OK... so i took a few classes at University of Pheonix online. I can say that i was less then empressed with there finance department and their methods. To the point of fraud actually. And i think that i may indeed have discovered what they do that got them investigated by the FBI in 2004. Cause they claimed they owed me 1400.00 and they are ignoring my attempts to contact them.
But that aside here is my delima.
I am 24. i have a wife and a 4 year only son. I am a recent layoff victim of the new glorious economy. I use to work for Pfizer but the drug i worked on flopped. now i am nearing the end of my unemployment and dont have a clue what to do.
I have been un-enrolled at UoP for about 5 months now and i need to get back into college. Currently i am interested in computer animation at FullSail university. The classes are online for a Bachelor of computer science degree. I Have a passion for computer animation and want to do this for the rest of my life. Pixar is where i hope to be working in the next 4 years or so.
The perfect scenerio for my situation would be for me to move to Florida and take classes on campus to get the best expierence i can for what i want to do and then eventually move to california and get a job at pixar.
Issues... i am on unemployment and have no money to move... so... i have opted to take the classes online. this is not only 25 thousand cheaper.... but i wont have to move or anyting to take the classes.
I also get the GI bill so once i get school going i will get 1000.00 dollars a month to help pay for college.
So now given a little background on my history i need some advice from people with personal EXP or people who know alot about college/financialaid in general.
1 if tuition for my degree is 50k will financial aid cover the tuition or am i going to have to come out of poket a big chunk of money every set of classes?
2. My FAFSA on file ends here real soon so do i need to fill out a new one or update my processed one.
3. If my EFC number was based off of me living single and now i have 2 dependents how should i go about updating this? or... will filling out a new/renewed FAFSA get me a new EFC number?
4. FullSail requires that all students have a laptop provided by them to do didgital animation (or whatever your degree is) in these cases can this be figured into my tuition or am i going to have to fork out 2000-4000 dollars for a high performance laptop up front?
I have about 6 weeks to figure out what i am going to do or im gonna be workin fast food or something with no way to get ahead and get to college and do something that i will actually enjoy. Any advice anyone can give me would be awesome thanks. 1. Federal fin aid will not cover the entire cost of a 50K a year school. No way. THe max you can get in stafford loans per year as a independent freshman is 7500, sophomores can get 8,500 per year. Jrs and seniors 10,500 per year each. If you are poor enough you can get up to 4750 per year in Pell grant, but you have to have a very LOW efc to get the max and many people don't qualify for any Pell.
2. You need to do a new fafsa NOW if you are considering going back to school. Select the 09-10 fafsa, it sounds like you have already done the 08-09 one. Be aware most state priority deadlines have passed so you won't likely get any state grant money. Be sure you apply in Feb/March of next year (2010) so you don't miss the deadlines.
3. Your info will update when you do a new fafsa. The 09-10 will have the corrected info on it, as long as you fill it out right. Yes, it will give you a new EFC number that will be your number for the entire 09-10 school year.
4. You would have to fork over how much money you want to spend. Unless you delve into the world of private student loans, you will never get enough money to pay your tuition AND your new computer. Do you really want to be paying on that laptop for the next 30 years? Cause that is how long many of those private student loans are financed for.
Private student loans will require a cosigner, and I don't know many people willing (or able to afford) to sign 50,000 a year to me for the next 2 to 4 years. Do you?
Advice: You can take computer animation and graphics classes at almost all community colleges now-days. Don't be fooled by this "For-Profit" school like you were the UoP. They are the same thing, buisnesses set up for the only purpose of taking your money. You are jumping from the fire into the flames here. One bad situation into a worse one. Find a local community college and take their animation classes (yes, they have them) and pay less than 1,500 a semester for 2 semesters a year. 3,000 a year total, what a bargan.
If you qualify for the Pell, you might actually have money left over to live off of and go to school for free. You'll NEVER get that going to a for profit school like Full Sail or the University of Phoenix. You can go online to your fafsa and make any needed corrections. If you haven't completed one for the 09-10 school year, you need to do that now. You can pull up the old one and pull your Information forward to an updated one then change any information you need to.
If there's a community college near you I would recommend taking as many classes as you can there. It will save you a fortune. Make sure the classes you are taking are transferable to FullSail, though. if they're not, that's a good clue that FullSail is not an accredited school.
There are maximum limits to Federal Grants and Loans and I don't think all total they will come anywhere near covering $50,000. tuition at Full Sail.
Whether or not the laptop is considered "required" really doesn't affect how much money you have to put towards it up front. I really dont' understand your question. If you have to buy it out of pocket, and I suspect you will have to do so whether you are reimbursed by financial aid or not. I would recommend you apply to Best Buy for credit. I doubt that the school is going to provide you with a computer and then let you pay it back to them as "tuition". It would be classified as required supplies, which you must pay for out of pocket or with your left over financial aid.
http://www.geocities.com/fullsailexposed... |
