it's time to start getting really nervous...

[pennie_dreadful]

...because today is my interview.  Oh god, I hate stuff like this.  I have to leave in about two minutes to be able to get there in time, the appointment isn't until eleven-thirty...so if anyone reads this before then (Eastern Standard Time ; )) then cross your fingers or knock on wood for me....

//edit//

Woo, buddy, I nailed that interview!  :D  

The whole campus (not counting dorms) is one building, and the whole top floor is reserved for culinary students.  When I took a tour and I saw the students in the kitchens making delicious things I felt self doubt rear it's ugly head and say, what makes you think you're good enough to do this?, but I squashed it.  I also felt a huge wave of apprehension when I pulled into the parking lot and saw all the students; I felt like I wouldn't fit in, which is ridiculous of course.  I just shoved all the negativity down and told myself that if I act confident, then it's a short step to actually being confident.  It worked, although I did feel kinda dorky on the tour.  But whatever, I'm feeling really good about the whole thing, and I should be hearing yea or nay withing two weeks.

Comments

[kat-nic.livejournal.com]

It's the opposite here. Pretty much the only people who live in apartments instead of dorms are rich kids who's parents pay the rent for them, or it's a bunch of friends who band together and split the rent and bills. Either way I'd have roommates. And since I don't know anyone in Atlanta, and no one down here is willing to move with me, then dorms it is. Actually, AI's are very nice; they come with a complete kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. And that way I won't have to pay a monthly rent or utilities, housing fees are covered in the tuition. Plus, I don't have worry about getting a bum roommate who never pays her share. What I was trying to say is, there isn't any kind of stigma about living in a dorm.

[aurillia.livejournal.com]

I didn't think there was, there isn't in Canada either, but I could never have done it. And I had Austudy (what got changed to "Youth Allowance", another simple way for Little Johnny to make independent adults feel like children again), which is a fortnightly payment from the government that you don't have to pay back. Starts when you turn 16 and covers you up to 4 years of uni. Which is why I couldn't do my PhD :( It wasn't a lot of money but thankfully rent and food is pretty cheap in Tassie, unlike Sydney say. I was getting $350 a fortnight, and my rent was $120 a fortnight. I got by :)

(Sorry my comments are always so long. I have trouble making short snappy comments, they just get longer and longer - see, there I go again!)

[kat-nic.livejournal.com]

No free money for us. I used to quallify for a government grant, but not anymore, my parents make too much money (and even you have job and file your own taxes, until you're twenty-four, you're considered a dependent unless you've served in the miltary or are married or have a child you can prove you support).

Bush likes to say that the government is giving out more money to students, but that's bullshit. Sure, the actual amount they give out has been increased by about six hundred dollars per grant, but they've reworked how you go about qualifying. For example (this really did happen to me two years ago), since I am a dependent, I didn't qualify. But the financial aide office told me if either one of my parents applied, they would qualify, even though we're in the same household. Please explain to me how my parents can afford to send me if they can't send themselves? Like I said, bullshit.

[aurillia.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right - Howard and Bush had a lot in commone ;) Just move the money around and give a new speech - works like a charm with a great many gullible, trusting people.

My student welfare, I suppose you could call it, was means tested too, up till the age of 24. Because my parents are farmers, it made things really difficult. As you know, one year a farm can do well, the next poorly. But say you had a good year the year before, well that affects the means testing for the year after - the year your parents wouldn't have any money to help. That's not very well explained but I think you get me :)

[kat-nic.livejournal.com]

I get it. :) When you look at their income on paper it looks like plenty, but they need to take into account your expenses too, not just your income. After all, what with a mortgage, two car payments, their own student loan payments, utilities, groceries for six, clothes, shoes, (we still have relatively young kids and they outgrow their clothes and shoes in a matter of months), not to mention gas prices...not much of that money is left over. Why else would they ask me to help out now and again? And I don't grudge that of course, still, it just seems so riduculous that according to government standards, we're a well-off family, when really if they were to lose one or two paychecks, it would be disastrous.