The Choices

My job pays enough to pretty much get to from one pay check to the next. Financial aid pays about enough to pay for tuition and books. Leaving no money to fly and right now no fly means not graduation.

So to continue what I was saying before, I figure I have one of 3 choices...

1st, I could borrow money from a 3rd party student loan place (other than from the financial aid office on campus) take it and finish all my flying and be done soon. The down part of this is when you borrow money you have to pay it back, and with a lot in loans already waiting to be paid back when I graduate we are trying to avoid piling up any more, and it would take a lot. The plus side would be I could get done and graduate already.

2nd, I could graduate in something other than my major. As I said we get enough financial aid to pay normal tuition. On the plus side I could actually graduate and be done with school,..sordof. I could get a better job possibly making more $, but then I would have to go back to school to finish up the flying and still might be faced with the dificulty in paying for it.

3rd, Join the millitary. By this I mean more specifically the Air Force Reserve. With this I would have all my tuition paid, plus get some money each month from the montgomery GI bill while I am in school, plus a possible sign on bonus depending on the career field I went into with them. Plus I would get a monthly check for my 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year. As with the others there are pros and cons of this as well. I will start with the cons. I would be away from my family for 6 weeks while I go to basic training. Then I would have to go to tech training which more than likely would take me away from them again (in some cases your family can come with you, but usually not). I would ofcourse have to take a millitary leave of absence from school to do all this, obviously prolonging my graduation that way as well. Those are pretty much the main cons, at least the ones I am having a hard time with. For the Pros, some of them are listed above as far as getting school paid for etc. All though this would not completely solve the problem of not having money to fly, it would help pay for some of it at least. (I still need to find out more on what I can get $ for and exactly how much) Plus while I am training they would pay me, or basically I would get paid to go to school. Then after training is complete I would be able to use that training to help me get a better job in the civilian world while I finish school so maybe I would not have to be living pay check to pay check.

Now I just need to decide what is going to be best for our family. All this is just a summary of what I have been thinking about while trying to make the choices, so feel free to let me know if you have any questions.