HATE is easy…love takes COURAGE

My loyal readers may be asking: “WAIT! Where are parts 1 and 2? I know google reader doesn’t say I have any unread items.  What’s the deal, yo?” [sorry, I've been watching 90s tv reruns]

Well, the deal is that since I like you all so much, I spared you from parts 1 and 2, which were:

1. ZOMG what if I can’t get out of my lease in Waco?
2. WTF am I going to do if Baylor doesn’t let me leave because of my letter of intent?

Needless to say, both of those were unwarranted and have been resolved relatively painlessly.  [I say relatively because I have to fork over another $200 to get out of the lease in Waco.]

Now, because this is the worst freakout of all, it has its own blog post.  Ahem:

• alshgalskjhga I might not be able to figure out this financial aid stuff AND I might not get any grant money.

Why?

Well, this is where I royally screwed up:

• TO ALL THE PRE-L and 0L kids out there:  just because a school has wait-listed you does not mean you have no chance.  STILL SEND THEM YOUR FAFSA. I didn’t submit mine until Monday, when I was admitted.  The priority deadline? March 1st.  EPIC FAIL.

To be fair, I didn’t really know any better.  aTm was the only school I applied to for undergrad and I was an automatic admit due to my SAT score, so I never dealt with being wait-listed or rejected.  Though as of last Monday, my rejection rate is back to zero.  Whoop.  Anyway, I’m starting to freak out about whether I’ll be able to get any grants/federal student loans.

Not helping the freaking out is how freaking complicated financial aid/universities are.  In order to access my financial aid status online, I have to upgrade my online ID [EID].  Yes, I have to upgrade it to “medium assurance.”  Why they can’t just give me a regular EID I have no idea.  I mean, after the application process, those people have my social, my name, my address, my parents’ names and addresses, their job info, my job info, my transcript, my personal statement…they have my entire identity.  And they can’t give me a full access ID? Fail.  In order to take care of this upgrade, I have to go to the ID office and show them my driver’s license to prove I am really me.  Well, I don’t live in Austin.  Wait – there’s more.  I can get a form notarized saying I’m me, then mail it to them, THEN they grant me the upgrade for 90 days, and I have until the 12th day of class in the fall to do it in person [yes, you still have to do it in person].  Excuse me for a moment.

::bangsheadondeskbangsheadondeskbangsheadondeskbangsheadondesk::

And,

::bangsheadagainstwallbangsheadagainstwallbangsheadagainstwall::

Okay.  Now: tomorrow morning, I will overnight them my letter of intent and this silly upgrade form.  Hopefully I’ll be upgraded by Wednesday so I can check stuff out before calling back the financial aid office.  Sigh.

If worse comes to worse, we’ll see how much money my family can scrape together, and then I’ll just bite the bullet and take out a private loan for this school year.  Then, next school year I’ll do it right: submit the FAFSA in February like I always do, get grants because I’m broke, still have my scholarship, and take out a federal loan.

WTF does financial aid have to be so complicated?

I.  hate.  this.

Fun fact: For the past 4 years I have been pronouncing “FAFSA” as “FAFSFA.”  Why, I do not know.  I have seen that word more this week than I did over the past 4 years of undergrad, so I finally noticed how it’s correctly abbreviated.  I think my way is more fun to say though.