Planning For A New Year

In yesterdays post, I said that I hope that 2009 is a better year than 2008 was. Well, I am going to have to take action in order for 2009 to be better for me. Last year, Congress made some changes to the Farm Bill which caused all funding to be frozen until new proposals were submitted. The funds for my assistantship came a farm bill grant. My major professor is working on a new proposal and it will be submitted soon, but there is no guarantee that it will be approved or that there will be funding for an assistantship for me after April. In addition, I am going to reach the maximum of $138,500 for the U.S. Department of Education Direct Student Loan in May.

To have 2 sources of funding for me end at almost the same time has me very concerned. I didn't expect to ever reach the U.S. Dept. of Ed. maximum. It's shocking to me that I have. I went to a very expensive private school for my undergrad. Although I went to a public university for my masters degree, I really should have graduated sooner that I did. Now here I am working on my doctorate and almost out of funds.

I have to apply for the Graduate Plus Loan, however I am not sure that I will qualify for it. That loan requires that one has a good credit and due to the long hard road that I have traveled, my credit is not so good. But I have to apply anyway.

The actions that I take to make 2009 better for me will in part depend on whether my assistantship gets renewed and whether I get approved for the loan. But there are some other things I have to do as well. I will write about them in a future post.