Comments | applyingtograd: non-degree/continuing ed question...

royalewcheeze in applyingtograd

non-degree/continuing ed question...

Mar 30, 2009 12:47

Hi all! First of all, for those of you who've gotten acceptances, congratulations! That's quite an accomplishment. And for those who are still waiting: take comfort in the fact that there's alot of us in the same boat, and we'll eventually get where we need to be ( Read more... )

psych, non-degree courses

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hallow000 March 30 2009, 20:06:45 UTC

i was a non-degree student for two years with the intention of applying to the school i was taking my classes at. this year i was rejected after taking 4 non-degree classes. the good news is i can take those credits elsewhere when the time comes but in the meantime, all i can say is being non-degree is unbelievably expensive. what i did after i graduated with my undergrad was take two jobs and saved as much money as i could for a few years. when i could afford a class, i would take it. it was a slow grueling process.

in regards to your situation, taking non-degree classes is a risky and expensive route. there is no FA, loans are tought to get and often they want to be paid in full when it comes to registeration and you may not even get the class you want. if you been rejected and are dead set on going to school, this is often the road you must take. taking such classes, like you have heard from friends, will give you an edge, school is school after all but it isn't cheap. i saved for it for years and still am paying some credit bills cause of it but in the long run, i think it's worth it cause academia is like a sanity keeper for me. i guess the only advice i can give is that it is a possiblity to take such classes but beware of the money you're spending and also, taking ANY classes as a non-degree is not a promise that you're going to get into that school's program. good luck.

royalewcheeze March 30 2009, 20:45:07 UTC

thank you for your thoughtful response; this is very helpful advice! This is exactly the sort of advice I was looking for.

are you in a grad program yet? or did you get rejected from all the ones you applied to this year?

hallow000 March 30 2009, 21:10:43 UTC

no problem with the advice. no, i'm not in any program as of now. this is the third year i've been rejected from the particular school of discussion even when i was enrolled there part time as a non-degree and i didn't get in any of the others i applied to either. it's kind of a bummer. i'm changing my options and most likely will apply out for a MFA instead of a MA like previous times before next time around. hopefully things will turn around.

royalewcheeze March 31 2009, 01:10:17 UTC

that is a bummer. =( I hope it does turn around for you. best of luck.

evr1bugsme March 31 2009, 00:42:54 UTC

You can be eligible for stafford loans, but you have to take a minimum of 6 credits, which could be more credits than you'd want to take at a time. A quick google pulled up this site which points out that you can only get stafford loans as a graduate student if you did not max out on stafford loans. It offers the maximum amount as max for subsidized and unsubsidized. So, if you went to college as a dependent student, you most likely did not max out since independent students are the only ones who can "double up." At least with staffords you can defer payments and they have relatively cheaper rates.

Working at a college would be ideal, but goddamn are those jobs competitive!

royalewcheeze March 31 2009, 01:15:45 UTC

thanks so much! somehow in my googling, I did not find that. FAIL.

I don't quite get their eligibility table, though...it almost seems as though I'd have to take 3 semesters of non-degree classes. I don't quite understand that, because my understanding is that most grad programs will only let you transfer in a certain amount of credits.

I really appreciate your help. That was incredibly helpful!

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