I'm gonna be going over 160 hours after this semester, which is the credit hour limit for my degree, so I'll have to pay out of state tuition which is amost $5000 more. There is no way in hell I can afford this, as my financial aid won't cover this. Really frustrating considering next semester will be my last.

Is there any way around this? I know they have an appeals system but they ask for evidence such as a death certificate or medical bills, neither of which I have. I did have one semester where I went through a pretty serious depression and thought seriously about dropping out. Ended up failing 3 out of 4 classes. If not for that semester I wouldn't be past the limit. Do I have a case here?

don't know, but that does suck for you. I graduated with 172 hrs, which was a function of changing majors at 95 hrs.

What sucks is my first semester was the first time the limit was 160. Used to be 175.

Do you have any documentation for the depression?

No. It was not medical or due to chemical imbalance, it was due to personal issues I was going through at the time. Of course they won't believe me, but how do you prove something like that?

Are you sure you will be penalized? I'm graduating this semester with over 180 hours and they didn't do anything to me. The thing is a lot of my hours were obtained before my high school diploma and all those are not taken into account in the rule.

Oh my point is that there are certain limitations to the excess hour rule and that maybe you will be able to get away with it

Are any of them AP credit? If so you can challenge those as they do not count against the cap.

Yes, I'm certain because I got the bill from sbs today.

None of them are AP credit, but some hours were taken at my local college back home. Don't know if those can be discounted or not.

Check out the credit hour link on howdy and talk to an advisor. The rule is weird in the sense that if you have 159 hours before your last semester then you are ok, but if you have 160, you are screwed.

Id be depressed too if I ordered an antiqued ring.

Seriously though unless you have one of those things documented you will not get around the excess credit hour rule. I changed majors twice and wound up with a similar problem.

I also had an issue where an advisor incorrectly told me that certain classes would not count towards the total count if you took them again either for a better grade or for fun (I took 3 kine scuba classes to get higher certifications). Even though I had documentation of the advisor's incorrect advice they didnt care.

Unfortunately you are going to just have to suck it up and find some extra cash or postpone graduation.

quote:

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None of them are AP credit, but some hours were taken at my local college back home. Don't know if those can be discounted or not.

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unless local college is out of state or private, you're hosed i think

It sucks but it is there for a reason. Take out a school loan at a bank for the difference.

You're screwed they want their money and they're gonna get it.

The program I was on essentially had me get a degree in all but name only before transferring to finish an engineering degree(and in turn get the first degree without any extra work). The hours didn't reset and no one even warned me this would happen. I thought it was bullcrap so I appealed but lost.

The rule is the semester you start with more than 30 hrs over the required for your degree, you pay outta state tuition. It sucks but one semester didn't put you in that position and if you had planned you past few semesters you could have avoided it.
I know I'm gonna be close to being 30 over the mech engr required 128 so I planned it out 2 semesters ago to know that as long as I end my second to last semester with 157, I can take a full 18 hours my last semester and not pay outta state tuition.

In other words, you're screwed unless the appeals process works out for you.

Edit: I should add that I was at UTA for 2 years, left and spent a semester in culinary at my CC while trying to transfer to A&M, went back to UTA for a semester, transfered to A&M as IE last fall, spent the last two semesters in IE and got back into ME this past fall. After all that I'm still graduating Dec 2012 without paying outta state tuition.

[This message has been edited by RustyBoltz (edited 12/11/2011 7:10p).]

Join the real world already