financial aid and rants and raves

We... I can't even really whine at this point, because I surfed over to CNN.com to check the news about Katrina, and the reports get more and more devastating everytime I open the page. It's not the damage to New Orleans itself, but the smaller stories of pain and loss that cut to the bone and bypass my otherwise hardened shell. Stories such as the daughter trying to get police to resuce her elderly mother in need of dialysis, only to be told there is nothing the police can do to help her, all while her mother dies by degrees with no hope of aid. It is the death of hope that nearly kills me. Cities will always be rebuilt, but the shattered lives are often not repaired. I would wonder what will happen to this family, but that would state there is some chance she would be rescued. I know that this mom will die in the "toxic gumbo" that will kill others and render major parts of the city uninhabitable for months, if not years. My bitching about financial aid can wait. More whenever......

A few more random thoughts on this registration period: One of the problems we faced this term was the continued increase in tuition and the frozen financial aid rates. Pell has not gone up for 3 years at this point, and the formula has changed slightly so even if you did qualify, no now receive less than you would have a year ago. The college's tuition has increased for the past 3 years, and federal aid has not kept up. There are prevailing theories on why, most covering the increasing deficit or the conservative principle of abolishing the nanny state, etc. Some of the new formula has legitimate origins: taxes have decreased slightly for all, and that increases the money available for school. The actual decrease is fairly small, so the effect is primarily psychological. That doesn't make it any less pleasant, however. Generally, I'll blame the mess of this registration on these factors: the reasons I already listed in the previous entry, and the increased tuition. That may seem intuitive, but the power behind it runs deeper. Students who did qualify for small amounts of money now find that their aid will not cover the bill, and need to get more money to pay the difference. This partially explains the dramatic increase in loans we've been swimming though and the multiple visits needed. Also, the increase in tuition has forced people to apply for financial aid who would not have done so in the past, only to discover that they too will only qualify for loans. Obviously, this has increased our workload without increasing actual registration, but it has another, more pernicious, effect: these new applicants generally have higher incomes, so the college's average income per applicant has similarly increased. This in turn lowers our amount of discretionary aid: work-study and SEOG. As such, we have even less aid to give away without the change in the Pell formula. Translation? We're fucked either way. Later.

Well, we survived. I have little else to say except that this must have been the worst registration period ever at this school. Why? I have two theories; 1) We have a new crop of students who have never attended before and are not familiar with the process. This group also has a sub-group: students who have never attened college and are the first to attend college in their families. These students represent a whole slew of challenges, one of which is limited English for Hispanics. The students themselves are generally OK, but the parents may not speak English to the point I can converse with them. If one would ask why I don't speak Spanish, you miss the point. Even if I could, I know that I would never be able to explain financial aid regulations sufficiently in ANY language (I speak some German) other than English. The other challenges include a lack of understanding of how long it takes to process one's FAFSA, and why I must correct the info. Also, the less familiar one is with the process, the more likely one is to believe financial aid is some kind of negotiation. For some schools it is, but the local community college is not among them. If I ask for a form, taxes, equity statements, etc., it means they are required. This is true at all schools if one is selected for verification; the negotiation comes with school-based aid, not government money. Ergo, some believe that I can do without this form or that, and then I close their folder and state if I don't get said item the student's classes go "poof!" and I stare at them so they know I'm serious. It's quite effective and saves my energy. As for the time constraints, reading past entries will demonstrate that financial aid is not instantaneous.

This leads me to me second theory, and it applies to students who have no family members in college, and those whose parents are doctors: Generation Y are the most spoiled bunch of over-posititve, over-indulged, undereducated brats EVER. How does this differ from my generation, Gen-X? We were never positive; we weren't then; we ain't now. I could go on a screed about literacy and books, but I'll instead direct you to google the term "quarter-life crisis" and come back. Back? Cool. Anyway, you see that this generation is suffering from the reality check their parents never gave them. Ergo, they march into my office and expect everything handed to them yesterday. Some of this is the Internet's fault, as expectations for immediate results are pandemic in this group. I'm 34 and as such if I had gone to college directly from high school I would never have even sniffed the Internet during my education, much less seen nude pictures of Alyssa Milano in my dorm room computer. Anyway, an 18 year-old has been using the 'Net since grammar school, so if they clicked send, it must be done right? Wrong, and on so many levels....**sigh** I can only hope these students learned their lesson and next year will not involve 8 hour waits and hypoglycemic fainting. More in the proverbial later.

An ode to Summer, that fine season when a young man's fancy turns to the ultimate question: is she wearing a thong or is she commando? We can meditate for hours on this stuff, all the while mainating the look of a placid Golden Retreiver. It's a gift. Seriously, I've seen enough miniskirts to haunt my (pleasant) dreams, which is good, 'cause I'm not getting any action otherwise. One thing: when did plumber's crack become fashionable for chicks? I'm not complaining, but it is weird. I first really noticed it on the abortion of TV: the Ashlee Simpson show. MTV blurred out the top of her ass and I couldn't figure out why. Now I know. I also know why I no longer watch television. Point blank: TV sucks. If I watch 3 hours a week it's a miracle. Good thing I get free cable. Anyway, it's the hight of summer registration and everyone who blew off doing their financial aid must now wait 5 1/2 hours only to find out they are not ready to be packaged and they'll need to come back tomorrow and wait another 5 1/2 hours. The looks are priceless. Wait were you idiots waiting for?! An engraved invite? At this point it's their fault, and I have no pity. I'm also working the Ren Faire in Tuxedo Park, NY and that is a trial in itself. Last year I made a small fortune but didn't save it, and now that I'm trying to conserve funds and making shit. I deference to my earlier posts I won't even bring up the weather other than to mention the heat index for the weekend was over 100 both days. Ah, sweet irony, the choice of a jaded generation, much like coffee. Anyway, my lunch is almost up and I must attend to my duties: financial aid (note I did NOT say working miracles for those who did not plan ahead.) Thus today's motto: Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.