|
Lubbock, Texas | 1. If you contact ISU perhaps they will have other funding available at the "college" or "department" level that normal financial aid does not mention
2. as you mentioned with the degrees not "matching up" the 30 additional hours the friend had to take are called leveling courses.....graduate programs expect to start all their students off at the same or near the same level before they take the hours needed for a masters......this would relate to what you said about one undergrad only needing one semester of calculus VS another needing calculus 3.......some things you might not need to level out, but often you will especially if coming from a smaller school and going to a large research oriented land grant like ISU
ISU can look at the degree plan of where you want to go for undergrad and tell you what you would need to get into their grad program without leveling courses.....the sooner you know this the better off you will be
also it is MY OPINION that if one is getting "free money" like pell grants or some other grant or scholarship while an undergrad it is in their best interest to try and take ALL the leveling courses possible as an undergrad while the "free money" is available because after you get the undergrad degree pell grants and many other scholarships are not available
leveling courses will usually be a bit tougher as well like statistics, some advanced calculus, or chem, bio, or physics for a science/engineering based masters
It is my opinion that as you get further into a degree undergrad or masters for the most part the classes actually get a bit easier or at the worst stay the same.....mainly because you have to have the firm base to take those classes and more so because hopefully you are interested
this might not hold true in engineering specifically where some advanced classes can be a killer, but is does in most any other degree IMO....even physics and chem and bio
there is one big issue with taking all your leveling courses at your current school before you get a BS and go for a masters.....and that is that some masters programs look at the last 60 hours GPA.......but you will need at least a B in the leveling courses at your new school so if you can't pull the GPA in those similar courses at your current school there is probably less of a chance you would pull the B in the leveling courses at the new school
IMO you need to talk to ISU or the school you prefer to go to as an undergrad and see if there is other money available at the college or department level.....if not and you choose another school....then IMO you still need to contact ISU or what ever school you want to do a masters at and see what leveling courses you would need to get into their masters program, in this era of budget cuts make sure the program will still be around with faculty to teach it in 4 years, you will have a face with a name when you contact them in the future, they might tell you about a school or program you had not considered, they might tell you their grads are NOT getting jobs or maybe their grads are in huge demand, you might find you don't like them and want to look elsewhere
contact the undergrad and graduate advisers at the department level of the places you are looking at for undergrad and masters the sooner you know the answers right from them the better you can make use of the time before you start a masters program....and try and take all the classes you can before getting the actual undergrad if getting "free" money
| |
|
College Assistance Needed
