Need guidance: how to get a B.A. in 1 year using sem credits

amother

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 7:35 pm

My daughter is in 11th grade and we're starting to talk about seminary, especially after the Binah this week and the thread on here. I'm a baalas teshuvah and she's my oldest daughter, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I never got the opportunity to go to seminary and I would love for my daughter to go, but I don't know how we could pay for it. Our joint income is about $125K, too much for FAFSA, right? And we have a lot of expenses due to having a special needs child. We also have high credit card debt that we're slowly paying off. She's a good student but not great, and we're just a regular nobody family, so nobody's going to be offering incentives to get her to come to their seminary. The only way we could maybe justify the expense of seminary would be if she got college credits for it. She wants to get a B.A. in education or a similar field, and will probably go on to grad school. I need to figure out which seminaries are best for getting college credits (we're OOT yeshivish so that type of seminary), and which programs offer an accelerated B.A. I'd also appreciate advice about options we may not be thinking about. I feel a bit lost. Her school doesn't offer families help about this. It's expected that if you want your daughter to get a degree, you're on your own to figure it out. Living OOT with no frum family and no connections, it's hard!

amother

Babyblue

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 7:43 pm

Depending on the school, you might be able to qualify for Federal Aid. There's something called "Professional Judgement" where a school is allowed to take your unusual circumstances into account (costs for your SN child) and thereby use a reduced income in the formula. However, not every school will do the extra work.

I noticed the Elyon Seminary offers a BA in one year along with sem. There may be others.

Please don't fall into the trap of thinking that going to Eretz Yisroel is the only seminary experience that counts! Although some seminaries do work with colleges to come back with credits, probably none of them are one year deals.

I had one DD do at least one CLEP while still in HS, but in the end the program she attended (it was in Cleveland and took Yavneh credits, but it's not available now) was so accelerated that they were not interested in your CLEP.

amother

Teal

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 8:50 pm

I am pretty sure that I saw that Meohr takes masa/fafsa, and they have a Shana bet program. I think girls can earn credits there. Perhaps you can call there administrative office to get more details. Getting in is another story, since I have heard it’s pretty competitive. But if you can make it work it’s a great sem!

amother

Salmon

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 8:51 pm

The seminary doesn't matter much, it's the program you choose to accumulate your credits with. I've seen ads for many different companies that do such a thing nowadays.
I would also strongly suggest starting now. If she starts taking tests in 12th grade for credit she can have 40 or so credits before going to seminary. It makes it much easier to come home and finish in one more year. The nature of these programs is that she can also be working that year after seminary while she's still doing tests for credit, so she'll be making an income.

amother

Mint

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 9:02 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Hugs! I'm so sorry that your school isn't helpful. Is it re credits or placement altogether.
As far as seminaries go, I've seen that new seminaries are often looking for good girls more than grades and will work with parents. This was our experience. We sent to a brand new seminary that was affiliated with other seminaries and we could see it had a lot going for it.

amother

Lemon

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 9:50 pm

Does she know which college she will be attending afterwards? You really want to find out from them what they will accept in terms of seminary credits. That said, when I went to Touro they took around 30 of my seminary credits. I also had some credits from my senior year of HS. With all of that, it took me about 18 months to finish my BA. That was basically taking the maximum credits per semester, plus summer semesters (which I believe were not covered by my scholarship). Since my graduate program required a number of science pre reqs, some of which had to be taken in a certain sequence, I couldn't have finished before then anyway.

amother

Cerulean

Sat, Nov 23 2019, 10:01 pm

Do you by any chance live in New York? Several SUNY and CUNY schools accept seminary credits, and your income. Any make her eligible for free tuition. But that’s tuition, not living expenses, which can be high. And I’m not sure if she would be considered living in New York during her gap year. https://www.suny.edu/smarttrac.....sior/

Hatzlacha

amother

Sun, Nov 24 2019, 6:40 am

I have a graduate degree and can confidently say that 95% of my undergrad courses were useless in real life. College was an expensive, everyone-does-it way to have a 4-year buffer between high school and adult life. I went to a good liberal arts school and wasn't frum at the time, and my college courses were heavily biased with a liberal slant even though my professors pretended to be rational and impartial. I was very liberal at the time so it worked for me, but around junior year I started questioning things and becoming interested in yiddishkeit and experienced some very unpleasant interactions with professors and students. I was shocked at the level of animosity toward anything they didn't approve of. Very intolerant and narrow-minded. So no I don't care for my child to spend years in undergrad. If you come from a frum home and are used to in-depth text learning and deep thinking about hashkafos, college isn't going to stretch you and help you develop as a person.

Thanks everyone for your responses, they're very helpful. Please keep them coming. I'm learning a lot!

amother

Plum

Sun, Nov 24 2019, 12:03 pm

Graduate schools and many employers are catching on to the quick BA in one year. Firstly they ask what years you went to college. If you can only write 2021-2023 (counting seminary) they look at you funny. I did 3 year BA and still had to explain it "I took summers, did the summer before college officially started and I just love learning so didn't want to miss time from school... "
Plus quick schools don't have great reputations...

amother

Babyblue

Sun, Nov 24 2019, 12:21 pm

Quote:

many employers are catching on to the quick BA in one year.

This is not a problem if you seek employment in a frum environment.

DD did the Cleveland BA (it was not through Yavneh, per se, one of the Rabbonim in town set it up with a college, I believe in Canada, and they took all of Yavneh's credits. It was a two year program including summers, and they did some serious learning in all areas.) IIRC she had friends who were accepted to very good graduate programs. Okay, not so relevant now since the program no longer exists.

But there are also boys with BTLs based solely on their yeshiva studies who are accepted to very good law schools, including Harvard! So clearly some people consider Yeshiva studies to be good education.

OP, your DD may not know right now what field she wants to pursue. If something medical, for example, she would need a lot of science, which she won't get in a quicky-take-tests-on-Tanach type of program. OTOH, if your goal is just a piece of paper, some of the local seminaries can provide that.

TravelHearter

Sun, Nov 24 2019, 1:11 pm

amother [ Teal ] wrote:

I went to Bnos Avigail for my first year of sem, and then went to Meohr Shana Bais (they don't take a lot of 'newbies' second year but if youre a good girl whose going for the right reasons you're good)...and I came home after those two years with a BA. (Through Charter Oak state college). Keep,in kind that means 2 years of sem cost wise...but you do get a BA with it