School budget payment plans typically allow you to spread a semester of payments over 4 months - the 1st 4 months of the semester. For example, school starts late August and 1st payment is due mid August, Sept, Oct, Nov. It is not spread over the entire year or multiple years.
Loans allow you to spread payment over a longer period of time i.e. years. Qualifying for them can be another story and involve additional costs of interest and origination fees. On their own, student can currently qualify for no more than $5500 in loans their freshman year, $6500 sophomore year, $ 7500 junior and senior. Any loans above that will require a cosigner with sufficient credit to qualify for the loans. Can your parents qualify financially for loans, given their recent financial reversal, and are they willing to sign up for them as needed. The amounts that can be borrowed with a cosigner depends entirely on the finances of the cosigner, not how much you need for school.
I know you’re stressed but people are trying to help you - honest. You CANNOT start school just hoping this will work out. Financial aid is substantially higher for freshmen than transfer students, so if you can’t afford this school down the road it’s unlikely you can get higher financial aid as a transfer student. Are you only getting the $2500 in merit money from this school in financial aid? If so, switching at this late date to a CC for the 1st 2 years will save you far more than that $2500. Then with high CC stats, transferring is quite possible.
And I agree with the others - you probably can’t afford the music major. And it will take substantial time away from your other major, plus leave little time for you to work. I suspect your parents won’t be supportive of this approach but their financial reversal really put you in this position unfortunately.
halp, it’s nice to help out but working at a preschool like this is a big no-no. It’s not just a family store or something- people’s kids are involved.
My husband works at a preschool. Vetting is extensive and minors are not allowed to work there.
No one is being hostile or angry or upset or anything along those lines. What we are is concerned. We’ve seen this crash and burn too many times before.
OK, you say you do not believe you will get work study because of high EFC. If you are starting college, you probably HAD this information in the spring when financial aid packages came out. There is nothing magical about WS, you still have to get a job and work a certain number of hours a week. And a very full rehearsal/practice schedule might have made that difficult anyway. You can still find a job and maybe even one on campus - sometimes campus food services hires directly not thru WS but that depends on school.
I also think you should rethink performance major, not only because of cost, but of time. Every hour you have to practice or participate in ensembles/performances is time you could be working or studying. If you are possibly pre-med then you need stellar grades and contact hours. Focus on grades in biochem - at least for now. If your passion or stress relief is with your music, find a non academic way to continue. Some schools have ensembles for non-majors, etc. where missing a practice for a busy test week is ok.
Job options - also look around town and see what churches use paid nursery workers. Then you will get paid to do what you know how to do and often they need workers on Sunday mornings which rarely conflict with school. Also, if you are serious about medicine, look into getting you CNA. Then you can work and earn money and get contact hours. This would be more for maybe next summer. Do some research - I don’t know the details for this, just that lots of pre-med kids I know do it.
Reconsider @romanigypsyeyes advice, many benefit from a growth/gap year. If you really want to go to school, you will go to school, but at least you will have the time it takes to determine financially viable options.
Music’s the only way i’ll get the scholarships. In fact, I got the scholarship FROM the music department. It’s an easy A subject for me personally because studying music theory and music history is something that I enjoy.
I’ve already talked to department head about this, and they said that if things do get too hard i can switch to a minor. I haven’t even started the first quarter for college yet (btw the classes can be long but it’s only 15cr.); I don’t want to drop it already. Plus, the lessons are only once a week, an hour each.
I already went to CC through running start and have ~80 credits. I don’t need anymore math (calc 4) first year of biology or chemistry, as well as most of my writing, english, history, etc. credits. I truly just need to take the science/music classes towards my major.
I am planning on practicing in the morning (I used to do this, 2 hrs in the morning from 4~6 before I left for school) to fit in practice time.
I’m going to talk to my parents and my family members again about the tuition. You guys are right, I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in working a full-time job with my busy schedule.
Sorry if I sounded naive yesterday, I was really upset, stressed, and tired. After I had some rest, I feel a little more level-headed… haha
@halpmehplz99 The music scholarship doesn’t help with tuition cost. It just pays for required private lessons.
It is time to focus on being a future doctor and music won’t get you there. If no one is going to help you pay, then you need to take a gap year and work all the hours that you can. You also should graduate with ONE major in three year. That way you only have $19,500 in loans.
Also you will have transportation costs, gas and HOPEFULLY your car can take the four hours a day commute. Your commute will be worse in the winter probably. And just to go in full mom mode, your plan to practice from 4 to 6 am and then go to school doesn’t sound good. You’re going to end up getting in a car accident. Your music major will take up too much time.
