wahwahwah whiney whine whine....

Weeeeelllllllll................

I talked to financial aid today, and besides the one pell grant, I cannot apply for any other financial aid, loans included to cover the balance from this fall semester. That means I have to come up with $2000 out of my own pocket before I can register again.
Considering that I am unemployed, that might take awhile. I am definitely not going back to school in the summer. 
I am not a happy camper. It's like everything is falling apart. I have headaches, I might not be able to pay rent this month, now I can't go back to school until I figure out a way to raise a crazy amount of money, one of my best friends just took a job in Denver, and another is getting married and moving down south... It's hard to be positive lately. No one really gives a shit what I do with my life, it's hard to even care myself. I just want something to go right.

movin' movin' movin'

The ACT is April 9th, which is only a few weeks away. I have taken a step back from my studies to let it all sink in, hopefully  I didn't study all of this time for nothing. It would be pretty embarrassing to be pawned by some 17 year olds.

In the mean time I have been working on starting classes at MCTC again. I had to skip this semester due to issues with my financial aid, but that should be on track shortly!

I need to set up an appointment with an adviser there to go over my plan of action for transferring to the UMofM.

AMBITION!

I woke up early, went did some writing, walked to the library, revamped my already awesome resume, put in a dozen applications, and studied for 3 hours straight. I learned some pretty interesting test taking techniques. For example, answering questions in the order they are asked isn't ve ry smart. I should be answering the easy ones, then coming back to the hard ones, and using an "answer of the day" if I do not know the answer. These all seem like commom sense, but I am not a very logical person most days.
I went to they gym, I faxed out some paperwork... I am on a roll!

ACT: Prepare to have your mind BLOWN.

I'm not even concerned with getting anything less than a 30. I know I will do well. I always get what I want eventually, and I want a 30 :)

Funny side note, the ACT prep I picked up from the library today referenced Lady Gaga. I laughed SO hard!

Studying is HARD.

I am a horrible studier. Studyer? I'm just a bad student.

I thought that if I removed the main source of distraction (my computer) from my study space, I would be a study machine. So I went to the coffee shop down the street.

sljkdfaslkjfklas;jfdkljasl;fjsljkfsldkjklsjklsdfjklsd

I ended up there for one hour. I did make an alright quantity of study cards, but not as many as I thought I would. I got so distracted by all the cute dogs in there! One kept hiding under the table. So cute!

I want a dog. I spent over two hours this morning looking at dogs at the humane association website.
Tangent!

If caffine and internet deprevation cannot keep me focused, I don't know what can. Maybe I have A.D.D. My little brother and sister had A.D.H.D. .... Maybe I was just overlooked? I should get that checked out.

Or maybe I just hate studying.
That is probably it.

I have to find a way to keep my eye on the prize! Maybe I will tape a fake degree over my computer screen while studying.

Unemployed and DUMB

So, one of the first steps to getting accepted to the University of Minnesota is retaking my ACT. I took it once in high school and recieved a score of 25. The reason it was so low was because I got a 14 on my math section.

So I went to barnes and noble and bought an ACT study guide. Now, I assumed that most of the test would be a breeze, since I did pretty well on everything else.

I think I dropped a few IQ points since high school.

But it is alright! There is always a bright side...
I was laid off from my job on Friday. This means that I will have tons of time to study! YAY!

UHG.

If anyone (not that anyone reads this) knows of a job in the field, even administrative or clerical work, I would appreciate it if you could pass something this way. :)

So one of the first things I had completed when I found out about the University's ID program was email the program contact directly to ask for some suggestions and about the requirements the University looks for when accepting applications. This is the email I sent and the response I recieved

Hello,
My name is Cassandra and I am interested in becoming an interior designer.
During my research on how to pursue an interior design career, I found that the University of Minnesota has the only accredited interior design program in Minnesota. I am currently taking some generals at the MCTC campus in Minneapolis. What I was wondering, is what your program looks for in prospective candidates during admissions.
Can you give me some advise on how to be best prepared to apply to the University of Minnesota, and if I can apply directly to that program?
Thank you for your time.
Cassandra Lenhard
___________________________________________________________________

Dear Cassandra,
It is great to hear of your interest in the Interior Design program.  As the prospective student adviser for that program, I want to give you some general information.
The Interior Design program is a four year program starting the term you are admitted to the College of Design.  This is for two reasons - first, the program is very thorough and is designed to give you an excellent foundation in the field, and second, the design courses you take build upon each other and are sequenced over a full four years.  You can look at a sample four year plan on our website to see the courses you would take (http://www.design.umn.edu/prospective_students/programs/interior.html).
The Interior Design program admits students for Fall semester only. If you are interested in pursuing admission for the Fall of 2011 the application deadline is March 1, 2011. You would need apply at http://www.admissions.tc.umn.edu/, as well as complete the Transfer Admission Supplement for the College of Design - http://design-n.design.umn.edu/prospective_students/admissions/documents/SupplementCDesFallSpring2011andFall2011.pdf
We do an overall assessment of the student's application and consider the applicant's academic and supplement/essay when reviewing applications.  We want to see students be successful in the program and see that the student has passion to do Interior Design work. 
I hope this information is helpful.  Please feel free to email or call me if you have additional questions.
Sincerely,
Zer Vang
Prospective Student Adviser
College of Design
12 McNeal Hall
1985 Buford Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
Direct: 612.624.4713
Main: 612.624.1717
http://www.cdes.umn.edu/


I thought this was a very vauge response, but the link is a very good resource if you want to know what your class load will look like.

Hello!

So, here I am, writing my first blog post.

A word to the wise, this blog will probably suck.

The purpose of this blog is to garner encouragement and hopefully in the near future, post some of my work.

As a kid, I was always making my mom angry by rearranging the furniture in our house. As I got older, I started switching out our couch covers and stealing hue cards from walmart. Now that I live away from home, I bemoan the fact that I cannot paint my apartment walls or afford nice furniture.

I always thought that interior design was one of those feilds like hair dressing. Very few actually made a good living off of it, and most ended up at Fantastic Sam's all their life. But after doing some research lately, I have found that ID can be a very rewarding and interesting career, not at all dead end.

So I will be documenting my  way to becoming an accredited, and working, interior designer. Some of the steps I will have to take will include being admitted into the U of M design program, passing a licensing exam and probably retaking my ACT's.
It will be at least 5 years before this is all accomplished, so wish me luck!