OT - Beggars can't be choosers

General Knitting
1

So, I’m moving to Rapid City, SD. to get my Bachelors in Nursing. Moving in August.

After sending my darlin’ S.O. to check out apartments for me in the city, I settled on one that was relatively close to the school.

I called, asking for a brochure. Brochure arrived. Brochure says: “HEAT, GAS, WATER AND WASTE REMOVAL INCLUDED”.

So, I fill out application and send it. Requesting a one bedroom, and moving between the 1st and 2nd week of august.

I get approved provisionally on the account that I don’t have a credit history (long live crummy jobs, 4 years and I never made enough to get a credit card. Even Target cards rejected me). They tell me I’ll have to pay an extra deposit.

I tell them no problem. I have enough money in the bank to pay it. I just don’t have credit history.

S.O. is getting leave in August and tells me he’ll help me move everything up there, and then we can take off for Ohio (being introduced to bf’s parents :shock: I’m nervous about that as well).

So, contract arrives Friday afternoon.
Contract says that I HAVE to pay all of the utilities. And, they gave me a move-in date smack right in the middle of August.

So tomorrow, I’m going to call them and try to find out why exactly didn’t I qualify for the utilities and if I can move the move-in date to something more reasonable.

Bad thing is, if they won’t budge, there isn’t much I can do about it. I’ll have to take it, since there’s very few places where someone with no credit can get into, and I really need to move up there to get my bearings before classes begin in the Spring.
Not to mention, S.O. only has this much leave time during August.

Ain’t bureaucracy fun? :crying:

2

What a pain! Hope you get it all straightened out!

Just out of curiousity why are you moving clear up there for school? I’m sure there are lots of nursing schools in CO.

3

Hi Diana,

Can your SO go on the lease? That way your BF’s credit applies and they can’t deny utilities, etc etc.

Good luck in nursing school! I loved it (yes, a rarity, I admit!) and returning to grad school for Nurse Practitioner this fall as well. I also teach in a nursing program so feel free to contact me for help.

Keep us posted on this.

4

Well, Colorado Nursing schools have either 3 year waiting lists or absurd pre-requisites.
A girl with a 4.0 average and perfect application got rejected from CU Denver, go figure why.
And if you get accepted, tuitions are skyhigh.

I have the following problems here in the US for education:

  • Yes, I do have American nationality.
  • I grew up in Mexico, because my father is mexican.
  • My first bachelor’s comes from a mexican university. I’m a licensed Clinical Psychologist.
  • I can’t use my degree in the US because it’s foreign.
  • If you have a previous degree, you don’t qualify for financial aid, even if it’s foreign.
  • I received a fair share of rejections letters from Colorado universities, w/o any justification for the rejection.

I could’ve kept on trying, but it would’ve implied getting on a looooong waitlist, only to end up paying 50K in tuitions afterwards.

Two other girls in my Anatomy class, didn’t even try applying for Colorado schools. And they had good grades and all. One went to Missouri, the other one was still looking around.

So I started looking at out of state schools, keeping certain criteria in mind. Namely, being within a day’s drive from Colorado, in case something happened to my grandmother.

South Dakota State had an attractive program, it’s price tag is considerably cheaper and the year and a half of courses I’ve been taking as pre-requisites for schools here in CO, are all transferable.

The bonus was, that my SO is stationed in that city, so I’ll at least have one person in town I know :slight_smile:

Funny, this is the 3rd time in 4 years that I’m moving.

Edit: I just received and email back from the lady at the place. It seeeems they may honor the utility thing. :pray:

5

:pray: :pray: :pray:

6

Oh boy… with all those obstacles I’d do the same thing you did! Hope it all works out! :heart:

7

Diana,

I understand your frustration but as a nurse and nursing faculty I have never seen/heard of some of the obstacles you have encountered.

To clarify your rejection and or being put on wait lists for programs despite your academic credentials is not uncommon. I am sure that you know of the nursing shortage in this country… the same goes for nursing faculty. Therefore, only so many students can be admitted because of staff to student ratios. The school I teach at gets approximately 600 qualified applicants a year. Only 90 get accepted. There were 14 faculty vacancies for the coming semester. I am sure if you contacted the faculty at the schools you were rejected at, this would be the reason.

I have several college degrees and going for another, and have received Federal Student Loans as financial aid. So do many of the students at my school, and they receive loans and aid. Perhaps you should look into that further because I am sure there has to be something out there where you can get aid in one form or another.

I can’t speak for the other reasons.

8

What about getting a co-signer for your lease?? When we were trying to get into a place a few yrs ago, we didn’t have enough rental experience. So we had my parents co-sign. It was only for a year. After that, we were fine on our own.

Just a thought.

9

I think what pissed me off the most about some of these rejections, was that during their information sessions we were told that if we were rejected we would be told why, so we could work on that issue next time we tried applying.

Then, one of the guys in my class, who wasn’t the smartest crayola in the box, got accepted for a program I got rejected from. So it kind of ticked me off.

That’s strange. At least here in Colorado, that’s the song that has always been sung to me. It sucked that I had a degree that I couldn’t use, and I couldn’t get a loan because I had a degree.

Another obstacle that I seem to find often, is that some people never make it past my last name (Mejia), before looking up and asking me if I have my Green Card in order. They don’t seem convinced when I point out the part of the application that has my SSN and all that stuff. Most of the times, I have to produce a passport as proof.

10

My daughter has an undergrad degree and she’s now in grad school and has loans. Big ones. I never heard of not getting loans because you already have a degree. I’d check with the new school.

11

Then, one of the guys in my class, who wasn’t the smartest crayola in the box, got accepted for a program I got rejected from. So it kind of ticked me off.

I hear ya! BTW, these schools also have quotas… ie, so many minorities, so many men, etc.

12

:roflhard: I’ve always done this sort of negative Sally Field impression, saying “They don’t like me, they really don’t like me”, when I’m dealing with educational bureaucracy. They must really not like me if none will give me a loan :roflhard:

I know my Mom despairs over it often.
She’s caucasian american and has had to bear the “joyous” treatment they give her kids in the US just because we’re half “minority”.
I once got nearly kicked out of a public library here, because they thought I was an illegal mexican. Then they saw my white-skinned, blonde-haired, green-eyed mother charging and they thought it over.

13

Oh my gosh what a hassle for you! Moving from far away is never easy sigh I’m having the same problems securing a place to move back to in Wisconsin in December…

But I hope you really enjoy living there! :slight_smile:

14

but think how close you’ll be to the center of the knitting universe in WI!!!