Greensboring.com | Greensboro, NC

It dawned on me where I stand today. I've done all I can, and right now the only thing that stands in my way to furthering my education this summer is money. Money. Why did I ever think it would be anything different? This is America, you can't crap your pants without paying someone in this country, and here I am hoping to expand my horizons and everything is done. I'm 3 credits short of a degree, I'm a 4.0 GPA, and I have perfect attendance, and to my chagrin I've now been accepted to University in Belgium for the summer. The whole process involved hours upon hours begging and pleading at GTCC to even make it happen. I'm the first person from the college to ever try to go abroad in this capacity, and apply for a Gilman Scholarship- so I could afford to go. In the beginning I proceeded haphazardly never believing I'd make it from one step to another, and even ended up about 45 minutes from the deadline crying over my food one night because of some administrative snapfu at GTCC left my application in peril. One hour later, a miracle occurred and everything was approved. Things kept happening in my favor, and then today after class I walked out, logged-in to my email and got a congratulations letter from Vesalius College that I've been accepted. Yes, I freaked out a bit. Okay a lot.

The problem now is, the money. For my education to continue, for my opportunity to better myself- it all now rides on if or if not I get a scholarship. I realize there's a huge possibility it won't happen, yet I'm surprised to have come this far. I also think there's an argument to be made that in the end it still all comes down to money. While I won't feel cheated if it doesn't happen, I've got to wonder what this country would be like if education, and education abroad was more freely available to students. I don't think I'm alone in this thought:

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” – Mohammed

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

So now I wait. Oddly, I've registered for Summer School here and abroad, (just in case) but since our local school doesn't offer much in the way of classes during the summer, my class-load abroad would actually be much larger.

I may try praying just for the hell of it... and that's saying a lot when you don't believe in a God. They say there's no atheists in foxholes, but I say there's no atheists in financial aid offices.

Experience is the best teacher of all. Sadly, not everyone listens to the lessons it teaches.

Sending all my best thoughs your way

Thanks... I'm holding just about every appendage crossed on the scholarship..... It really does need to happen cuz, my browser is stuck in French and I can't figure out how to switch it back.....

It thinks everything is spelled wrong.....

Good luck Liv. I hope you the very best.

I did work study and student loans to get me through college and the MA program. I got some scholarships, but they weren't huge and the student loan wouldn't cover study abroad. For my studies abroad, I ended up going to the bank and getting small term loans. That enabled me to not only study abroad, but to build up my credit rating when I paid off the loan.

Good luck, Liv. I hope you can find a way to make things work for you.

With three kids in university I can sympathise about the cost. My education was free (tuition anyway) and I was able to get scholarships from a mining company (one of the reasons I studied mining engineering). I think it does make a difference, for a couple of generations of working class people were able to afford a University education. Unfortunately those days are gone even in England. Most of us can agree on the value of education (republicans excepted) and I don't know why it all ends at high school when modern jobs are demanding higher and higher skills.

One thing that seems to be true about scholarships is that they tend to go to the most desperate since they put the most effort into getting them

I hope things work out for you, apply for as many scholarships as you can - don't give up. Check out companies - they often have scholarships and grants too.

Well apparently I have a 1-3 shot on this one.... I'm hoping they do base it somewhat on merit... since I wrote an essay... and feel confident about it....

...also since technical school student rarely apply, and they mention that they "lean" towards that minority... I'm hoping...

...This would of course be only for the summer... but it might give me the training wheels to roll on.

Good luck, Liv!

Nice poster, Needs mass production and pasting up all over Washington and Raleigh.

I should post some at school, but I have no time any more.


I'm glad they hit upon the "for-profit" schools. Most Americans don't know about them. We just had two open their doors in Greensboro.

Nothing like a worthless degree.

BTW, I have many times wished I could go back to a proper school to really re-tool my training in programming to figure out WTF all this web technology means and how to handle it. But I was only able to afford the costs when I was a highly-paid contractor. Like the fool I am, I thought the companies I worked for cared about my long-term viability as a programmer and would train me for the upgrade. No, they merely let me make myself obsolete, then tossed me on the garbage heap when they decided it was time to move on.

I should have seen it coming, should have seen how worthless I was to them... but I thought loyalty ran in both directions. Yeah. That only happens in companies where decent human being are in management. I should live so long to find such a place here in NC.

Liv wrote:I should post some at school, but I have no time any more.


I'm glad they hit upon the "for-profit" schools. Most Americans don't know about them. We just had two open their doors in Greensboro.

Nothing like a worthless degree.

I met an instructor from one of these places the other day (won't say which one, cause I might screw up what tiny hope I have for personal networking in a group I've found). He might be fairly good at his particular niche, but otherwise, he's an idiot. Seriously, I was wondering how he managed to walk and breathe at the same time. If I was EVER to have a chance for getting back into a classroom again, I would be looking at GTCC or A&T State first.

Nothing like promising students they can finish in half the time with no homework, if they just sign over their student loans. No matter that no one has heard of a fairly official sounding Virginia College.

Indeed, the education landscape of this country is looking very bleak these days.

I'm just glad, if I do succeed, I'll have a degree that reads UNC.