The Evils Of An Online Education

Like everyone else, I have always touted the joys of my online education. I first attended college online at Rio Salado College a few years back. It was great; I was hooked. Those were community college type prices. Now I am enjoying the online EUDCP program at Boston University because it's perfect for me. Good program, good school, only problem is this -- it's freakin' expensive.

Well, all schools are expensive. But here's what you need to know about the Boston University program. The evils come in as technicalities. It's an expensive program but don't even think for a minute you will qualify for funding as you would at a "normal" or "traditional" college. I get a federal Stafford Loan but it doesn't pay for everything I need for tuition. Here's the technicality: because the B.U. EUDCP (executive undergrad completion program) is considered part-time, I am automatically disqualified for aid like Pell grants or, subsequently, a Federal Perkins Loan.

Getting a Sallie Mae or other private loan is not a possibility for me. So I'm stuck. The only way for me to pay for B.U. is to get a 3rd job. All I can do is work my way through to pay the high tuition cost as I go.

Scholarships?

There aren't many for white 27-year-olds. The other problem with going to college online is I can't get any aid from the Arizona State Department of Education. I've lived here for seven years, but since I attend a school located in Boston, I can't get funding. The DOE only doles it out if you want to go to ASU, U of A, or NAU. Why go there when I got into Boston University?

So here I am. I got into B.U. I completed one semester with an A- and a B- for grades in my first two classes. I'm smart enough to get into B.U. and do well. Now if only I could be smart enough to figure out a slick way to fund my education.

You Don't Need a Car Psychic When You Have The Internet

I have a new car. New to me. It has its quirks, many of which are mysteries I can't unravel due to the lack of owner's manual. It didn't come with one. The car is a 2001 VW New Beetle. Lights keep popping on and off on the dash and it's driving my better half nuts trying to figure it out. He thinks he can fix anything on any car.

So we're ready to head up north on a road trip yesterday when he turns on my VW and freaks out. "The coolant light is on! We have to take my car." Today, back from taking his car on a Clark Griswold-like road trip, we return to deal with the coolant light problem. I really shouldn't have taken my man's word for it when he said the coolant light was on, because it wasn't. He swore it was. "See the blue light?" That's not the "something's wrong light" I say. He says I'm wrong. We open the hood and the coolant is full to the top. The light is still on. So he unhooks the sensor. Now, the coolant light is bright red. Now, it is really on! I tell him to undo what he did so he does; he hooks the sensor up again. It goes back to blue and I tell him it's fine again. He's freaking out because he never noticed it before and doesn't know what it means.

I can almost hear him right now freaking out on the phone with his mother whining about how I've gone out and bought a used car that will be nothing but a money pit. But thank goodness for the Internet, my life saver! The VWvortex Forums have the answer I need. The blue light comes on when you start the car as a way of saying, "I'm not warmed up yet so drive me nice." But if the thing's busted, the red "oh crap" light shall shine.

So there you go. Female, 1 point. Male, 0 points. Unless of course I get a lengthy e-mail from my future mother-in-law detailing every car problem she ever has had and how she dealt with it.

When Did stock.xchng Start Charging?

And where have I been? I just got Photoshop Elements so I can edit photos for my Suite101.com Pop Music articles. So I wanted to download some really cool photos from stock.xchng as I have done before...but guess what? stock.xchng charges now! Maybe I'm the cheapest person alive, but I just don't want to pay for what I took freely before. I actually made a photo work that I had previously downloaded (and wisely saved) from the site months ago.

I thought this was the "leading free stock photo site?" When I tried to download a photo, it said I needed credits, then I needed to buy the credits for $4.99. So how do you call your site a free stock photo site when you charge? Maybe it's time to report them to This Is Broken. Anyway, here's one of the photos on stock.xchng I really liked. I gotta figure out how this silly credits thing works.

Until then, I can dick around with my own free photos in Photoshop Elements.

The School Textbook Hunt

It's going to be, drumroll please, Amazon.com this semester. I'm taking a math course and the book costs $120 new and $90-something used. Usually I can find a textbook to buy on eBay. Actually, all my courses so far at Boston University have used novels and a fiction book only. Most of them I was able to find used -- you have to cut costs wherever you can. I can't find this textbook on eBay, sadly. But Amazon does have it. What a relief; it costs on $35. I can't avoid the $60 textbook though.