School Stress

Today has been extremely productive in non-productive ways.

I have to start Summer School at Boise State in a few weeks so I have been looking into how I am going to pay the $900 bill for that. When I logged into my school account a while ago, I noticed they have billed me for the classes I need to take in the Fall as well, another $1200. Beh. I hate money stuff.

It isn't even an issue of whether I can pay the bills or not, I can, I just don't want to. I have been doing well as far as saving money goes and I have finally gotten a small nest egg set aside. Now, it looks like I will be cracking open that nest egg and throwing it in the frying pan to pay for school. What irritates me is how the payments and loans are structured. I called my bank today to see about possibly getting a student loan so that I don't have to drain what I saved up. Since I am not going full-time or even half-time, I don't qualify for any type of loan they could give me. I then found another company that is an offshoot of my bank that enables you to do a series of monthly tuition payments. This place would have been great, except BSU does not allow for that payment plan because they have their own in-house plan they offer.

BSU's in-house plan sucks. Basically, you have to pay off your bill in three payments. For me, that is three payments of $400 for three months in a row. This will also be right after me paying a lump sum of $880 for Summer School because BSU doesn't allow for any special payment plan other than charging it to your credit card or writing a big check. I refuse to use my credit card for this.

My parents said they would help me but I don't really want to take their money. I just don't really want to blow all of mine either. Other school stuff has been bugging me too.

For starters, in the Fall I have one class that lasts the whole semester and starts at 3:40PM. This will not be a big deal unless, I get lucky and land a teaching job for the Fall. If I land a teaching job, I have my doubts as to whether or not I could make a 3:40 class without being late. This means I will have to do some sort of bargaining with the professor to see if I can show up late or make up time or something. You would think that a Special Ed professor would be willing to make these concessions for someone who is teaching Special Ed but I know if I was a prof, I would be pissed if a student asked me if it would be ok to be late to almost every class. Oh yeah, this specific class, I have to get special permission from the professor to take because I don't meet the prerequisites for the class because the prerequisites did not exist when I graduated with my degree. Lastly, if the professor for some stupid reason says he won't give me permission to take the class, that will change my bill for tuition for the Fall so I am hesitant to make any payments on the Fall until I know I am in that class. Then if he says he won't budge on me being late if I get a teaching job, that will change things too.

The other thing that bugs me is that I have to take a math test to get the Special Ed certification. What would happen if I take all of these classes and spend this money, only to fail the math test and have it all be for nothing. Even if I pass all of the Special Ed classes with flying colors, if I fail this math test, I can't get certified to teach Special Ed...which has absolutely nothing to do with math.

For once in my life, I have the grades and the financial means to do what I want but I want to keep some of that money around. I like the fact that I can save a bit, though it isn't much. I know I should think to the future when once I have this certification, I will have a job pretty much where ever I want one and I will have job security due to the demand. It is just hard to see that now because of all of the stress that this amount of uncertainty is causing me.