For the past couple of days I’ve been working on a few different things.  The big one being the FAFSA so I can hopefully get something out of it this year. I’ve decided that the University of Phoenix Online is the route I intend to take for school.  I’m going in for Bachelor of Science in Information Technology/Multimedia and Visual Communication.  It’s 120 credits and like $45,000.  The first sixty credits are the Bachelor of Science, the remaining 60 are the focus in Multimedia and Visual Communication.  So it’s safe to say that once I get rolling with everything, I’ll be pretty busy for the next year or so (as far as school is concerned.)

I picked up a few freelance jobs this past week so I’ve been busy with those.  I’ve had to create a few Wordpress Plugins that weren’t readily available.  One was a basic Javascript, the other was an email thing that I just couldn’t find anywhere else.  I like coming up with new and interesting things, it keeps my mind working.  Something I desperately need these days considering how tired I’ve been.

I think it’s the constant up and down with the weather, but I’ve been feeling under the weather so that really isn’t helping me too much.  One day it’s 90*F the next it’s 66*F.  Why in holy hell is it bouncing around like this?  Just about everyone is sick, and I’m starting to feel the effects as well.  I’m OK as far as allergies and stuff go, I’m lucky enough to just have a food allergy and not an “allergic to everything” kind of allergy.  Sean’s pretty bad when it comes to the typical dust, pollen and other outdoors kind of allergies, so with the upwind and all the other things going on he’s really not doing too well.  The poor thing can’t breath at all.

In any event, guess it’s time to get back to work.  I’d like to have these projects completed by Sunday and being as it’s officially Friday (about 12:30 AM here) I guess my time is limited.

After doing some research, I’ve just requested information on earning my Associates from DeVry Online.  It’s my goal to enroll in either Westwood Online or Pheonix Online in the future, but I figure it will cost me less money by enrolling with an Associates in order to earn my Bachelors.  The credits from DeVry would carry over to both of the Bachelor’s based programs so I wouldn’t need to spend so much money to achieve my long-term goal.

As for now, it will get me back into the swing of things and even though I already have a solid background in Web Design, I hope to further my career by adding Flash to the mix.  While I don’t see myself ever mastering it, I know I’ll be able to easily manipulate things so I can bring in some more clients for myself instead of having to outsource that work to someone else who’ll over charge me for it.  I hope things work out the way I see them in my head, I’ll know for sure when the ball starts rolling.

I also know, based on the jobs down here, that having even the associates in computer science will get me pretty far.  A lot of companies are looking for the minimum of a 2-year degree and that’s a starting $40,000 salary for me.  I just hope to get my foot in the door so I could afford school, heh.

I did some grocery shopping the other night and while I was standing at the check out, I noticed a few interesting reads that were worth throwing into the cart. The first were a few magazines that really only keep me entertained for the first read, this is probably why I like EZines so much, they’re usually free and easier to discard when you’re done with them. Then I began looking through the books, and after turning my nose up at romance novels (they scare me), I found “The Complete Idiots Guide to Financial Aid for College“.

With a $6 price-tag it was cheap enough to throw into the cart and hope to learn something from it. I browsed through it while the women was ringing up my groceries and while it seemed interesting at first, something deep down inside told me this was going to be a waste of money. Fighting this fear, for the sake of getting back into school, I proceeded with the purchase.

I get home, unload the groceries and after whipping up dinner for Sean and I, I sat down for the half hour until dinner was done in the oven to do some reading. Now, the book I linked above is a much larger version. The one I picked up is the readers digest sized version and I’m not even sure if it houses all of the same information that the $13 Amazon based book does.

Anyhoo. I browsed through the pages in hopes to find something that I’ve been missing. I’ve filled out my FAFSA but naturally I want to look into other routes. Scholarships and Grants are the big ones for me considering they don’t require being paid back and I’m still able to get into school to get the degree I truly desire.

Even though I’m 23 years-old and no longer living under my father’s roof I still need to use his income for the FAFSA which I find absurd because he’s no longer financially responsible for me, by any means. Yes, I asked him to co-sign on a personal loan for me but he wasn’t the one handing me the money, and I’m the one paying it back.

The jist of this book tells you that Government Financial Aid is the route to take, another is directly through the school. I already knew this, why in holy hell did I buy this book?

I’m selling it on eBay for the $6 I paid for it. :hmph:

For the past few months I’ve been working my butt off to get back into school. With the way the economy is right now, it’s really important to me to gain a proper education so that I can get down to the nitty-gritty and grab up the position of my dreams at any of the local design companies in the area. Unfortunately, even with 10 years of experience under my belt, the wet-behind-the-ears 18 year old errand boy stands more of a chance on landing the job than I do. Why? Because a piece of paper is more important than experience in most cases.

I went floating around craigslist for jobs in my area. One of the most common requirements is at least 5 years of experience. I’m almost instantly interested because I have double that, so I continue down the page to the remaining requirements. 99.9% of the time…a bachelors or masters is required to even be considered for the job. What I find amusing about this is the fact that the person LISTING this job more than likely doesn’t meet the college requirements that he’s looking for in staff members. Now, that’s fine and well but why is it “fair” that a dear friend of mine spent over $35,000 on school to become a designer and is still asking me simple questions about DIVS/Tables and other things that should be common in the classroom? I’m not saying the route he took was wrong, by any means. I just don’t think it’s fair that a piece of paper can determine where you’re going in life - and where you’re not.