you're paying twice as much than choosing the more affordable option.

Let's do the math-- Excelsior tuition is $510 per credit. Your Pell is $2400. So, your Pell can pay for no more than 4 credits. The "cost" of using that money, as you calculated above is steep. OTOH, you can earn 4 credits using Studycom, Sophia, Straighterline, Onlinedegreecom, Saylor, etc. for about $100 and no strings.

I think trying to make the Pell fit is adding cost.

Possibly, dfrecore has my cost at doing TESU without a pell grant at $4805 between testing and fees. Obviously that is cheaper.

I can avoid extra fees at Excelsior by taking 12 credits. It looks like I would actually need to take 13 credits because of the info literacy 1 credit class- so $6630. Then I have my 6 tests, 4 DSST's @ $100 each and 2 Uexcel's at $145 each- so $690 in tests. The graduation fee is $495 - but I can deduct $15 for each credit taken at Excelsior, so my graduation fee is $300.

I will finish in under a year, actually, hopefully in just one totally crazy semester. So, $7620 total before financial aid. $1272.50 is my per semester pell grant- so $6347 not covered by financial aid. In other words, a full $1542 above TESU. The only advantage being that I can finance it at 5% instead of trying to come up with $4800. Now, if I can join the Peace Officers Association of Georgia, then my 13 credits are $5330 and my graduation fee is $130. So, then it's $6150 for everything, then minus pell grant is a total of $4877.50 which can go on a 5% direct sub/unsub loan.

I will definitely look more into TESU, but, at the end of the day I don't have $4800. My husband earns triple what I make, but thinks it's silly that I'm going back to school at all. I work in a public library, one of those jobs where you get paid $11 an hour and buy your own craft supplies for the kids. My library system doesn't get any local applicants for librarian positions, so, I would have a job there pretty easily at $19 an hour once I finish my masters. But, I have to move a bit quickly because there are a bunch set to retire in the next three years. I already have my foot in the door, I've been there for 5+ years already.

I really don't like how much Excelsior costs. I could get the remaining two years on my bachelors degree locally for free with just the pell grant. BUT, it would take me at least two years and I probably couldn't stay working full time while I did it because not enough classes are online classes. The cheapest online master's program is Valdosta, I would come out of there owing $12,000. So, $18,347 total owed for my undergrad and masters. My total student loan payment will be about $200 a month for 10 years. $139.49 for my masters degree loan and $67.32 for my undergrad portion. Most of the librarians where I work have gone to FSU and owe $20,000 for just their masters tuition and additional undergrad. That's only $1600 in money savings, but, I'm also cutting out 3 semesters of time.

My husband and I take turns keeping the tax return, next year I get it, so could almost pay off my undergrad loan with it at that point.

Edited to add: Obviously I am still open to any other ideas, I was just showing the math I used that got me to here so far. The classes I picked to actually take at Excelsior with exception of the Capstone are all things I've done really well on previously. I'm concerned about my ability to pass the two Uexcel's with high enough scores since I understand they assign a letter grade for those. I am not worried about the DSST's, I got over 60% correct on the practice tests for all of them before doing any review at all I will study like crazy and pass them alright, just likely won't get A's on them. But, from what I understand Excelsior doesn't assign a letter grade for them.