This is my first time posting on a message board, or even online in general. I’m pretty much an internet lurker on most discussion boards. My situation is that I am currently a Freshman attending a 4-year university. (For reference I got a 3.98 cumulative GPA in HS with a 31 ACT). I’ve gotten a 4.0 fall semester and am on track to get a 4.0 this spring. I am currently involved in a bunch of volunteer work, and am hoping to go to medical school in the future and become a doctor.
The thing is, I am considering dropping out. It’s not because of the difficulty or anything relating to academia… it’s due to financial reasons. Because I am going to school OOS, the expense of college was around 40k per semester. This last semester I received some scholarships that would put me on track to only have to pay 10k in costs. Therefore, I took out 5k in student loans and my parents had to pay 5k out of pocket. I was banking on getting some additional scholarships for the upcoming years, but unfortunately I wasn’t picked for a majority of them.
This leaves me in a situation where I have to pay around 17000 for the 2017-18 school year. Having the pell grant leaves me at around 11000 that I would have to pay out of pocket. Calculating that up, I would have ~35,000 in student loans within the next 3 years. Since my parents have already done so much for me and their financial situation isn’t the best (EFC is 0), I was seriously thinking about leaving university after this semester ends. I’m not sure if the benefits of attending university outweigh the costs in the long run because I would have A LOT of debt. I could also get a job to help mitigate the costs, but trying to balance leadership, volunteering, job, academic, and everything else would be overwhelming. As a first generation college student, I’m not sure what to do. Is it possible to transfer universities back to my state university? Should i get job? I have yet to talk to my parents about the whole situation. I am really flustered at the moment so sorry for the bad grammar.
TLDR: Freshman student at university, thinking about dropping out due to financial reasons. Is it reasonable to take a year off and transfer to another school? Or should I take out the loans and try to make it through this university?
Go talk to financial aid. make an appointment and do it in person. As a first gen, they want you to be able to stay! If you can get it down to the federal loans, I’d stay.
Your number one priority should be finishing college…Yes you may have to invest in yourself, but you will make more money on average in the long run if you have a college degree.
So can you transfer to a cheaper school?
Or is this a good school that you have a good chance of graduating from and getting a good job from which you can pay those loans?
Talk to financial aid or the Dean of Students to get some more ideas on this. Don’t just say “I’ll make more money if I drop out and work”…that is true in the short run but not in the long run.
I just want to add my voice and agree that you should have problem solving discussions with Financial Aid and the Dean of Students. They are very experienced in helping students stay in school. Perhaps they could assist you in getting campus employment in the residents halls to reduce your expenses. You are there, you are doing well and showing commitment to your university. Ask them for help first.
If you are paying out of state tuition, you likely need to transfer to a school with lower costs. This could be a meets-full-need private school or a school in your home state system.
It is likely not possible to transfer for the fall, but many public schools accept transfers to start in the spring.
A 4.0 college GPA should be helpful in transfer admissions.
The most likely transfer-friendly schools that are likely to cost less are probably your home state public universities, but it depends on what your home state is. For example, PA is not very good from a cost perspective for EFC = $0 PA residents. CA is better on the cost front, but its public universities generally only take junior level transfers, so you would likely have to do sophomore year at a CA community college while applying for junior transfer to a university.