Category: ranting

check this out: The Jester

You grade how funny a few lame jokes are then it starts telling you jokes based on your preferences. I don’t know it there is any merit to it, but after you grade the first few it does get funnier.

I got an e-mail today from the “International Student Coordinator” at City. She said that they had not received my housing payment, nor my paperwork, and that this was due on August 3. Now I have to spend Monday morning on the phone trying to find out what the hell is going on. I faxed those papers over more than a month ago and Syracuse and Mason where “taking care of the payments.”

Man, every time I think everything is in order and I am ready to go, I start to get excited and then something stupid comes up like this!!!!

Well Financial Aid raised my estimated cost of edication to $37,540! Now I should be able to get a lone for the rest of the money I need.. Yea for me! I won’t starve in England… Hurray!!!

Now going to England to study is not going to be cheap. Because I am a senior I have to take a few very specific classes. So, I had to do a lot of shopping around to find a program where I could take these classes. I decided on the Engineering & Computer Science in London offered by the L.C. Smith College of Engineering & Computer Science of Syracuse University (Interesting since that is where one of my best friends J███████, who will be in Oxford next year, is from. isn’t that a neat coincidence?) The program is run by the Division of International Programs Abroad, I will be attending City University in the heart of London.

One of the advantages of this program was that my school’s (George Mason University) Center for Global Education has a deal with Syracuse so that I do not have to worry about transfer of credits, and I even get a discount on the program fees. However, there program is not cheap; I have to pay Syracuse Tuition which is $20,866, plus the program fee of $2,000 or so, which brings my total tuition to a total of $24,100! Add to that living expenses (it only covers 1 meal a day) and travel, and special insurance for over seas, etc, etc, etc… and it all added up to a grand total of $32,000+ dollars in my calculations!

I don’t have that kind of money!

So, I went to Financial Aid, they told me that since I was only 22 as of January 1, 2001 I was only eligible for a maximum government loan of $5,500 in my name. So I got this and applied for a Sallie Mae loan for the rest but Financial Aid has to sign off on that based on your “estimated cost of education”, a number they come up with. The number for my education cost estimate came from a letter from Syracuse which stated that my tuition was $24,100, not taking in to account any other cost. So I currently have a Federal Government subsidized loan for $5,500 and a Sallie Mae loan for $18,600, (total = $24,1000), leaving me about $8,000 from my goal. My mother applied for a PLUS load, from the government but the approval for that comes from George Mason, and since you cannot borrow more than the ?estimated cost of education? less other loans, they denied the loan. To make a long story short I spent all day today on the phone with George Mason, and Syracuse trying to prove to someone I needed more money! After 6 hours of phone tag and holding and being transferred I finally got a hold of someone at Syracuse who had a cost brake down form that Syracuse students get. It said that the total estimated cost of the program, including everything was $37,540!!!!!!

Anyway I got this form faxed to the Office of Financial Aid at GMU and they are going to re-evaluate my need, and loan request. I leave for England in 23 days, well see how long it takes them to get all this done and whether or not I will be able to eat more than the one meal a day that the $24,100 covers at City….

Well I sent an e-mail to all my friends the other day inviting them to read and comment on this journal and to participate in the forum on my website but as of yet the losers have not bothered, and I know it’s not because they don’t have an internet connection, they just went back to college. So far the only people who have looked at my website are my girlfriend, my manger at work, and another friend from work.

Anyway, not much happening in my life, 25 days till I leave for London, C██████ is going to meet me in Paris the 28th of Sept for the weekend, I am very happy about that. I have most of my stuff ready to go, I am really excited. I was thinking that if I like it enough, I might try to stay and go to Oxford for my masters/doctorate when I finish my bachelors next year.

Ok, got to get back to work now…

(p.s. I am not really mad at my friends, I understand they are busy, I just hope that they will find the time to participate in my life through the web page and journal since I will be 4000 miles away soon, and I cannot afford to call them. )