Even with all my years of education, the navigation of the college system is still the most convoluted cluster-fuck I’ve ever had to deal with. The closest thing to it, is doing your taxes. And even that is more simple than going to college!

Every semester as I approach my much anticipated graduation I find myself struggling to believe that registration and financial aid could get any more complicated. Yet, it is apparently setup to be just that. This summer, my first summer attempting to take classes at UTD I’ve found that the school said “Fuck You” by releasing the summer schedules. I guess no adult who is in the workforce cares to get an education, or at least it would seem UTD thinks so. I was only able to locate one class to take for the summer. Which I’m glad I’m getting into it and all, but I had to jump through hoops to get it. First off, it had prerequisites that I’ve not yet been able to take, so I had to email the teacher and get her approval to take the course. Then, after the approval I had to get my adviser to remove the prerequisite block off my ID so that I could actually register for the course. So, awesome, yeah I got into the course. Of course the bullshit doesn’t end there..

Next comes the M.C. Escher inspired maze called Financial Aid for college. Apparently since I am only taking a meager 3 hours of classes for the summer (11 weeks 5-10pm on Mondays) I do not get to have any financial aid. I wouldn’t bitch if it were actually free money but it’s not! I actually have to pay back the so called financial aid after graduation. So why in the world can I not get a loan? The class, one class, is going to cost me $1500, plus, the supplies for the class will cost me $700. After looking over the schedules for the Dallas Community Colleges for the summer I’ve also found one other course and at $150 bucks it’s a fucking bargain! I’m not even going to bother to get aid for that class. They say I can not get a loan because I’m not attending six credit hours at UTD. Why should I be penalized because they lack in their offerings to working students???

I just wish that for once someone would simplify the process instead of making it more and more complicated each year. My only idea for now is to win the lottery and then I could be one of those elusive “daytime students”.