Okay. So I have been in college for a while. Five years. That is a long time. Longer then it "should" take to finish school. Right theoretically it "should" take four years to complete a degree.
So why am I five years in and still not holding a diploma?
Well I'll start with the normal reasons. First I transferred after my freshman year. There were about fifteen different reasons as to why I transferred, I'll just highlight the top ones. I was going to school in Texas, and flying from Texas back to the east coast during school breaks was quite the financial undertaking. I was going to school in a suburb, with little public transportation and no car, and therefore no ability to be able to get a job. And I decided that I did not want to major in Kinesiology, which was the major that my particular school in Texas was known for. So with those said and a few other underlying factors I decided to transfer to a school in a city with public transit and lots of options for alternate majors.
Regardless of the reasons of my transfer, I lost a few credits that were not accepted at my new school.
Okay so reason number two, is that I started as a science major and then decided to enter the liberal arts department, so many of my freshman classes did not count towards my major.
The third is the unfortunate timing that I had with sequential classes.
The fourth is that I was an athlete for the first 3 years of college.
But the most important reason that I have struggled to finish college, is simply well sad. It is a lack of finances. There were two separate semesters where I could not afford tuition and had to drop out, these happened to occur often around the times that I needed important sequential classes of course. Now grant you, I had loans and student financial aid, but the amount of money that I had left to pay was more then I could afford.
Now from my second year of college onwards, I worked a minimum of 18 hours a week. Yet, tuition bills plus rent bills= impossible to cover.
Where am I now? Not finished with college yet. Painfully close actually. I am five credits and a completed independent study short of finishing my undergraduate degree. Now I am currently in the process of completing my independent study, and will continue that through the end of August. And I just finished a course in the first summer session.
So what do I have left to do(aside from the completion of my independent study? Two classes, 5 credits. The goal was to complete my degree in August. But I have once again hit the curse of the important semester. It seems that every time I get to the point where a semester is overwhelmingly important in order for me to graduate from college I cannot afford to attend it.
And here once again is the same situation. It will cost me $2,880 in order to take these two classes during the second summer session. No payment plans, or financial aid are available for this summer session. Just $2,880 up front, prior to the start of the semester or you are out.
Darn this curse. I have taken upon all sorts of desperate measures in order to avoid it. Like downloading gigwalk and completing several tasks. Selling back some of last semesters textbooks, and searching craigslists gig section furiously in order to find some way to make some quick money.
Summer session II starts in a week. I am going to sell in some old clothes tomorrow. The goal is to break the curse!
Wish me luck!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Left behind; Twenty somethings without parental support
Under the , if your plan covers children, you can now add or keep your children on your health insurance policy until they turn 26 years old.
Well that is wonderful. BUT What happens to the "children" who do not have the option of being dependent on parents?
This is the situation that I faced and I have been either underinsured, or completely uninsured for the last four years. The truth is that without being on the plan of a parent or having parental financial support, it is nearly impossible to be insured as a young 20 something, this is especially true for those of us who are college students. The university plans (generally speaking) not only offer horrible coverage but are also expensive!
A student with a part time job, that is financially responsible for his or her self is fortunate enough to be able to cover the costs of school that are left over after grants and loans and the cost of rent and food! Health insurance does not even have a chance to enter the thought process when budgeting. It is simply not a possibility. I as a student, I have not worked less then 18 hours a week since I began school, and was completely unable to provide myself with health insurance. Even working 26 hours a week (making just over double the minimum wage per hour mind you) during my third year of college, I was barely scraping by withOUT health insurance.
I am fortunate enough now to be in a full time position that pays for my health insurance. But according to the new health insurance laws I who am 23 am still able to be dependent on the healthcare plan of my parents for another 3 years! But seeing as I have been financially on my own since the age of 18, these laws do nothing to benefit me.
There is a problem with health insurance companies and the new governing laws over health insurance in the mere fact that they assume that a college student and/ or a young adult up to the age of 26 has the option of being dependent on a parent financially.
The article that I've linked to below (courtesy of Robin Marantz Henig of the NY times) speaks about the current state of those in their 20's and the prolonged adolescence that current 20 somethings are facing.
I understand the benefits of the new insurance laws, and how much they benefit many 20 somethings and college students. But as a society shouldn't we be pushing for our 20 somethings to be independent? Rather then creating laws that allow for a prolonged adolescence?
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