Going Back to School Paying as Little as Possible with Catherine Lavelle

On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, our host is Emily Egan, PR and Strategic Projects Manager. She is joined by FinGym Client Catherine Lavelle to talk about going back to school later in life and how to get someone else to pay for it.

Podcast Notes

• Catherine works in admissions at a college in New York. Recently, she started a company on the side to help people go back to school.
• In her work in admissions, she came across a lot of people who were looking to pick up where they left off five, ten, or fifteen years ago, when they had to quit due to life.
• The first thing Catherine recommends is to define your goals and figure out what is most important to you. Is it to finish in the shortest amount of time possible? Or is it to get a particular degree or to reach a particular goal?
• A good place to start is a weigh in to see where you are. Did you leave school with an associate's degree? Did you leave because you failed out or were dismissed?
• One of the secrets most people don't know is that your school wants you to finish. When you finish your degree, their completion rates go up and it makes them look better.
• If you leaving school was not on a positive note, you can make an appeal. How many credits do you have? What were your grades? Do you owe the school money? If money is a roadblock, talk to someone in admissions.
• Catherine tries to tease out the specifics to see where each client is and create a roadmap to move forward.
• Sometimes private schools offer discounts to returning students. Going back to the college you left is a great place to start. You may qualify for a reverse transfer and take classes at another school and apply them to a previous school toward a degree.