Day 15

Well..Today was doomsday. I waited for weeks to see if I would win..I entered more than 3,000 points for the scholarship drawing..And guess what..I didn't win. Some Kyle guy won. Probably some unappreciative kid who is going to fail out of school the first semester. My only wish is that he will have no access to a computer for the next 3 days so he can't claim his prize. Then they will be forced to pick again and with my 3,000 plus entries I'm bound to win this time. That may be a little harsh but I'm in a state of anger. After all of the time spent working and applying. After every day of logging on and now nothing..It just makes me want to quit. And it's not just this one that set me off. Because this was a chance thing I understand. I have applied for several scholarships with no return. I see now why many of my colleagues have chosen the loan path. It's not worth the stress and work to get absolutely nothing. Maybe this is just the anger talking but this might be the end of my mission. I might just quit here and now. Leave the game while my nothingness still has not harmed me.....We will see

Day 11, 12, 13 and 14

Finally got a response from my financial aid advisor. The conversation seemed a little one side towards student loans rather than anything else. I believe the exact phrase was "go ahead and send in those loan applications and I will get started on them." No thank you. I'm still on my mission. So I asked her about anything else that could contribute to my award letter. Her response included scholarships. Yea I know I have been looking for them I said. Its tough out here. I kept pressuring her for more assistance but it seems all she can offer are loans. I'm starting to look at the reality that this may not happen for me the way I wanted. Loans may be in my future. And another special suprise from my advisor was that they are not offerring the cheapest room anymore. I will be stuck choosing the 3 person room for more money. This is starting to get ridiculous.

Day 12

Still no response from my financial advisor today just as I suspected. I logged onto scholarship points again to get a free code and 30 more points. The drawing is coming up soon and I can't wait to see who wins. Unless that person isn't me and then I could care less. It's not looking hopeful as many of the scholarships I have applied for have come and gone and still no magical phone call about free money I have won. This search is a never ending abyss that is sucking my life away. If only after 2 weeks of this I feel this way I can only imagine what's to come. I don't even sleep pleasantly anymore; I just toss and turn over dreams about scholarship deadlines chasing me. I forgot in the madness to mention that I have only until September to gather the necessary scholarships as that is when I will be starting at the pastry school. Something tells me this may all be in vain. But none the less I carry on...Into the abyss. I applied for a "Three Sentence Essay" scholarship today. At least I think I did since the submission medium was more than impossible to figure out. I was to post my response (no more than 280 characters) in the comments section of the scholarship info page. However that section wouldn't accept any submission. I tried several times and even my extended my response to exactly 280 characters and still nothing. So I gave up and posted my response on my profile page instead. I hope that is good enough. The topic "My very best failure." Not wanting to think about my unsuccessful search for scholarships I chose to write about something else; a more pleasant failure.

Day 11

So I spent the weekend not thinking about scholarships but on Monday morning it's hard not to think about them. After getting back two awesome test scores I was pumped and excited. I logged on and started applying like crazy. I am now actively working on a total of 3 scholarship applications which all include a personal reference. I haven't decided which one of my esteemed professors to ask. But since I attend every class and stay in the "A Student" bracket it shouldn't be hard to find one. I hope. I tried to get my name changed for my diploma and was denied. Apparently my legal name must be used. Although all thru my first 2 years of college my preferential spelling was acceptable. I am now on another mission to get my name changed in time for graduation, which by the way I will be attending since I found out today my application was accepted. I prefer the look of Adrienne to Adrian on my diploma. Also after reviewing my "award letter" again I noticed that the per semester housing fee and meal plan are not even included. This means that an extra $5,000 will be added to my running total. So to inform you that is now a total $29,000 of scholarship money to find. I tried to contact the oh so helpful financial aid advisor but was unable to. She is out of the office today. I left a message for her. Lets see if I get a response. Other than this its back to scholarship points for some last minute crunch for the March 14th $10,000 drawing. Every time I think about this I smile. Can you imagine if I won. We will see soon. : o )

Day 10 3/4

Ok. So I know I said I was appreciative of the grants I am getting. And I do appreciate the work the financial aid advisor put into getting everything together for me. But since when is a student loan financial aid. I mean it doesn't sound like financial aid to me. I will have this huge loan looming over my head for all eternity and that is not aiding me in any way. When I hear aid I think of assistance, help, and I don't mean helping me into eternal debt. But that's just me. And on top of that, the biggest loan offered was a federal loan that my parents would have to take out for me. So since the poor college student may not have the credit for this let's trap the un-expecting parents who would do anything for their child. Wrong. Not for me. I will not be falling into this trap. If nothing else this letter has put a fire under the bridge of my scholarship search. I will stop at nothing to get as much "real financial aid" as I can.

