One Size Fits All

Pizzaz always triumphs over content. Apparently I should get used to this. This piece of information was passed on by a professor.

I think I should demand my tuition money back. I already knew this.

I realized today that I am a very tidy person when school isn’t in session. I remember when I was between 11th and 12th grade I had a very long break (including summer holiday) and it was the first time that I can remember when my room was tidy consistently.

After I dropped out of college for 2 years, I recall spending alot of time ensuring that my surroundings were clean.

This past thanksgiving break I made a conscious attempt to take a complete break from academics (first time this entire year), and I am so happy I did. Everything looks very neat and tidy.

Now in 16 days, tidiness will become more of constant rather than something to do when everything is really gross to look and touch and I have a sneezing fit.

Well the posts here aren’t going to be very cheery for awhile. I am very tired and down about school, about college life, about college administration about every thing college related. Yet, I did make the choice about returning to college. I suppose I’m just in what Seth Godin calls the dip. Except I feel its more like a dip filled with quicksand with a sinkhole ahead of me.

The constant exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

Classes are in session along with loads of homework, papers due, assignments due, exams due. I am severely stressed as evidenced by the vast amount of hair I manage to shed. Only a few more months and I will be done. And I can’t wait.

I wasn’t very good in saving much money buying textbooks this semester, but I did avoid purchasing 2 required textbooks and saved some money for one of my classes. Here is how I did it.

Both texts are required for a single class. Textbook #1 is from a publishing company. However after reading reviews on ratemyprofessor.com, I learned that the text was not actually needed, because the class notes that the professor provided were more than sufficient to get through the course. My second required text is a “bulk pack” that cost about $40+. Its a bound compilation of articles. However, the syllabus lists the article names and the source from where the articles were obtained. Since my university subscribes to nearly all the magazines/newspapers from which the articles were taken, I thought that I’d rather spend my time (and money) hunting down the articles individually, instead of forking over the money.

Total savings: ~$150.

I was looking for an online calendar in an attempt to be more organized this semester and found 30 boxes to fit my requirements perfectly. By which it had one main feature I wanted: ability to view the description in my printout.

Classes begin today. Blogging will be light from now onward.

I began my undergraduate degree in the Fall of 1999. My parents paid the first semester’s tuition bill by taking on debt. The next three semesters (and two summer sessions) were paid with parents taking on debt, me getting a scholarship and me paying tuition with a credit card.

I then quit college for two years.

When I returned to college in 2003, I switched majors and essentially started from scratch. But this time I was paying the tuition bills out of pocket.

The first semester I could only afford one class. I was making $28,000 (salary). The second semester I was able to afford one class again. But from then on, as my salary went up (all the way to $40,000 in 2006) I took as many classes as I was able to afford. In the spring of 2006, I was a full time student and full time employee.

Since my job had nothing to do with my major, I quit (along with some other reasons), and obtained an internship in my field. Working part time, I was back to taking on one class per semester. I then decided to take on some student loans so I could finish up and get my degree.

Earlier this year, I decided to go into debt and took out loans. Earlier this year, I also found another internship with an organization where one of the perks was tuition reimbursement (up to four classes per fiscal year). So I was able to avoid taking on 4 classes worth of debt.

I hope to graduate toward the end of the year with about $8,320 in student loan debt of which $5,500 will be subsidized student loans.

One reason I decided to take on debt, in addition to wanting to graduate this year was because I was having trouble impressing potential employers with my debt free lifestyle. I assumed that as an accounting major, the fact that I was paying for tuition out of pocket would be impressive to people. But it wasn’t. I interview fairly regularly as I think its a good habit, and finding that no one single potential employee was impressed with my ability to avoid debt was very much of a downer.

If I had to do it all over again and I magically had good circumstances surrounding me, would I change anything?

Probably not. As I think the lessons I’ve learned about money to date will serve me well for the rest of my life.

If I pass all my courses between now and December, I will be receiving my college diploma in December. Between now and my last day of classes I have 4.5 months left.

I recently read Seth Godin’s “The Dip” and I feel like I’ve been in the Dip for a very, very long time. I don’t know how people get college degrees, especially the non traditional students with kids and full time jobs. This has been so challenging, its made me very weary. I really dislike this constant feeling of exhaustion.

I cannot wait until December 15th - the last day of classes.

I work with a lot of older people. They are always keeps telling me how much I will miss school once I graduate and move into the “real world”. And every time I say, no I won’t! I hate school.

Now, it has occurred to me why people actually keep saying that: its because they miss school! They got to go to college when it was $20/month and got to live in dorms with similar aged peers and have a jolly old time. On the other hand, I am going to college having paid for 90% of tuition out of my own pocket for 9 long years! And I didn’t live in dorms. But I had to deal with (and continue to deal with) crappy teachers, and annoying classmates, and expensive tuition and expensive textbooks that are always required, and grumpy school administrators/janitors/food service workers, sleepless nights, losing hair due to stress, horrible diet (due to lack of time or money), etc.

No I will NEVER miss school. And I love saying never, because no one knows me better than me

15 hour day today. And yesterday and for the rest of the week. Blogging will be sporadic.

I am taking two courses this summer session, one of which is “International Monetary Economics”. While I was excited on the first day of class, this course, like other economics courses is a huge *yawn*.

The course is actually quite interesting. Topics include, how foreign exchange rates are determined, and the factors that influence it such as the money supply and demand. I’ve learned fun facts such as: the U.S.A became a debtor nation in 1987 (think Reagan), and that the deficit is 6.5% of the nation’s GDP . Argentina’s was 3.5% before investors pulled out. So scary, scary, scary. Its also fascinating to see how much the dollar is used in exchanges throughout the world as a vehicle currency (to transfer dinar to rupee, you would exchange dinar for dollars and then rupees for dollar as transaction fees are a lot lower than if you had to transfer dinars for rupees). I also like the equations: Deficit = Taxes - Expenses where Taxes are lower than Expenses.

Then there are also the other random things I’ve heard at various places that makes me wonder if (and how) they tie into the U.S Budget. Such as, is it really true that the US tax revenue only manages to pay the interest on the deficit? Who sets the deficit interest rate? Does the U.S. get a lowered rate, if they make timely, 36 consecutive payments? Does the U.S. have an emergency fund? What will happen if the oil is not traded on the dollar anymore. Does the budget number I got from the White house include the deficit (haven’t had time to read the document). Does thebudgetgraph.com include the deficit - doesn’t look like it…

I only wish the Econ textbook didn’t put me to sleep. If texts were designed like Personal Finance books, I think I would spend more time reading them and less time falling asleep on them.

It is the 2nd week of 1st summer classes. I have 4 more to sit through.

I skipped a class this morning, because of exhaustion. I also didn’t have breakfast. I hate sitting in class with a growling stomach.

I mainly spent time reading about eating locally while eating some local strawberries which were so so in taste. I also ate pizza made with local cheese and arugula pesto. So yum!

I’d like to type up a post about someone I have to deal with for the next 4 weeks who is a NYC fan. He would lick a toilet if it said "made in NYC".

Its driving me batty.

But only batty enough to post about it here