Category: Higher Education

***An update from this earlier post***

There’s an important update about school, that I have been slow to update you about. Remember I  had gotten caught up in some tuition drama during the Summer semester that forced me to appeal the charges? Well, turns out my appeal was approved, and I ended up successfully registering for the Fall Semester

***Approved Appeal***

The interesting thing this Fall is that NY Governor Hochul has instituted a new program that allows people like me to attend college for FREE, yeah you read that right, totally FREE—tuition, books and everything.

So when I was registering this Fall, I made it clear to the QCC folks—Registrar, Financial aid staff, everybody that I want the Governor’s free program. So the staff at QCC told me that only certain programs are eligible and I wasn’t currently enrolled in those—I should say, only certain Majors are eligible. 

So they told me I had to switch my major to one of the eligible ones before I got considered for the program. So I switched my major for CIS to Cybersecurity, which is an eligible major.

After the switch, they told me I had to go to the financial aid office because they are ultimately responsible for who gets into the free program—they make the determination

So I went to the financial aid office right after switching my major to cybersecurity, just to double check on the info I had received thus far. The FinAid folks said the info was accurate—that even though it’s a free college program, one had to file a 2025-26 FAFSA and NY State aid(known as TAP) to be considered into the program—and their explanation made sense. They wanted to make sure the people who get the free ride are those who have no other available forms of financial aid—the last resort crowd like myself.

I know I did my FAFSA back in late March-April so I had no issue with that. TAP on the other hand, I don’t even know what to tell you what kind of witchcraft is going on with the TAP folks.😂To date, I’ve made almost 10 applications, and it’s ALWAYS the same result—some alleged problem with my FAFSA that prevents them from processing my state aid. Somebody at NY state aid (TAP) does NOT want this TI attending school FOR REAL!!😂

The latest one I filed was on…right after I spoke with financial aid office after switching my major to cybersecurity. Look what I got anback this morning—the SAME damn thing😳

As of now it still shows that I owe tuition so I’m not sure if the financial aid folks will use this as the reason to throw me on the free ride program, or will they stick a TI with the bill again. I think we all know the odds are 90-10 stick the TI with the bill😂. But anyway, stay tuned. We shall see. 

Just so you know, if there were “issues” with my financial aid application that needed fixing/addressing, the good folk at QCC Financial Aid office would know, and would have told me about it. According to them, everything is fine with my FAFSA, I’m just maxed out on the Pell & the loans. Very fishy what’s going on with the TAP folk. TI alarm has been going off every time they show up on the scene 🚨 🚨. Something there just ain’t right, SOMETHING😂. I’ll dig into their affairs and report back to you.

Also nowadays I like to check in with my new best friend, ChatGPT😂, so I figured I’d ask about the nexus between targeting programs and higher education. Here’s what came back. Notice the part about “denied scholarships”. Is that what TAP is up to?😳. Hmm, we report, you decide🤷‍♀️

Also just to make sure you didn’t miss it. Notice what my new best friend ChatGPT also says towards the end—that they do this stuff “in subtle, deniable ways”—the good ol’ plausible deniability. See how smart my new best friend is? Something to think about next time somebody tells you all TIs are crazy. The truth is more often that they cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt the crimes being done to them🤔