Notes

This lecture will be given from first person point of view.

Being a transient student simply means you attend two colleges simultaneously with the goal of bringing credits back to your home school.

Taking a course not offered at your home school or being in a different area for a certain period of time and wanting to get credits out of the way are two of many reasons students chose to be transient students.

Most students view transient as just that. Going to another university to later bring all of those credits back to your home university.
I view this as much more.

Make sure you have a plan. Let's say you are at your home college in Pennsylvania (PA) and you want to go to WGU (Western Governors University) in Utah because you can graduate and transfer more credits.
Let's say WGU accepts 100 credit hours and you only need to take 3 classes there.

If I were you in this situation, I would attend a college in Pennsylvania, in my home state, to earn credit hours along with other methods we've mentioned and then coordinate with WGU the classes I am taking to make sure everything will transfer. I need to take 3 classes at WGU so what do I do in order to be a transient and take advantage of it?

I would take classes like I said and coordinate but when I am in my last semester at Pennsylvania or my final few classes (ideally under 4), I would contact my local university and get authorization to take the 3 classes at WGU while I am enrolled in Pennsylvania but I would not tell them my intention is to later leave the home school.
Why?
There are few schools that will not allow you to become a transient if you do not plan on bringing the credits back, as it was designed for.
Why would I take classes at WGU while I am enrolled at PA? Simple. Financial reasons.
The financial aid for your home school can be used to cover part of your WGU cost. This can be hundreds or thousands in savings. Normally you will pay upfront for the classes and once the university you are transient with (in this case WGU) verifies your attendance, they will notify your home school and you will receive applicable aid. This includes scholarship money and grants/aid.

Even though the university is out of state, you take the courses while being a home student. Now don't get me wrong... you will not magically pay in state fees. It doesn't work like that. You will still pay out of state but once again, your aid will cover a good portion of it which would save tons of money.

So after you're doing being transient and you took the 3 classes necessary at WGU and you have all credits needed to graduate, you simply send a transcript there, graduate from there and simply discontinue enrollment at your other school. Make sure to send your home school a transcript from the transient school because they will expect one.



Now you know this trick... now let's talk about taxes.
Regardless of how much you pay at a school, you will receive a 1098T form which outlines your scholarship/grant money and loans/expenses.

The best thing about being a transient student is that you receive a form from both schools. Remember when we discussed that your home school has the scholarship/aid money?
Your transient school receives no scholarship or aid money so your transient school 1098T form will only show the expenses you paid for the classes you took there. In this case the 3 classes you took at WGU.

On your taxes, report the 1098T from the transient school. Why? It shows no aid on it and it only has expenses. THis allows you to either claim credits or deductions.

If you use the 1098t from your home school, you may have to owe money if your scholarship/aid money exceeds the cost.

It's a choice of which school you put but to sum it up, always pick the school that has the most expenses if you go to multiple school in a school year.


So you request to be a transient student and take classes at both schools at the same time.


You could go to a college in PA and get as many credits as possible out of the way. Let's say you have 3 classes you need to take at WGU in order to graduate but you can transfer the rest in from PA. Why not become a transient and take classes at the same time? If you need 12 credit hours to be eligible for scholarships, you will still be eligible in most cases.


Not only this, since this course is an educational product, you are able to claim the price you paid for the course on your lifelong earning credits section. This makes the course essentially free for you. Be sure to consult with your tax advisor.