30 Something Student

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DeVry was the second place that I looked at in my search for schools. I initially looked at the local Junior College that is in the area and was somewhat discouraged by how complicated it was.

Basically the local JC was partnered up with a undergraduate and a graduate school in order to try and be more robust. While it is a more robust offering it is more complicated for someone who is new to the area. The other discouraging part was the residency requirements which I did not meet yet and therefore would have had to pay more. Finally there was the time factor. Right now it is in between semesters so I would have to wait until next year to start.

I thought of ITT but they seemed to be more “Technical” and I knew that DeVry had standard business degrees from their commercials. I looked DeVry’s website up and saw that they had a Technical Management degree that was right up my ally. I then looked up the cost and was presented with their Financial Aid Check list.

The Financial Aid Checklist is what got me in the door at DeVry. I wanted to know how much this was going to cost me and what type of payments I was going to need to make while going to school. I expected to see some cheery message about how good and cool it was to finance your degree at Devry but their was no such message. It started with government grants and loans and went to private loans with DeVry being at the very bottom of the list. I did not find actual amounts but I was comforted by the fact that DeVry wasn’t going to try and “sell” me their financing plan.

The day after I submitted my information I got a call from a counselor for the Austin branch and scheduled an appointment. My plan going into the appointment was to see how much it was and then figure out how to come up with the money. The counselor did a good job in going through what DeVry offered and asked me what I thought. I told her that it sounded good but the cost was really going to determine if and when I could attend.

My counselor did a very good job in presenting the cost coupled with the available financial aid programs. When I found out that I could finance the entire thing and not make a payment until 6 month after I graduated I was sold. In all honesty I felt pretty silly because I always thought that school was too expensive for me to afford. It is pricey but they make it to where you do not have to pay until you are actually making money from your degree.

Anyway, I went home that night and discussed it with my wife. She agreed that it was a good setup between the grants and loans. I went in today and started to the application process.

I have to say that one of things that I liked was that they are really holding my hand through the entire process. This is important to me because I am already a pretty busy between work and my family. I really do not have time to be running all over time and trying to figure out which form gets sent where. DeVry really is geared towards working individuals.

I am now in the process of getting paper work and transcripts squared away to start class in a week. It is amazing how such a big thing can be introduced to your life in such a short time.

Technorati: DeVry, Financial Aid, College, Austin