Sunday, March 4, 2012

Financial Aid Part 1

Well let me start by telling you what's been going on recently. On Thursday a friend of mine from high school died. It was the first time anyone that I knew was killed. Honestly it was his fault, but that doesn't change that I will always remember him as a fair, kind, loving teddy bear. We all lose our way sometimes...
Also my car was broken into on Monday. They broke the driver's side window reached in and stole my GPS and my Ipod.  I shouldnt have left those items in the car.

My poor beetle that was broken into =(

OK so now that I have that out of the way, I have begun the process of financing this amazing trip. I know a lot of people have looked into this program and thought there's no way I could afford that. I'm honestly not sure I can at this point. However, when applying I asked myself is it worth it.

Am I willing to spend that amount of money for 1 semester?
Am I comfortable with taking on extra debt?
Do I believe that this experience is worth that amount of money?

The answer to all of those is yes. I think it is absolutely worth it.

I ended up getting deck 2 outside. That makes my initial cost $25,195. That cost includes tuition, room and board, health insurance and course related field directed programs, trips that are for class. I haven't decided how much to budget for SAS trips. There's 1 at this point I know I want to do and will be expensive, a safari in South Africa. It has been on my bucket list for awhile so I can't pass up the chance to check it off my list.

At this point I have met with my financial aid advisor at my school to let them know that I will be doing Semester at Sea. My advisor told me that SAS and my school will enter into an agreement where my federal financial aid will be applied to the trip and I will pay my school which will be applied to SAS. I know a few other people have done this and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Paying my school can be  hard at times because they have a huge fee for paying online and for awhile they didn't even accept visa! I know right, VISA!

I'm contemplating different ways to fund this trip. When I know exactly what kind of financial aid I will have, Ill tell you about all my ideas.  I really hope that the financial aspect of this trip will work out.
I can't allow money to be the one reason I dont do this!

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