Day 10 1/2

I got my award letter today from the school I will be attending in the fall. I'm not really sure why it's called an award letter when I've hardly won a prize. Unless you call the constant reminder of how much this school will cost a prize. But when I opened the letter the term "award" flashed into my head as I looked over the long list of what I thought was going to be free money for school. And when I saw the words "Total Remaining Cost (1,200)" I almost cried. For a second I thought my problems were over. Until I looked at the list and noticed that for my "convenience" the financial aid advisor had added in the student loans I would need to take out into the list. After really looking at the letter I realized that aside from that empty blessing I would be collecting $3,500 out of the $27,000 tuition in grants. Don't get me wrong I'm excited to be getting something. I mean that's free money I won't have to pay back. That's a step in the right direction right? Just a little less than $24,000 left to earn. This should be a cake walk. Speaking of cake I'm making brownies and desserts for my boyfriend's game night. This will take the place of scholarship searching for the day. Being that it's Saturday I think I've earned a break to do something I love. After all I should practice my baking skills for school. : o )

Day 10

I finally got some codes from the new scholarship sites. Thats 100 extrapoints and 100 extra entries. Hooray for me.

Day 9 continued

Today was a great day. I found a number of scholarships that I can benefit from. I went through the list I received from the financial advisor and its seems promising. Although much more "work" then the other "games" I have been playing I am on the mission to get this done. Remember the more scholarships I get the less loans will be needed. Aside from this bright news I logged onto scholarship points again only to sign up for two more point sites that I have yet to get codes for. But not to worry I should receive an email any day now. Lets see if this happens. Time is ticking for that March 14th drawing. I can almost taste the $10,000 scholarship and see the email with my name listed as the BIG winner. But that's enough dreaming for now, its time to get some homework done.

Day 9

Logged into scholarship points today. Just to get the 5 points for logging in. Was planning on coming back to do more surveys but was too tired after papers, projects and yelling customers to get the computer out. Tomorrow is my day. I will get them completed. My future is counting on it.

Day 8

So during my search I got some help from a financial aid officer at the school I will be attending in the Fall. Well I wouldn't call it help but more like pressured assistances. I got the impression that if I never asked about scholarships the topic would have never been brought up. Now why is it that financial scholarships are the last thing on a financial advisors mind. But at least I did get the packet. Along with the comment that "this is more work for the student of course". Well of course!!! I knew that. Trust me I know that. I have spent the last weeks slaving over applications and points. This scholarship search takes more work then my college classes require.

Day 7

Ok so I have earned a total of 4000 point codes and entered most of them into another big fish. A $10,000 scholarship drawing in March. The deadline is March 14th. I need to win this. I would do anything. Anything seems to includes reading endless survey questions and coping and pasting code after code. This has become an obsession.

Day 6

So I found a bunch of point codes and entered them all today between classes. Oh I forgot to mention in the mix of this scholarship madness I am still actively attending 4 course and working a part time job in Hell. But that's another blog. : )

Day 5

Frame my future. This is my next scholarship entry. Write about what you will do to frame your future. Well for one I will continue this blog to keep myself sane while getting through these empty scholarship applications. Alas another one accomplished and submitted. But still no answer. Oh except for the knowledge that I did not win any of the "lottery" drawings from scholarship points this month. Maybe next month.

Day 4

Its time to take this seriously. No more "fun" lotteries and one click entries. I am applying for a big fish. I have finally written an essay. On Morality of Profit. As if there is any. After all my reasoning for this blog is based on the fact that schools are over charging for an intangible product. How ethical can that be. But I wrote the essay anyway. All 700 words abstract and bibliography. I submitted it and am hopeful. Well as hopeful as one can be who has entered into a competition open to millions of money hungry college students. But we will see.

Day 3

So I braved my way thru the 300 question survey only to end up with yet another account with points that could not be applied to my "lottery tickets" account. Tricked again into giving my opinion for points that didn't matter. With no code or points to speak of I returned to my search. Geez a full hour wasted.

Day 2

The doors of hope opened as I applied to several point and click scholarships thru one of my newly created scholarship accounts. I was also directed to a site for scholarship points. It appears to be a "fun" way to look for scholarships. However I don't know how fun it is to be asked repetitive questions about companies I know nothing about nor care about. But one survey equals one entry into a scholarship drawing. That's right scholarships no longer have to be earned thru need, essays, and qualifications but can be won in a lottery. Got to love America!

Day 1

I have started on the path of scholarships, grants, and loans. Loans being the last resort of course. I found a number of valid scholarships that I was either too late for or did not qualify for. And aside from ending up with about three new accounts on different scholarship finding websites with three different passwords and user names I haven't actually made any progress.

Starting The Journey

My name is Adrienne and I'm a college student. A senior at my local community college actually. Up until now college has been dare I say "inexpensive." So I have been pretty oblivious to the dreaded monster of the student loan. But starting in September I will be attending a culinary school in the hopes of fulfilling my life long dream of becoming a professional pastry chef. I am now starting to feel the burn of just how expensive an education can be. You should know that not all the best things in life are free. And when people told you that an education is priceless they were fooling you too. It may be priceless but that doesn't stop people from putting a price on it. Trust me if a fee can be added it will and the more people want something the higher the price goes. After getting over the shock of just how much a meal plan can be and hearing "its an investment in your future" over and over again I have decided that I need to attend this school. No matter the cost. To avoid being in debt for eternity and then some I am on a mission. To gather as many scholarship and grants as I can to help pay for my "priceless" education. And the journey begins!