<p>I’m a 20 year old sophomore commuting to community college. </p>
<p>I wish to go to an out-of-state grad school so it would make sense for me to commute to a local state school. I wish I could do that but my local state school (FIU) doesn’t offer the major that is required for me to have to get the MS in Professional Meteorology that I wish to get. I can’t commute to the next school that does (FSU). That school has an 18K COA which I cannot afford. Has a 30K a year COA, but two years are needed to get the degree.</p>
<p>My parents have an EFC of 20K, but have taken on too consumer debt in the past few years to pay ANY of that. Their credit is poor so I cannot rely on them to take out any loans. </p>
<p>How can I approach my professional interests in a financially reasonable manner? My college advisor is stumped at my situation and cannot offer me any help and suggested I visit this website instead.</p>
<p>I would focus first on a undergraduate degree and then figure out the graduate degree later.</p>
<p>Pick a BS degree that is generally employable and related to meterology. Then you’ll have a bird in the hand and then can work on retrieiving the bird in the bush (a MS in a particular field) later. But if something changes, you can get hired with your BS degree.</p>
<p>I would pick Math or Physics in that case, would it hurt my employment chances getting a degree from a fourth tier school?</p>
<p>If you are talking about getting a meteorology job, your masters degree (or PhD) will be the relevant degree. Agree with babyontheway that getting the bachelors at a nearby college makes good sense for you. It is not uncommon for grad students to have to backtrack and pick up some classes after they get to grad school when their undergrad major isn’t quite on point with their grad studies.</p>
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<p>That makes good sense. Both sound like relevant degrees for meterology and will provide you with the skills for a variety of jobs.</p>
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<p>It won’t hurt your chances over the life of your career, which will span 30 years. The first job out of college may be a little more difficult but there are a lot of factors that go on there.</p>
<p>There are a lot of FA, TA work and Research Funds at graduate level. So, just goto FIU to finish your UG degree in a science field, make sure your gpa is high and that is more important.</p>