Post Bac Expenses!

Hi Everyone,


I am posting this because I figure alot of you guys had the same suprise as me. I am attending the Univ. of Florida starting next week as a post bac student. I had planned on getting loans to get me through the next year, but there is no financial aid for non degee seekers! Oops. I’ll make it work, but it was a nasty surprise!


Now I am shopping for textbooks - I thought there was a misprint on the price of my organic book! 8 years ago, I took Organic 1 and the text, brand new was $90. I went to price them out, and holy cow, $185 brand new! Wow, words have gotten pricey! I am laughing as I type this, because I do sound like an old fart…“back in my day”…


In any case, I have found that Craigslist is the best way to get used text books for me. (I live in a college town-so there are lots of local sellers)! I saved about $400 on all of my books! I also checked out Half.com which was another great source.


I hope everyone has a great semester…this is my first one back since 2003 and I am super excited!! Good Luck!

Good to know about CL for textbooks. Even during the time I started college to the time I finished, I figure my engineering textbooks had gone up at least 50%. I won’t get into my entire textbook industry racket lecture…

Hi JClark 2003,


I have recently applied to the local university to take the prerequisites and found out after much research that pre-med students according to Federal Government are considered 5th year undergraduate students. To get financial aid all you need to do is apply to the University of your choice and be accepted into a degree granting program. Complete the FAFSA and I believe it is question 28 that refers to the 5th year of study and you are on your way. For more information review the Stafford Loan and FAFSA websites.


Good Luck!

There are ways around the loan problem.

  1. You CAN get 12 (consecutive) months of federal financial aid to take courses that are pre-requisites for a professional program, even if you are enrolled as a non-degree student. A lot of FA people aren’t aware of this provision, but it’s there. I used it and I looked it up and posted a link to info on here a few months ago. The downside - it’s virtually impossible to complete all of the pre-reqs in 12 months. However, 12 months of FA is better than nothing.

  2. Enroll as a degree-seeking student. Nobody really cares if you don’t plan to finish the degree. However, your options may be limited on this depending on how much money you borrowed for your original undergrad and/or how many total undergrad hours you have.

  3. Private loans. You need good credit and a lot of companies are getting out of the student loan business, so this may be more difficult than it used to be.

Thanks for this info. I just filled out my FAFSA and I want to take a couple courses this fall quarter. I signed up for Chem. 101, and was hoping to take Algebra part 2 (I took part one last year). I still need Physics, biology and Organic Chem too. So I have a lot of work ahead of me. Thanks for the tip about buying books on craigslist too. I was checking it out and there are some deals if you can find your book. A lot of professors seem to like using brand new editions and there aren’t any old copies to buy. I think amazon can have good deals on used textbooks too.

  • jclark2003 Said:
Hi Everyone,

...

I am attending the Univ. of Florida starting next week as a post bac student.

...



I haven't known of that UFL has a post-bac program. May I request you to give the URL to its website?

My professor for organic is giving extra credit for some online homework that is only accessable with a code you get if you buy the book new.


He also gave us a link to the publisher’s website and the book was substantially cheaper than at the book store, or even on Amazon! I was really happy he gave us the link…so you may want to approach your professors and see if they have the same thing available with the publisher.


But for the rest of my courses, I did craigslist and half.com. Good luck!

  • ceng2doc Said:
  • jclark2003 Said:
Hi Everyone,

I haven't known of that UFL has a post-bac program. May I request you to give the URL to its website?



UF really really dislikes students doing post bac work....so there is no formal program. In my case, I have a BS and MS in Engineering. So I went to another science department and discussed the possiblity of doing a PhD. .

They addmitted me to post bac to do some additional sci. courses that I need to apply for the PhD...but so far, they have not limited me to just those courses, so I am able to take Organic, Cell Bio and Anatomy! So if I am not accepted into Med School here, I can still do the PhD program.

I hear that the Dept of Microbilogy and Cell Sci. is relatively easy to Post Bac.in.