College Program CHAOS

Okay so a few crazy things have happened to CPers since June started.

1) Room mate matching opened up

Room mate matching means Disney will find a room mate for you. They look at your arrival date, your role, and your age and match you with another CPer. I did not opt into this (so I thought) because I wanted to find my own room mate (And I did, Hi Michelle!). Imagine my surprise when I get an e-mail from Disney Housing telling me about my new room mate. She seemed really nice and she sent me an e-mail but I already had a room mate. So I got in touch with her, explained the situation, and then opted out. After that I quickly contacted Michelle and asked for her application number so that I could request her as my room mate. I did this, and now Michelle is my OFFICIAL room mate! YAY!

But how did I opt in? I thought I had said no earlier and told them I was picking my own room mate. Well, apparently I opted in. This happened to several other people. Your options weren't explained very well. But it's all good now.

2) Disney sent out an e-mail asking if anyone wanted to switch from August 9th to September 6th.

This caused CHAOS on Facebook. Luckily, my awesome room mates warned me about it before I even GOT the e-mail. I'm not sure if September 6th is a new date that they added or if they just over booked people on the 9th. Either way this e-mail caused a few panic attacks. Some people thought Disney wasn't really asking, and they were just notifying us of the switch. Some people thought they were politely saying "You MUST change dates."

Whatever they were requesting I'm not changing my date. I'm going insane waiting for August. I do not want to add ANY days to my countdown. I WILL be there on August 9th, and hopefully I'll see a lot of you there.

On a more personal update note.

I no longer need to worry about Financial Aid. As long as the school knows my situation THEY will take care of it. I've also been given permission by my parents to opt out of my federal work study. Mom said I should spend the last semester completely focused on schoolwork and enjoying my last semester.

And I'm all for it.

Alright, well, that's all for now folks!

Have a magical day!

"I Know the Road Seems Long, but It Won't be Long till it's Time to Go."

Hey everyone!

(63) days till check-in
(59) days until I leave for Orlando
(12) days until the premiere of Jonas: LA

Nothing too exciting has happened this week. I've fallen into a bit of a rhythm with my job. I love it! Good hours, good pay. I'm trying not to spend a lot of money. I bought a pair of TOMS the other day but that is the LAST thing I'm buying. (BTW, if you follow me on Twitter you got a chance to vote and help me decide which pair of TOMS to buy. Thanks for your opinion if you voted! It was fun! haha.) Anything else I buy will be dinners or movie tickets. Everything else is going into savings. I'll keep you updated with totals and stuff. Here's how I'm splitting up my savings percentages:

To Credit: 50%
To Disney: 30%
To Me: 20%

Money to be transferred to savings as of now: $368 ($230 of it will go to pay off my credit card). Once I pay off the balance on my card those percentages will change. I want to have my card completely paid off before I get to Disney.

You guys will have to help me stay accountable for my spending. I'm not buying anything else except for things that have to do with going out and enjoying the summer with my friends. Nothing else.

Also I started my "internship" with Winston-Salem Monthly last week! It's not technically an internship (because they're not supposed to have one) so we're calling it "shadowing". I go in once a week do some grunt work, sit in on some meetings, and learn a lot about how a magazine is put together. I really enjoyed my first day.

I have to call financial aid tomorrow and clarify some things about the federal awards I accepted. I'm confused because I was under the impression that I could accept the federal awards for one semester, but I wasn't given that option. So now I have to call and ask my adviser what to do. I also have to contact this girl about subleasing her apartment for second semester, and see what her room mates are like.

Also I'm turning in my key and having my apartment inspected on Friday morning. I can not wait to be done with that apartment. I'm very excited to hand back that key.

I need to start making a packing list soon. If anyone knows where I can find a really good one let me know! I don't even know where to begin making a packing list for 5 months worth of things.

That's all for now! Until next time, have a magical day!

Small Disney Road Block...

So, you know how I mentioned the loan "Grace Period" in my last post?

Well, turns out that "Grace Period" is causing complications.

Until now my plan has been to take one exploration series class while at Disney. I'm not getting credit with my department, and I didn't need it for my insurance so I wasn't worried about classes at all. This plan has been scrapped.

I have loans, and the deal with loans is that you get a 6 month grace period after you leave school before you have to start paying them back. I'm going to be at Disney for 5 months. It's one month short of 6 but I do NOT want to risk anything. So my financial aid counselor suggested I be enrolled for 6 semester hours. My Grace Period wouldn't start and I wouldn't even have to worry about it. So, I e-mailed Sharon at Career Development and asked how I could get 6 semester hours, and she said it was a relatively easy fix.

All I needed to do was e-mail a specific person at the school of Business about being enrolled in the "Dummy" courses within the school of Business. These are courses with the school of Business label that act as place holders for credit and classes down at Disney. Sharon said that this meant I would now need to take TWO of Disney's collegiate courses to coincide with these "Dummy" classes.

I then realized that I had already submitted my "Intent Not to Return" form to the Registrar so I asked Sharon what I should do about that, and she said all I had to do was call them and request to have that form cancelled. So I did that, and was told they would contact everyone on campus and tell them I changed my mind about not being enrolled at school while at Disney. So then I sent the woman at the school of business an e-mail asking to be enrolled in those two Business courses.

Hopefully that will solve my problem. I'm meeting with Sharon tomorrow to discuss classes. I have a few questions for her about which ones I can take and which ones she suggests. After reviewing the list I think I know which ones I want to take, but like I said I have a few questions for Sharon first.

So there's my small Disney road block. It looks as though it's fixed. Cross your fingers that no more complications pop up.

Until next time, have a magical day!

[INFOPOST] Things to Think About: Financial Aid

If you're applying for the program then Financial Aid should be one of the first things you think about. If you're applying in January for the Fall you've got to think about the FAFSA, If you've got private scholarships you'll need to meet with your financial aid counselor, and if you've got loans you'll need to make sure the program doesn't accidentally activate your college loan "grace period."

Some schools make it difficult to meet with your financial aid counselor (like mine.) Our counselors at ASU prefer to do things over the phone rather than in person, but it may not be that way at your school. Also, it depends on what kind of financial aid you have. All of my financial aid is Federal and is a result of my FAFSA so all I had to worry about was how to re-apply for FAFSA.

I called my counselor and she told me to apply like I did every year and just to fill it out like I was coming back in the Fall and then when I hear back about my awards I would need to make it clear WHICH semester I would be accepting them for.

Also, the FAFSA Customer Service lady told me to make sure the "grace period" on my student loans was tripped while I was in Florida. If you have a loan you get a "grace period" before you have to start paying them back, and it's possible that my absence from school while on the program could be seen as me no longer being in school. My "grace period" could start while in Florida and then I would have to start paying back loans when I return home. We definitely don't won't that.

So I've got to call Financial Aid today and make sure nothing happens with my loans. Hopefully, she'll ask if I want to make an appointment. I would really feel better discussing it in person. It just feels more official than discussing it over the phone. If she doesn't, though, I can deal. As long as I KNOW that the government knows I'm not through with school yet.

Anyways, there's your hopefully helpful post for the day! No Formspring Wednesday once again. This week I had only one question from my cousin Kayla, and it wasn't really a question about the program. It was a personal thing. So I'll answer her question privately.

Don't forget to ask me stuff though! You can use the widget on the right side or you can go directly to my Formspring at http://www.formspring.me/angellwings

Also, I'll be posting a new Vlog tonight! Part 4 will be posted tonight and Part 5 will be posted tomorrow!

Until next time, have a magical day!