When an undergrad needs a 9th semester to finish their degree but couldn’t pay for it because they have ran out of scholarships money. What are the options? Drop out of college or take a break from school to work and hopefully make enough money to pay for tuition to finish their degree? What about the students whose tuition is $40,000+ a year? They probably have to work until eternity…lol?
Do your best to graduate in 8 semesters. Take the required credits to graduate in 8 semesters.
Don’t change majors to where most of your existing credits won’t count. Work in the summer and save money.
If student qualifies for federal or state aid they might get $6000-$10,000 from that and can take out a $7500 student loan.
If you know you won’t graduate on time you might be able to take student loan for that academic year and save it.
If that’s not enough to finish 9th semester then the student might have to work and earn money before returning for last semester.
I doubt a student has a $40k scholarship unless it’s a full ride. A student who gets a full ride usually has pretty high grades and test scores, probably a good amount of AP credits and that should help insure that they graduate on time.
Sadly, some are simply screwed in these situations, which is why a student, who has no other funding options, needs to be careful to finish in 4 years.
- Don’t change majors if it’s going to cause a 5th year
- Don’t drop classes
- Don’t add a second major or extra minors
- Be willing to take classes at odd times to stay on schedule.
Schools generally will not fund a 5th year unless (sometimes) the program requires (Arch).
there was a UC student who posted here who was facing his 4th year and not enough time to finish his double major. He had to be convinced to drop that second major. He still had enough for a minor, but he wanted that 2nd major. Too bad. He didn’t have funding so he had to make a difficult choice.
Some kids pursuing double majors don’t pay attention to make sure that at least one will be complete at the end of 4 years. Those kids, if parents won’t pay or borrow, can be screwed.
If this hypothetical then someone who is double majoring or needs to make up a class or make room to make one up can do some advanced planning. Work with your advisor and find out if there are courses they can take at a local community college that their primary school will accept. Our community college is $92/credit hour vs. $400-500 at her school (plus living expenses). We were advised of this option by the university my D16 will be attending. She is double majoring and might need to take some summer classes to finish in 4 years.
Of course if this is a situation where someone realizes that they won’t have the credit hours they need to graduate because of changing majors, not passing some courses etc. it can be a challenging situation.
Student pays full fees and/or has parent help.
If a full year tuition is $40,000, then that extra semester of tuition is $20,000. If the student can take the fall semester off to work, then the full Stafford Loan ($7,500) will be available the spring semester. The family may be able to scrape together the rest with student earnings, parent contributions, and some private/PLUS loans.
Do they give student loans after the 8th semester for undergrads.
We paid for,the four year plan…and our kids knew it. We made ONE exception. Our DD had a medical issue her senior year and had to drop a course. She needed to take one the summer after she walked in graduation to complete her double major. We paid for that one course because it was a medical issue that prevented her from completing it in the four year timeframe.
She also took a full time course load the summer between junior and senior year…again to satisfy double major requirements. We did NOT pay for that. She saved for two years to have the money to take a full course load that summer…and she paid for it.
Yes, the Stafford Loans are available after the 8th semester, provided the student has not yet met the maximum aggregate.
I think my daughter will have to go longer. She was in a major that had a lot of lower level required classes and she took those. She changed her major and again, has a lot of lower level courses as pre-requisites. She goes to a school that isn’t very expensive so she will just have to pay for the extra semesters or year. Yes, you can still get student loans and other financial aid, but most merit scholaships are for 8 semesters only.
My other child, at a school where tuition is $40k per year, would be in a much different situation if she had to come up with $20k for tuition and an extra semester of living expenses. Her boyfriend found out he was one class short for graduation. He’s lucky in that he was already accepted to grad school, so can just tack that one class on to the fall semester (I actually think he’s going to take it in summer school).
Also, make good use of the summer. My D took a class in a CC after freshmen year. I know another student took a couple classes too. Check if you can get any credits like that to accelerate/catch-up your graduation with a much smaller cost than an extra semester.
I agree about summer school. My oldest is at an expensive college and took a class while home in the summer to give himself a buffer He took a standard course that fit into a requirement. I think that is the way to go. If you think you MIGHT need a 9th semester, try instead to do some summer work and then overload senior year so that you can get out on time.
Parents who think that their students are at higher risk of needing extra semesters may want to be more conservative on what they tell their kids about what they are willing to pay, in order to allow for some financial buffer in case extra semesters are needed (and note that these may be more expensive due to scholarships and financial aid running out).
Obviously, choosing a below-budget college to mitigate the extra semester(s) financial risk has to be considered or planned while the student is still in high school.
Is there anyway that student can look at program to see if there is any way that they can graduate in 4 years? this may mean abandoning a second major, taking the max number of classes (perhaps there is something that they can take on-line) and possibly getting a permit to take classes at home over the summer.
if there is no way for him/her to complete the degree requirements in the 4 years, at most schools if you are receiving need based or merit $ it is cease after 8 semesters unless the student is in an approved 5 year program and has funding.
If student has ~40k in need based, scholarship aid, the COA is going to be somewhere between $55- 65K/year. this last semester, will be about 27-30K. In this case, student may have to take their full student loan and parent may have to still pay the EFC that they would have paid for the full academic year, to cover the last semester.
One thing sometimes does not become apparent to the student or parents until after May 1: the need for the student to take remedial courses if s/he does not do well enough in placement testing by the college. Depending on the major, needing to take remedial courses can make it difficult to complete what should be an 8 semester program in 8 semesters. For example, if a student majors in an engineering subject, the usual time to degree is 8 semesters. But the scheduling is so tight that if s/he is placed in a math course below calculus 1, or needs to take remedial English, that may make it very difficult to finish in 8 semesters.
Talk to financial aid about the matter. Colleges don’t want you to wander away 1 semester short of a degree. They do care about graduation rates, after all. Not saying you’d get anything, but if you’re one semester from graduating ask.