Monday, December 12, 2005

Ack!!! It costs how much?!


Had the meeting with the financial aid person for culinary school. All my transcripts had not arrived, so she had to basically start from scratch on how many hours I would need to complete a degree. Sort of the worse case scenario, which usually means it can only get better, right?

Because the financial aid qualification stuff is based on your 2004 income tax return, the amount available for me to borrow was significantly less than I expected...let's say it covered about half the tuition, which left me with another $26,000 to pay. Ugh. Double ugh. I can't do this. Cannot put myself and The Man into this much debt in case it doesn't work out...I could really suck at garde manger, you know.

Time to reveal Plan B. A former co-worker of The Man told him about a culinary program offered by a technical college that would cost about a 10th of what it would cost at the Art Institute. Ears perked up and he started researching it. Turns out the program has been in existence for about 5 years, and that the students in that program are entering and winning the competitions that the Art Institute has won in the past. Both programs are accredited by the same organizations, and while there is not as many faculty at the tech college, they seem to have the same if not better credentials as the Art Institute's faculty.

This might work...at least it would be a less painful financial experiment than the Art Institute. I have an appointment next Tuesday with an academic advisor at the tech school, so we'll see how this goes. Guess I'd better go get a copy of my transcript and have another official one sent.

And finish wrapping my Christmas presents.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am confused - are you are Student of The Art Institute of Atlanta? Or did you decide against it?