School Daze....

I was accepted to the university in London.

No, really.

But that ain't even the half of it.

And the first major roadblock to prevent me from going has already popped up, so don't get too excited.

So here we go...

In my earlier post regarding applying to the school, I'd said "It almost happened too easily", which turned out to be an excellent premonition. My sister had given me the head's up on some info about the school I wasn't too keen on seeing, but glad I'm aware of. Here's a clip:

SACS placed the university on probation in December 2005. In 2006, SACS renewed --U's probation for failure to comply with various Principles of Accreditation.On December 11, 2007, CEC announced that SACS had removed --U's probation and that the university's accreditation remained in good standing.
On May 15, 2009, --U received initial approval for accreditation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools-The Higher Learning Commission and is now listed as an accredited institution by NCA-HLC rather than SACS.
In June 2008, The Quality Assurance Agency closed an audit published in May 2005 based on an examination of the London Campus in 2004. This report had noted that at the date of the Agency's review in 2004, there were "fundamental concerns regarding the academic standards being achieved." Following successful efforts on the London campus to remedy deficiencies, the QAA noted that, "Since the audit QAA has been provided with information that indicates that appropriate action has been taken by the ------ University in response to the findings of this report. As a result the audit was signed off in June 2008.
--U's critics have scrutinized the university's student recruiting practices. One anonymous professor told The Chronicle of Higher Education: "If you can breathe and walk, you can get into the school." In July 2008, former employees filed a lawsuit alleging that the school's admissions practices defrauded federal grant and loan programs."

In a way, I wasn't surprised. The application process was a bit informal and lacked some professionalism, the phone interview seemed a bit short, only ten minutes. You don't get a job with a ten-minute interview, but I got accepted to a grad school?? The idea that "if you can breathe and walk you can get into the school" makes sense, they accepted me for Christ's sake.

I don't think it will stop me from going. For one, it's probably the only opportunity I'll have to get into Europe without marrying in, I don't really have any other options. For two, in all the criticism I read of the school, their internship program seems to have met best-practice standards; that's where I feel the true learning and potential job opportunities will come from anyway. For three, I don't care that they defraud the federal government, if I thought I could get away with it, I'd defraud the government myself, shit. As long as they get me the money I need to get through the school and stay there long enough to find a job and get myself on the road to success, I don't care if I have to spend the rest of my life paying back loans, I'll do it just for having been given the opportunity. I am a bit concerned that the material I'll be learning won't be up to par for what I will be expected to know on the job, but again, the internship will help make up for some of that, and if I have to study subjects outside of what I'm being taught, so be it. And, Plus, I'm still studying my languages, if nothing else the combination of the MBA plus being fluent in Spanish and German may be enough to convince someone there I need to be hired. And, thinking back to the mess CSU's administration was the years I went to school there, I can say I've already had practice with whatever bullshit --U can put me through. I'm smarter now and I know to stay one step ahead of this school the entire way and that may be enough to make it a successful venture.

But then there's the money issue. Because the dollar is so weak against the pound, I'm going to need about double the American dollars to cover my expenses for the entire program. 20,000 pound equals 40,000 dollars. According to FAFSA, I"m only eligible for $20,500 for the entire academic year, which means I've got to come up with another $20,000, let's say $40,000 to include the expenses of living there while I try to find work, on my own. I was told to apply for graduate loans, but all the federal graduate loans require a credit check and stingy requirements which I most certainly won't meet. My credit report isn't all that bad, we're talking maybe a few thousand dollars in unpaid bills, but enough that I won't be able to get loans without a co-signer. And as most of you know, with Grampa gone, I'm pretty much out of family. Neither of my sisters is in financial shape to be able to co-sign for me, nor would I feel comfortable asking them to. I'm not comfortable asking anyone to co-sign for me for that matter, but if I did, it would have to be my family. Both my uncles are fairly well-off, and now that they've got Grampa's house and his money, they're even better well-off than they were. It comes down to a) would they be willing and b) would I be willing to suck up the pride to ask them to and c) would I kill them if they said no.
I am going to apply for grants also, and if I can get some of those that will certainly help, but I have no academic merit, only financial need. Grants are a possibility, but I'm not putting much stake in it.
I spoke with the Financial Aid advisor I was assigned to through the university. Because I applied to the school so early, there isn't much I can apply for right now regarding loans and grants until after the first of next year; when I applied for Sallie Mae it rejected my online application because it has to be within 6 months of your beginning attendance date. The advisor told me I was welcome to call in the meantime with questions, but that otherwise he wouldn't be in touch with me again until April. Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to go to school starting in July and they want to start the financial aid process then? That's ridiculous, and he may be inclined to wait that long, but I'm not. When he said that I thought again about the info I'd read on the quality of --U's admissions process and thought to myself that he just confirmed why I need to stay one step ahead of these guys.
So I'm going to apply for everything I can now, apply throughout the next six months for as much else as I can apply for by way of grants and applications, keep up with the language learning, and figure out how in the hell I'm going to ask my family to co-sign for this loan and pray to God I don't have to. Apparently, getting accepted was the easy part....