Money

Even as the deadline looms, I think I have finally decided what I am going to do about the future and grad. school. And, of course, the plan is classic Zhaf - you might even say that it is Zhaftastic!. It's convoluted, mixed up, slightly impractical, torturous, but do-able. I know where I'll accept, I know what I'm going to do this summer, and I know how I'm going to handle it. (Am I going to tell? Coyly, I'll say "no.") The only thing that is left to screw up my plans now is the fact that I waited far too long to submit my FAFSA.

Remember the guy who screwed up his GRE's? (See April 10th.) I talked with him today and found out more. Even though he was accepted to one of the universities I was, he was only accepted conditionally. Therefore, if I - or another person - tells this particular school that I will definitely not be attending in the fall, then he will get to go. As it stands now, he will not be able to attend any school whatsoever, so he is counting on this university to come through after all. The overall story is rather sad. This is a clear case of guy - who has ambitious hopes for his future (albeit slighty unrealistic) and who has already spent several hundreds of dollars - probably setting himself up for a disaster. Aside from that, the school has told him that if he is going to attend in the fall then he will need to take a couple of graduate summer courses. However, in order to do that, he needs money, and he will not have any money until his financial aid package comes through. Of course, the deadline for a financial aid package for summer has already passed. He needs about 2,000 dollars just for the classes. He'll need about another 2,000 for living expenses. He doesn't know where he is going to get it.

Now you can see why I am worried about my own FAFSA. A teaching assistantship would be great, but I don't mind loans; I already envision making loan payments for so long that I know that I'm going to miss paying them when the bills finally stop coming when I'm about 90.