Thursday, February 17, 2005
First official post...
Feb 17th 6:33pm NYC time.
It's the winter and the living is easy. I've figured out why no one with any political power really cares about global warming: people like it. Seriously, we had near 60 degree temps this week and it was great! Imagine the positive impact on the local economy compared to a snow storm. It made me want to tear open the A/C unit of 1975 Caddy and bask in the Freon vapors. Put ripping open the storage tanks of a dry ice factory on my to do list as well. Joking aside, the living is easy because my school's financial aid office is quiet like a tomb with only a few stray students milling about trying to finish up their aid packages.
As part of the ongoing education about financial aid, let me state that other colleges do not operate this way; i.e. the insanely expensive private universities always leading the national rankings (or at least the national party rankings....) that strike terror in the baby boomer parents who suddenly realize they needed to save for their kid's (kids' ?) education when the rug rats were being created. I can now ask if the botox addiction, tit lift, and daddy's Porsche were worth it. I'm short on sympathy because I don't work at such a school and I owe $60,000 grand in student loans myself. The busy times for these institutions is January to early March. They hand out all the loot and lounge until October when kids starting flaming out and some of the money need to been taken back. I have those conversations myself, and they are
never pleasant.
To wit, today's financial aid lesson: you must remain in school for a certain percentage of the semester/quarter/trimester/whatever before you have "earned" you financial aid. The official time? 60.1 % of the term. If you drop out earlier, you can owe the school $, the feds $, or owe both. Owing the college is bad, but owing the feds is worse. Effectively, you are in default on a student loan and cannot get $ EVER until you repay the money. If you are such a situation, contact the feds ASAP.
It's the winter and the living is easy. I've figured out why no one with any political power really cares about global warming: people like it. Seriously, we had near 60 degree temps this week and it was great! Imagine the positive impact on the local economy compared to a snow storm. It made me want to tear open the A/C unit of 1975 Caddy and bask in the Freon vapors. Put ripping open the storage tanks of a dry ice factory on my to do list as well. Joking aside, the living is easy because my school's financial aid office is quiet like a tomb with only a few stray students milling about trying to finish up their aid packages.
As part of the ongoing education about financial aid, let me state that other colleges do not operate this way; i.e. the insanely expensive private universities always leading the national rankings (or at least the national party rankings....) that strike terror in the baby boomer parents who suddenly realize they needed to save for their kid's (kids' ?) education when the rug rats were being created. I can now ask if the botox addiction, tit lift, and daddy's Porsche were worth it. I'm short on sympathy because I don't work at such a school and I owe $60,000 grand in student loans myself. The busy times for these institutions is January to early March. They hand out all the loot and lounge until October when kids starting flaming out and some of the money need to been taken back. I have those conversations myself, and they are
never pleasant.
To wit, today's financial aid lesson: you must remain in school for a certain percentage of the semester/quarter/trimester/whatever before you have "earned" you financial aid. The official time? 60.1 % of the term. If you drop out earlier, you can owe the school $, the feds $, or owe both. Owing the college is bad, but owing the feds is worse. Effectively, you are in default on a student loan and cannot get $ EVER until you repay the money. If you are such a situation, contact the feds ASAP.
