I promised to fill you all in on our plans as soon as I could.  And then on Tuesday I mentioned that you could look for the update on Thursday.  Well, here it is Thursday afternoon and I’m finally updating you all.

The truth is:  I’m bummed.

Ever since starting down the idea of returning to college R.C. and I have both felt strongly about not going into debt, just yet, for it.  Things are so financially tight right now that we knew we could qualify for assistance in the form of grants, we just didn’t know how much we could qualify for.

Then, when I applied to Santa Fe College online, the information there said I could claim residency based off my husband’s information.  You see, I hadn’t gotten my FL license yet.  I know, stupid, stupid.  When we moved down here and moved in with Toby and Brenda I knew we wouldn’t be at that address long so I waited.  Then when we finally moved into our own place, there was just always something else more important to spend $50 on.  Plus, I had no intention of going back to school so why in the world would I need to hurry up and get it?

After I had R.C. fill out the residency form and took it to Santa Fe to turn in, I discovered that the online information was incorrect and, as of six months ago, they no longer allowed you to claim residency as a dependent of a spouse.

In-state tuition is $101 per credit hour.  Out-of-state tuition is $377 per credit hour.  And to receive a grant you must be enrolled for a minimum of 12 hrs.  That comes out to about $4500 for 12 credit hours per semester if you have to pay out-of-state tuition.  Which I do because of the whole driver’s license thing.  There are two other ways of proving residency which are voter’s registration (which most people do when they get their DL) or vehicle registration.  We have registered our vehicle in FL but only in R.C.’s name so it doesn’t help me out any.

After this initial blow we decided that there still might be a way to make this happen.  You see, I have decided to go back to school to get my degree in interior design.  I am crazy excited about this.  I LOVE to design interiors and would love to  have some serious schooling under my belt so that I could design interiors on a professional level.  Watch out Candice Olsen, here I come!

We knew that there was the chance that the grants could be enough to cover out-of-state tuition so we kept moving forward with our plans, all the while knowing that everything hinged on how much financial aid I was awarded.  Christmas break came and the school closed for two weeks so no ground was made.

After lots of phone calls, trips to the financial aid office, and Monday spent actually going to classes, I must say that Tuesday was a big let down.  With the grant money I was awarded we would still have to take out about $3000 in loans to cover the rest of my tuition and books.  Yes, we could go ahead and use the loans and start this process right now, but R.C. and I both have more peace with just being patient (not easy for me) and waiting.

You see, the grant money I was offered would have covered in-state tuition and my books.  So, either we will be able to put some of our tax return aside and use that money along with grant money for me to enroll in the fall or I am just gonna have to wait till January 2013.

Sigh.

So we’ll see what the future holds.  For right now, it’s just not school.

Love,

Bridget