Reconciling the American Dream with the Least Among Us

[TheSlyMoogle]

Well I'm pretty sure we'll never complete the argument here with much resolution but I will go ahead and tell my story about college:

So I graduated 6th in my class in high school. I wasn't able to take AP Calc II due to my only opportunity to take AP Calc 1 was my last semester of High school. There were a total of 8 AP classes offered in my high school until our last year of school when 5 students in my class convinced our upper level math teacher to take a college class to allow her to teach Calc II. Anyway, the way it was supposed to work out I could take Calc I in my last semester and still be Tied with the other 5 students in my grade for Valedictorian. Anyway not that big of a deal still because I was set to be one of 3 students to take AP spanish and that would have still tied me with the other 5 as they couldn't well anyway they got it worked around with the school so that they could take AP spanish still, by doing like a co-Spanish 3/AP class. Still not a big deal as being Valedictorian only got you a 1 time 500 dollar scholarship. So don't know why even telling this, except that I busted my ass through High school (Well not really, not like it was ever hard to get an A anyway.)

Anyway I got a 31 on my final ACT which I took after having Calc (Which helped boost my math score a lot) so I was offered a full ride to Morehead State University. Which wasn't my school of choice, but I took it. Well upon completely the FAFSA my parents income was considered too high so they dropped my Scholarships by 5 grand. 2500 each semester because my parents estimated contribution was 5600 or so. That sad part is, my father had only had the job that put us above poverty level for about 2 years. My mother's salary has been a constant 15 grand since I was 2, and his was only around 18 grand until my sophomore year of high school. My mom didn't finish high school, and my father didn't finish technical school, quite possibly because my parents are severely ignorant. Every friend I have ever had that met my parents have no idea how I happened. So, anyway, I took out loans for both semesters. I wont lie my first semester I goofed off a lot, and didn't take it as seriously as I should (Basically treated it like my high school). I ended up getting a couple of As, 2 Bs, and 2 Cs. Not really so bad, especially considering, but still low enough to temporarily stop my scholarship. Which was no big deal I had the cash saved up. The next semester I slammed out all As in 6 courses and I also switched majors from chemistry to Psychology, because it turns out the only professor at Morehead that taught Chem 111 and 112 was also the only professor to never give above a C in his intro classes. Which I can understand kinda, he's perhaps the hardest teacher I've ever had, but for many students a C = a scholarship killer. Anyway I chose my second semester to tell my mother I was gay because I had started seeing someone. Well my mother didn't call me for about 2 weeks, and one day about a week before finals I got a call from my father telling me I wasn't welcome at home anymore.

So anyway, moved in with the guy I was seeing, when I applied for the fafsa that year I didn't include my parents income as I was now technically independent. Well turns out the government does that for you

I pleaded my case to the financial aid officers over the summer, was basically told that I would have to prove I hadn't received any help from my parents within the past year, and as I couldn't do that, I couldn't be independent. So unable to get enough money to cover school through loans because I had no credit I had to sit out an entire year. So I spent the year working at Cracker Barrel as a waiter, saved up quite a bit of money as I had no expenses, and I also started using credit cards to make any purchases and paid them off completely at the end of the month to build credit. My plan was just to go to school here in Virginia, but well relationship ended and I went back to KY. Thinking that I would get financial aid to cover school as it had been over a year since I had had so much a single word with my parents, and with all the money I had saved, I figured that I was in great shape.

Well the financial aid officers basically couldn't find a way to prove that I was now independent, because apparently the government doesn't care that you got kicked out of your house for being gay. I was told my only hope at getting financial aid without having my parents tacked on was to wait until I was 24. Well I had a little over 10 grand saved, and couldn't wait that long. (I also had paid off my first loan by this point).

So anyway what to say, I had to buy a ratty car that gave me epic trouble, Apparently my credit was only good enough for the very first student loan I got, and I ended up blowing everything I had to stay in school, including using credit cards to pay for some semesters, and one surprise 6000 dollar donation from an ex boyfriend who knew I couldn't afford to go to school another semester (Which was my last semester I was enrolled, and the story of that is a completely different story but probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me). Anyway only being able to work on the weekends to focus on my studies (I worked friday night 8 hours, and almost 30 hours on saturday and sunday combined), I basically tapped out. When I couldn't go back I got a second job, but of course the loan payments started pouring in, and the credit card bills etc.


So I've been through everything, talked to a lot of different people. Lawyers, financial aid officers, been in front of the school board even. Nothing I have tried has worked. I'm 9 classes from graduation, and in the year I've been out tuition at this tiny public university has increased by almost 2 grand. Factoring in books it's a little over 1000 dollars to just take 1 class. It's going to cost around 10000 dollars for me to finish school.


And well, this has all happened because one day Dick Nixon decided that people the age of 18 could screw the system by claiming independence and getting a free ride to college, so he decided to draw up the very federal law that has fucked me for the past 5 years basically.

However I did find out that if my parents had allowed me to be a legally emancipated minor before the age of 18 that I would have been able to go to school for free EVEN IF MY GPA HAD DROPPED TO THE POINT OF STRAIGHT Ds THE GOVERNMENT WOULD STILL FLIT THE BILL FOR 4 YEARS! Or had they let my very poor grandparents legally adopt me before the age of 18 I could have gone to school for free. There are about 10 other ways you can get around it.

I'm 9 classes away, since my first semester I've only had 2 grades of a B, calc 1 and 2 (Numbers get jumbled up in my head really badly and I take a lot of time to do problems to get the right answers my discrete mathematics teacher actually let me take the tests outside of the hour time limit but my calc teachers weren't having it, so mostly the Bs were attributed to my lack of actually finishing tests, but what I had done was right at least), and my gpa is a healthy 3.8 which is in the top 2 percentile at a university that barely finishes 30% of the students who enter, and I can't get a fucking scholarship or loan from the school or government because of the FAFSA? Fuck that. My parents barely clear 55,000 dollars a year anyway. Which is fine for them, but when you don't have parents who can cosign for your loans because they don't want you in their lives because you're gay, it really sucks.

And I understand that if the law was different that people would abuse the hell out of it, but the worst part is there are so many kids I went to school with who partied all the fucking time, and didn't go to half their classes, and didn't care who still couldn't get kicked out because it was ok if their GPA sucked as long as it was a 2.0. FUCKING DUMB.

And yes I've even gone as far as to talk to gay organizations and stuff, but pretty much all their scholarships are needs based as well. WTF is with all these needs based Scholarships these days and why do all of them go by the FAFSA?