Time for plan K

Plans A through J haven't worked so far, so it's time for a new one. Here is the latest update.

The school did not get the 15 student commitment it needed to hire a full-time financial aid person--there were holes the size of Texas in the plan anyway--and so the plan fell through. One brave student has decided to take on the role of financial aid officer, and all the responsibility that it entails, in addition to his studies to ensure that he can get financial aid. He will handle other students' loans as long as he is in school--for 3 or 4 more years. Good on him.

Here is why that plan doesn't work for me. One, I'm interested to see if the Department of Education will allow him to have this position. It seems a huge conflict of interest to be both financial loan officer and student, as he is effectively loaning himself money. Two, if the Dept of Ed does allow this, what happens to the students who are still in school after he graduates? There is no guarantee that the school will allow another student to take over this role so that these students could continue. Three, why would I want to continue at a school that obviously doesn't want me?

Piotr labeled this relationship as a battered-wife syndrome. The school and the American students were in a working relationship, though I dare say neither were exactly happy. The school, in between kicking us while we're down, has moments where they welcome us back with, "If each of you pays $2000 more per year and is responsible for the cost in case of an audit, then I guess we'll let you back." At which point, many of the US students are ecstatic about returning only to find out the next day, "Haha, just kidding! You guys are on your own!" After the Chancellor lied to our face about when the school found out about this issue (he said mid-July but I have it from another authority as April 9th), that's when I checked out. Thanks for playing, on to plan H.

The one promise that the school has come through on is that they worked out a deal with the University of Medicine in Poznań, arranging for all students in good standing to be offered places in their respective classes. Piotr and I had been considering a move to Poznań anyway because it has a much better economy for Piotr to work in, however, moving to another 6 year program full of 19 year-olds is not that appealing. In a long shot effort, I emailed the rector of Poznań on Friday asking if there was any chance to be admitted into the first year of the 4 year program. It's highly doubtful, but the worst he can do is say no, right? We also have a secret weapon: Piotr's good friend in Poznań, Dr. Piotr, went to school with the rector and has agreed to go talk to him on Monday on our behalf. If it works, it means I would be starting classes, oh you know, Tuesday--which brings about a whole other load of timing issues with the move, but it could work.

Again, it's a long shot. In the mean time I am still working on my application for the states. I am trying my best to get my personal statement in check and get it out to those people who are writing me letters of recommendation. All the school related events this week seemed to put my life in slow motion and consequently, I accomplished very little this week. So now it's time to get my butt in gear and let my tenacity take over.

Personal Hell,oh wait, I mean Personal Statement

Writing a strong personal statement can take a couple weeks to a month to draft, edit, re-write, only to then trash it and start over again...and again. A couple weeks would be a luxury right now. The stress of timing my application is upon me and I am really struggling. I am trying to brainstorm stories, ideas, themes, and it seems all that is coming out is drivel. I gave myself all week, with the deadline of today, to have it finished to send off to all my writers of letters of recommendation and I find that I am in no better position today than I was on Monday, save a few pages of pure backwash.

The personal statement is my chance to make my application stand out from the GPAs and MCAT scores and I know that I have a diverse non-traditional background and life history from which to draw anecdotes and stories, but I cannot seem to find a theme to start with. Every time I try to write something I get a paragraph in and hit a wall. I wish I could just write, "Can't you see how awesome I am?"