[spacecase]

Ugh.... So I'm receiving financial aid as a fulltime student and I'm in this class that I so can't handle right now. I have to pay for the supplies out of my pocket and I just don't have the money. Also, I'm just having difficulties coping with this whole college thing right now and it'd be amazing if I had one less class. The problem is if I drop this class I will no longer be a full time student and I'm worried I'll loose my financial aid. I know I should talk to a counselor but I tend to worry about things ALOT and it's 2 AM and I can't stop thinking about this. I don't know what to do.

[Katileena]

I also got through college on financial aid. I also dropped below full time status, and all that happened is my aid was adjusted for the dropped credits. So, I recieved the exact same proportionate funds as I would have as a full time student. If you drop the class most likely your aid will be adjusted for the dropped credits, but you should still have plenty to cover your costs and hopefully your room and board as well. Ask a financial aid counselor for sure, but that's what happened to me.

[Junerain]

You can still get financial aid as a part time student, sounds like this will be a great relief to you, take care of YOU

[sunrise]

My daughter is a college student and if she drops below fulltime, she loses some types of her financial aid (not proportionally, but the whole amount). For example, she has a scholarship that requires her to be a fulltime student. If you're not sure about your aid, check with your financial aid office. Can you tell the professor about not having enough money to buy the supplies? Maybe he/she will be able to direct you to campus resources for this type of situation. Hope you can see a counselor. It's so hard to lose so much sleep. Hope you can get some rest.

[spacecase]

I got it all worked out today with a counselor. I dropped the class with no problem. It was a great relief, thanks!

[spacecase]

Originally Posted by sunrise

My daughter is a college student and if she drops below fulltime, she loses some types of her financial aid (not proportionally, but the whole amount). For example, she has a scholarship that requires her to be a fulltime student. If you're not sure about your aid, check with your financial aid office. Can you tell the professor about not having enough money to buy the supplies? Maybe he/she will be able to direct you to campus resources for this type of situation. Hope you can see a counselor. It's so hard to lose so much sleep. Hope you can get some rest.

Yeah I heard it mentioned once that if I had below the number of credits required for full time (since I was signed up for financial aid as a full time student) that my aid could be suspended. I talked to some people at the financial aid office today though and since it's so early in the semester they said it wasn't a problem.

[salukigirl]

Thats news to me. I have always been told that if I dropped below 12 hours I would lose all my financial aid. I was going to suggest switching it out for another, easier class.

Also (SIU doesn't do this anymore) but a lot of schools will have profs keep supplies or books on hold in the library for students that can't afford them. When I took stats over the summer I couldn't afford the book so I went to the math dept and copied the pages I needed. I did the same thing when I took german. I just photocopied the pages out of the book and turned those in.

However, students took advantage of it and ruined the books so now the profs can't trust to keep copies on hold in the library anymore. I asked my org. chem. prof about it and he said they can't do that anymore.

I totally understand the being broke thing seeing as how I have been in college for 5 years now (out of state none the less). There are other ways to get help. Have you checked out FWS? Its federal work study which places you in a job on campus that helps pay for tuition or other things.

Most semesters I have had to take out private loans because pell grants just weren't enough. Thanks to Obama though, my grants more than doubled this past year so this is the first year I wont have to do that.

Also, have you looked for any outside scholarships? I have gotten this thing called the SMART grant which is given to a science major with a gpa of 3.0 or above. I also got an NSF (National Science Foundation) Scholarship and all I had to do was write an essay. Maybe check out some of those?