Please help me map out a good degree path and navigate fin aid.

[ItsNeverTheLionsYear]

TESU is a participant in the Garden State Guarantee: https://www.tesu.edu/tuition/gsg

It's a relatively new program, and I'm not sure if anyone on this forum has gone through it. Looks like it requires you to:

• Be a New Jersey resident (you are!)
  
• Have an income between $0 and $65k (you do!)
  
• Take a full courseload (4-5 courses, 12-15 credits per semester)
  

It also seems there's a sister grant that called the Community College Opportunity Grant that you get considered for by filing the FAFSA which applies to local community colleges. You can do two years at CC, then two years at any NJ state university for a free degree. Very cool!

The bad news is there's a deadline to file the necessary paperwork for 2023-24, and you've already missed it. It was April 15, 2023.

I don't know of anyone on this forum who's done this successfully. It does sound like you could knock out a bunch of gen eds through Sophia, take a full courseload for 1-2 years, and boom, degree for less than $300.

Like the posters above said, there's tuition reimbursement that some employers (notably Target and Chipotle) offer through a service called Guild that can cover degrees from other schools as well, if you're interested in that option.