<p>I might confuse you a little, but please, hear me out.
Okay, if I go to college in the fall and apply for financial aid for a one year certificate program. But, if I then quit half way through the program and re-register in the spring for a two-year program; can I also reapply for financial aid?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>I am assuming you would finish the fall semester, then switch programs for the following semester. If you attend the same school, you won’t have to reapply for aid. If you go to another school, you will need to send your FAFSA to that school & they will award you aid - but they will take into account any loans you took out at the former school to count toward your annual max for year in school.</p>
<p>Are you planning to do this? Why? Or are you just checking “in case” you decide to switch programs?</p>
<p>Just in case. I can also apply for a full-tuition scholarship when I re-register in the spring, right?</p>
<p>That depends on the school. For most, the answer is no. Full tuition scholarships are usually for first time freshmen only, and they are awarded only for fall start students. Your school may be different, though, so you will need to find out.</p>
<p>Agree you would need to check with your school. My daughter’s school has a limited number of full tuition merit based scholarships but they are available only to freshmen starting the fall after they graduate high school. There are other tuition scholarships, such as for transfers, but they usually a set $ amount and only cover a portion of tuition.</p>
<p>The college I want to go to says "To qualify for full-tuition scholarships:
<p>I think you should email the school, there’s usually a contact given, and ask if you would qualify as a spring admit and coming from a certificate program. You might also ask how many of these are given and what the average scores were for those who were chosen recently.</p>
<p>The criteria you are listing for the full tuition scholarship might not apply for folks other than newly admitted freshmen. Did you apply for this scholarship as an incoming student? Did you receive it? If not, the likelihood of you getting it as a second semester student is very small. Most schools award their big ticket scholarships to incoming freshmen, not second semester students who didn’t get it the first time around.</p>
<p>The other thing to find out…is this an AUTOMATIC award? Do ALL students with the criteria you list get full tuition scholarships? I’m going to guess the answer is NO. You would be “applying” for this…not guaranteed to get it.</p>
<p>But mostly you need to check to see who is actually eligible to apply for this scholarship. Many (actually most) schools do not award these types of scholarships in the second semester (or second year) to students who didn’t apply for and receive this award as incoming freshmen. Many schools also do not give these types of awards to transfer students at all.</p>
<p>OP, you need to be aware that “qualified” and “eligible” for an award does NOT equal “get the award” even at random CC. That’s why thumper1 asked for clarification. </p>
<p>Some colleges do hand out merit money to <em>all</em> students meeting certain criteria, and these awards are typically referred to as “automatic”.</p>
<p>But other schools have awards that they for which they consider all applicants with stats that meet certain criteria, but they only give award money to <em>some</em> of those qualified students. How the college selects the award winners from the qualified applicants depends on the particular school.</p>