Nine Months

We were anxiously awaiting the packet in the mail that was supposed to tell us what kind of financial aid Aaron is being offered, as per to Aaron's acceptance email. It came, but it didn't have anything but the acceptance letter, an informational letter that gave him his internet ID, the website address to accept his admission, etc., and a pamphlet that gives him contact information of people in the program, the financial aid office, etc. The informational letter also said that he will receive an email from the financial aid office when his eFAAN is ready (that's the online site that informs him of his scholarships, grants, and loans available, and where he can accept or decline each of them). I went to the eFAAN site, and it has his status as waiting for the FAFSA to be processed. The government part is complete, according to the FAFSA website, so we're just waiting on the U of MN's financial aid office to process it on their end, and then we need to fill out a few more online forms before they will finish the eFAAN.

We were hoping to have a better idea by now whether or not Aaron can go, but the wait continues.

In the meantime, I've figured out that we could live through most of April '11 (nine months of school) before our savings runs out if Aaron goes to the Carlson School of Business. That's not including tuition and fees - those we will need financial aid for. And, that's without living completely on our food storage. I only budgeted for a $100 cut in our grocery expenses. If I am really creative, we might even make it through May, and then, hopefully, Aaron will get a decent internship for the summer, scholarships and a graduate assistantship for his second year, etc. But, we could end up living on loans for the 2nd year. I don't like that idea much. I don't even know if we can take out that much in loans, honestly.

We have until April 15th to make the decision and pay the tuition deposit. I am glad we don't have to pay it sooner, like at BYU, because I don't think we have enough information to study it all out and get a good feeling for it yet. So far, we are just feeling uncertain. Something needs to happen, we're just not sure what.