With transportation costs, you need about 8 thousand dollars a year in addition to the Stafford loan. You should have been able to earn about 3 thousand in the summer. I don’t know what your parents were thinking but the university isn’t going to make this work for you without payment.
Take a gap year, work and then finish in THREE years with ONE major if you’re serious about being a doctor.
Consider switching to a BA in music with premed pre-reqs only.
I doubt you’ll be able to practice 4-6am in college. And a hour commute can be a bear - will you be driving or taking a train? Your schedule is going to be very very different from what it was in high school.
For now, copy your resume and start filling out job applications at all the fast food places and malls, parks and pools, you can get to, indicating you can work through Labor day and later dill time plus part time through the school year. I do mean “,now” as in, the minute you’re done reading your thread, go out with your resumes and start filling out job applications and asking about jobs.
(Never work at the preschool again: if your mother had been inspected/verified, having you work there would have led to the preschool S closing).
Planning to practice music from 4-6am is simply unfair to the rest of your family-- and possibly your neighbors. It is NOT a well thought out solution to anything.
Yes they will count for medical school admission. The rules used by AMCAS (MD admissions) and AACOMAS (DO admissions) specifically state ALL college grades, even if taken during high school as dual enrollment (which is what the Running Start program is), are included when computing GPA and sGPA for medical school applications.
OP, you’re staring in a deep, deep hole in term of having a competitive GPA for med school. You need to focus on earning As in your coursework if you hope to have a competitive GPA by the time it’s time to apply for med school.
And you need to understand that med school adcomms expect significant ECs in addition to great grades in med school candidates. The ECs (clinical volunteering, community service, leadership roles in your activities, clinical or bench research, physician shadowing) are time-consuming. With a performance music major and its requirements for music lesson, practice, rehearsals and performances, plus the 2 hours lost to commuting everyday and the need to work to pay your tuition & fees, it’s difficult to how you will have time to do all of this and still maintain your grades.
As I told both my Ds, sometimes you can’t have everything you want and you need to make hard choices. You need to focus on your long-term goal.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me the past 24 hours. I’ve revised my schedule, and I will be very busy only one day out of the week (8:30a~6:00p) but on three days of the week, I have only 1~2 classes. However, on mondays, I will have to stay on campus as my classes are a little spaced apart (2hrs) so I think I’ll schedule my lessons then. I will search for on-campus jobs or work near home.
As for my grades, I was struggling before, but I managed to pick myself up and was able to get a B+ in calc 4 (math is my worst subject) and an A+ in all the rest of my subjects (yaaayy). I will take stats in the future, and I still have to take 15+ science classes (I decided to retake chem) so there is plenty of time to bring up my sGPA and Cum. GPA. I know I’ll have to pay for the damage, but not all hope is lost.
With this schedule, I will be able to fit in studying, practicing, and working without being completely overwhelmed.
When I said that I have a 2 hr commute, that includes waiting for in between busses. My parents agreed to let me use their car to go to the p&r to shorten the commute to roughly 50 minutes. Since I don’t get car sick, I’ll be able to review on the bus to uni, which is already an extra 1:40 of study time. Since transportation is covered by the school, I don’t have to worry about extra costs either! It’s a win-win
I am still talking to relatives about paying for college and they all seem to be very supportive. All is starting to look very well! I even wrote my first resume today and will be submitting it to some on-campus jobs and the animal shelter near my house.
Thank you again, guys
I’m a morning person and I love my kids. But I might make the cover of the local newspaper–and not in a good way-- if any of them ever think that practicing music from 4-6 am is a good idea.
@halpmehplz99 I’m glad that you are getting support from your family. What I like about what you’ve done so far is participate in the running start program and commute to your local school. Good job getting your resume in order. Best of luck on the job interview.
Not sure about your school, the payment plan at my D’s school only spreads the payment over 2 months for each semester and there is a cost for it. At the end, one will pay more with the payment plan and it does not extend the time by much. You should talk to your parents again if you just need a few thousand dollars for a short period of time. It would be cheaper than the payment plan. Who paid your out of the country trip? This summer should have been the best time for your to earn some money instead of spending money on a trip if you have a financial situation.
Payment plans vary. The ones we used had a $50 a year fee to enroll. We had the option of 8, or 10 equal payments.
Really…since we were paying college bills out of current earnings…this enabled us to actually EARN the money to pay the bills…and distribute our payments well.
