05/12/2006
Scholarships and Such
I need money. And, I need it soon. Why? My fall tuition at the ole GVSU is due in August and as of right now, I don't have it. I have no idea where the money is going to come from either. Darling and I had enough money in the savings account to cover at least my fall tuition, but with him being on Workman's Comp (a type of disability pay), we had to use it to cover our bills and what not. Darling took home about half of what he made when he normally works regular hours and then you times that by almost five months off of normal pay...and whaalaaahhhh! No monies. So, I am busily applying for scholarships from local sources in a vain attempt to find enough money to pay for fall tuition. Even if I find enough money to pay for fall tuition, I still have no idea where the money for the winter tuition will come from.
I only have fall and winter semesters and then I am done with my undergrad. I can't get any more in loans because we always took the maximum we could so I could pay for tuition, books, and for my car payment so I could actually get to school. Sigh... It is so frustrating to get this close and then maybe lose it all. The worst thing is that I can't take a semester off to save up money because GVSU limits catalogs to seven years. I started at GVSU in 1999 so I have to finish my undergrad by the end of the 2006-2007 school year...in other words, next April. And, because I have student assisting and student teaching left to do, I really cannot get a job to help offset expenses because I will be swamped with all of the in-school time and seminars that are required by GVSU for the teacher prep courses. ARGHHHHH!
Anyhow, I have applied for one scholarship and I hope and hope some more that it comes through so I can maybe go through the fall semester. I really don't know what to do and if none of these scholarships pan out by August then I am screwed and screwed hard. I mean, what the fuck? I am a good student and I am involved in a ton of stuff and yet I can't finish my degrees because I am, unfortunately, part of the working poor (well, at least my husband is!). I'm really getting a little bit freaked out by this all. The one scholarship that I am applying for would cover 3 credits and the other I'm not sure about. I have 15 credits lined up for the fall semester. I may drop it down to 12 though and then I would have 15 credits for the winter semester.
These scholarship essays are hard to write too. Not so much because I can't write well enough, but more because you have to sell yourself so much and I have a hard time telling people that I am great, probably because I'm not any greater than the next woman who is applying for a scholarship. Oh God...I am so on edge about all of this. And poor Darling, he doesn't know what to do. It wasn't his fault that he got hurt and had to use the savings to pay our bills and feed our kids. Now granted, we are not too penny-pinching, but now we will have to.
Cross your fingers and send all hope my way for money or scholarships or both. God knows I need to find a way to finish my tenure at GVSU.
23:09 Posted in Announcements/Misc Bull | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
Comments
Will pray u get the funds u need.. Im sure big guy/gal in heaven/up there knows u need it and are worth it...
Will remind him/her
love
g
p.s im sure smething will click.. trust me... it will.. i have a good feeling on this...
Posted by: g | 05/13/2006
Oh I feel your pain Anita! It sucks doesn't it?? :( I had the same fear this summer. I didn't know where we were going to get my tuition from for the fall. Fortunately we were able to refinance our house and get enough payout from that to cover the fall tuition. But then we had to figure out what to do for this winter when I was unexpected back in school. I, like you, took out the maximum loans I could each time. Looking back it was really dumb of me but we needed the $ at the time and took advantage of that.
Don't give up hope though. I got very lucky and applied for an alternative loan that I thought I would NEVER be qualified or approved for and low and behold, a WEEK before my tuition was due I got a notice saying they approved my loan and I could expect it to be applied to my winter '06 tuition.
Look at EVERY alternative you can. Go through your local bank if its feasible to get a line of credit--most of them will allow that for student loans and give you longer to pay it back. Some banks will even give you private student loans at a fairly decent rate. Look into some of the alternative loans that are sponsored through GVSU by other banks/companies. That is where I got mine. If you can show them that you absolutely WILL be done soon, you're more likely to get the loan. I truly believe what helped me get it was that I was a semester away from being done and only needed to borrow $3,000.
Good luck, I'll be praying that some $ comes your way very soon.
Posted by: Raye | 05/13/2006
Thanks Raye for the advice. I may have to check into the emergency loans and what not from GVSU. I really don't want to take any more loans out since I have so much out in student loans already, but if all else fails, then I will.
Thanks also to G for the good wishes...I will need them if I don't get these scholarships.
Posted by: Anita | 05/13/2006
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