Wayward Writer

Hey all!

I’ve finished up my time at Anne Arundel Community College.  My last semester out of 6 classes and 17 credits, I got 4 A’s and 2 B’s.  I also made Honor Roll for the second time this last semester.  I’m very happy about that and thanked God mightily for blessing me with good professors and amazing friends.   I’m really going to be sorry to leave AACC, it’s grown near and dear to my heart.

But there is a season for everything and everything happens in it’s own time, so this Fall I will be a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (UMBC). 

So currently I am going through the motions of filling out all the paperwork and getting all my ducks in a row so that I can have a mostly hassle-free transfer experience.

So here are my major prayer requests:

1. Housing.  I still don’t know if I’ve gotten in.  I sent the paperwork in well before the deadlines and currently no one has returned my calls.  I am heading up there to talk to the Financial Aid people and plan to stop in at Housing to inquire about it.  A lot depends on whether I got into the Housing or not.   If I did, tuition is more because of room and board, if I didn’t get the housing then I am looking at getting a car and paying for gas (which in the long run is more expensive than paying for room and board).  Please pray for that because I need to know soon so I can start preparing either to move or to find a cheap car that’ll get me where I need to go.

2. Tuition. Either because of the way that my parent’s taxes got filled out or the way they got inputted into the FAFSA form or some other factor of which I am unaware…the Department of Education is under the impression that my expected family contribution (EFC) is more than it truly is.  I’m an independent student and paying for college myself.  I qualified for the Subsidized Stafford Loans but not any Pell Grants.  I have a grant from the IMB  and UMBC gave me a thousand dollar ($500 per semester) scholarship for being an exceptional transfer student.   All of that totaled up equals a little more than half my tuition for the first year.  I am still currently $15K short  ($7,500 per semester).   I’ve applied for more scholarships and grants than I can count and none of them have come through, so I’m looking at applying for more student loans to pay for college.   Please also pray for this.  

I have two part time jobs that are helping me make ends meet and God’s blessed me in that I have made it this far with no debt.  Paid all my bills, everything myself.  It’s really been a blessing, having both my babysitting job and also being an executive assistant to a real estate appraiser.
The pay is good, the work is a good combination of easy and challenging, which is perfect for me.  However, with me leaving for Baltimore, my hours at both of those two jobs are going to be drastically reduced (if for nothing else that the commute between Baltimore and Annapolis is long and currently I have no car and only a learner’s permit), so I won’t be making as much as I am now.  I am working hard throughout the summer to put together as much money as I can to live off it while I figure out my school schedule and how many hours I’ll be able to put into my two jobs. 

So that’s where things stand at the moment and I really just want to ask you all for prayer on the two major requests. I am fully confident that God will work everything out in his own timing and that I am where I am supposed to be.

Thank you all in advance for all of your prayers!