College students beware: Changing majors is expensive

College students, unsure about what they want to do with their lives, often change majors, sometimes more than once.

But students, take note. Your indecisiveness can come with a high price at Texas’ public universities.

At many state schools, changing majors may mean almost starting over on coursework, extending the college stay by a year or more. Once students earn 150 hours — essentially five years of schooling — the state stops subsidizing their education and the students must pay out-of-state tuition, says Lacey Thompson, director of operations at the University of North Texas’ financial aid office.

“And then to complicate matters, this excess-hour tuition you are getting charged, federal aid won’t pay for it, “ Thompson says. That’s because there are two cutoff points for aid, one state and one federal. Texas cuts funding at 150 credit hours and federal aid disappears after 180 hours, meaning students can no longer get federal grants or more-flexible federal loans to finish a degree.

Going to community college first to save money, ironically, can increase the cost. That’s because the average student who completes a two-year associate degree at a Texas community college takes a whopping 98 credit hours to do so, according to a 2013 study of Texas colleges by Complete College America, a nonprofit that aims to improve graduation rates.

To make matters worse, that associate degree may not include many courses needed for a four-year major.

The costs to students are huge. Based on UNT’s tuition calculator, an in-state student will pay about $5,260 in tuition and fees for a 15-credit-hour semester.

Because of the out-of-state tuition and fees, a student with more than 150 hours will pay more than twice that, $11,380.

More than 500 UNT students are in this predicament every semester, meaning they are paying more than $3 million a year in additional tuition and fees.

Malachi Galeano, a UNT student who changed his major from journalism to fashion merchandising to a catchall called integrative studies, is no longer eligible for financial aid. He finds the situation stressful and even considered quitting short of a degree.

But he decided, “you just have to keep pushing.”

Noe Mendoza, another UNT student, changed majors three times, from psychology to kinesiology to biology, and then ended up in integrative studies. “I didn’t know the effects when I changed majors because I was never informed by any adviser of any of the consequences of many hours, “ Mendoza said.

“The reason I changed my major was because I felt I had more job opportunities after graduation, but that wasn’t really the case.”

Mendoza has paid tuition on his own for the last two semesters, working over the summer and using credit cards. He still has another year to go.

’Excess college credit problem’

The concept of what’s known as “excessive hours” was intended to encourage Texas students to work faster toward degrees. Starting in 1999, students with 45 or more hours over the number needed to graduate lost state funding.

The state education code was updated in 2005, requiring Texas students who enrolled in fall 2006 or later to complete their degrees with no more than 30 extra credit hours if they want to pay in-state tuition. (Hours earned while in high school or through Advanced Placement exams don’t count.)

Despite the stricter standards, the average Texan who completes a bachelor’s degree does so with 147 credit hours, a mere three hours — or one class — under the limit, according to the 2013 Complete College America report.

The report also found that only 30.2 percent of Texans at public universities finish a four-year degree on time. The average full-time student takes 5.3 years.

The report singled out Texas as a problem, saying “no other state matches the magnitude of Texas’ excess college credit problem.” Altogether, the report noted, Texas taxpayers pay about $15 million a year subsidizing that fifth year of college.

Community college conundrum

While many students start at community colleges because they’re cheaper, students there often accumulate way too many hours.

James Vernado, a longtime counselor at Tarrant County College, says students who enter are often unsure about what they want to do. “People are looking for a comfort level, something that fits their personality. You know a career is like a marriage - you have got to be compatible, “ he said.

Vernado said that many community college students start on a degree that is only good for an associate degree, such as a program to become a technician or assistant. But those courses may not count toward a four-year major. Once students realize that, they will transfer to a four-year school — but by then, they may have 70 credit hours or more.

Often unsaid is that community colleges have a vested interest in encouraging students to complete an associate degree.

“Community colleges, no fault of their own, are also funded by the state for their completion rates, and so they want students to complete an associate degree, “ says Julie Kirkland, assistant dean for student success at UNT’s College of Arts and Sciences. She says UNT would like potential transfer students to talk to its advisers about requirements before they reach the point of transferring.

UNT works with community colleges to try to create 2-plus-2 programs that allow students to earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, but some majors simply require that certain courses be taken at UNT.

“We don’t want to discourage anyone from getting a two-year degree, but at the same time they need to make an informed choice, “ Kirkland said.

No more ‘undecided’ majors

As of 2013, students entering UNT have to declare a major other than “undecided.”

The university made this change after research indicated students with a declared major were more likely to graduate, Kirkland said.

Liz Hageman found the whole process confusing. She initially earned an associate degree in fashion merchandising in Los Angeles but then decided she wanted to go into forensics.

Initially, she was told biology would be a wise choice but was told later that integrative studies would be a faster choice. She was confused but ended up in integrative studies.

Both students and administrators point to the advising system as another culprit in the high cost of changing majors. “We find that students are choosing a major just because they are forced to choose one and then they come in here because they don’t know what they can do with that degree, “ says Gena Kirkwood, an adviser in UNT’s career center.

Kirkland, the assistant dean, says fixing the excessive-hours problem will take change across the board: communicating better with students, adjusting major requirements, improving coordination between community colleges and universities, and changing the way community colleges are evaluated for funding.

“I believe it is something we can change and I believe that it is something that should be a priority for us, “ Kirkland said. “I don’t like to see students waste time or money.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "College students beware: Changing majors is expensive."