Oy, colleges irritate the ever-loving crap out of me. Reasons are just cropping up over and over.

I'm working on my financial aid stuff. Well, apparently you're a child until you're 24 YEARS OLD!!! Alrighty then. That means that, while I'm paying for college myself, I don't get any financial aid. Why? Because apparently I'm a "dependent." I'm not old and mature enough to take care of myself, or pay my own freakin bills. Yeah, tell that to the my dentist, hospitals, etc. I'm sure it will blow over really freakin well. Oh, and guess who the college would be coming after if I defer on any student loans. Sure isn't going to be my parents.

Next. Again, I'm 22 years old. Far too immature to handle the dangerous responsibility that alcohol poses. Alcohol is evil stuff that college students are banned from touching. That's why this college, with a particular reputation for alcohol, is alcohol free. Great, thanks. The stuff is too bad for me. Never mind what I think. I can't. After all, I must be dumb pursuing higher education and all.

Oh, I'm too immature to handle firearms. They're evil, and it would be entirely irresponsible for the school to allow me to handle them anywhere on campus. Never mind that I handle one every day everywhere else. Guns may not be securely stored in a locked safe in your dorm room. They must be left in your car where they're safe. Ammunition too.

How about meal plans. Yes, they provide stoves, but I'm entirely too irresponsible to be trusted to cook for myself. (At a greatly reduced cost, mind you) I might starve or something. You know that those meals are a heck of a lot cheaper than what I can make from scratch with what I buy at a grocery store. (Yeah, right) Plus, their food sucks. I ate there, was not impressed. Inspired much confidence in the quality of my own food.

If you can't tell, I have a really major problem with people taking away the rights and responsibilities that I have earned. Irritates me to no end. But, they should right? After all, I'm too immature to take care of myself.

Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with a little civil disobedience here. My financial aid forms are absolutely not going in with my parents W2's as they requested. Sure, they'll be rejected. I'll just send them back the same way... over and over and over and over. I'm not getting any financial aid anyway. Might as well be a pain in the rear while I'm getting rejected.

[/rant]

Sorry, had to fume a little bit.

Poor baby.....Just wait till you turn 25 and AARP starts sending you all the forms: enrollment forms, financial aid, medicaid plan b drug program, medicare, funeral entitlements, project mobility, meals on wheels, etc......
and it gets worse when you turn 30......

Yeah.. I had similar issues. Its frustrating.. You're free of your parents, yet you aren't to student loan places.

How did you like it when you turned 18, were able to vote, and elegible for the draft (do they still make you register for that?), but not able to legally consume alcohol or purchase hand guns or hand gun ammo?
But now that I think about it, nobody ever said that this stuff was supposed to make sense.

You think college drives you crazy? Wait till you have children who go to the public schools. That group embraces the concept of political correctness to a nauseating degree.
Expelling a cub scout who accidentally brought his jack knife to school? What did I read about a few months back- no using red pens to correct papers because the color red implies "wrongess" or some such stupidity.
When I think of all my tax dollars going to that institution.............

I don't know about your particular situation, but I found it a lot more comfortable to live off-campus. Too many rules, and too many distractions to actually concentrate on school.

When all was said and done, living off-campus with a roomate was cheaper than living in the dorms anyway.

Doesn't solve the financial-aid situation though.

Unlike my return to school when I was 29. They offered me so much money I turned some of it down. I didn't want to accumulate that much debt!

Can't help you with most of it. But...

Talk to the school's financial aid office. When I was going to school (disclaimer: many many turns of the earth around the sun ago; things may have changed) you could jump through some hoops, and as long as you weren't declared as a dependent on your parent's taxes and not living with them, they would grudgingly conceed that you were in fact an adult on your own, and possibly give you financial aid.

At 22 you definitely need to be out of the dorms. Make your own meals, your own rules, and your own noise, make your own decisions.

And when was the last time you were frisked on campus?

Be a grown-up. Take control of your life and make your own decisions instead of complaining.

My girlfriend had to deal with the same thing. She went to Scott Lewis (cosmotology) and couldn't get loans without full information from her mother and step-dad. I think she missed out on at least one loan.

I married and older woman, turned 39, ended up being a member of AARP and a grandfather. Had some guy from meals on wheels show up awhile ago (wrong address, thank god, but it did smell good!). Oh yah Medicare is just soooo much fun.

The only good think I can say about it is, the AARP discounts are pretty sweet, and if kay does take out we get the seniors prices on our meals

PS: Be careful what you joke about some one may be living that joke. sigh...

I dunno. I figure that complaining incessantly to the right people (and no, I don't believe that this is the right place to start change in college, just to rant about the stupidity of the stupids a little and get it out of me), perhaps not following stupid instructions, might be an effective way of starting a little bit of change to the issues that I'm having a problem with. Just a thought.

Haha. Yeah, I can understand that. It wasn't just annoying to my parents, it was annoying to me. I had fun with it though (at my parents emotional expense, I'm sorry to say). The middle school that I went to was EXTREMELY conservative. I enjoyed the many calls home to my parents for stuff like wearing black nail polish to school, asking why we couldn't learn about evolution or the big bang theory in science class, asking where babies came from in science (oh boy did that get the teacher flustered), asking why they wouldn't teach sex ed. The lower level school officials got irritated with me, but the principal seemed to get a laugh out of it also.

High school was similar, except that was extremely liberal. A few changes to the school rules and the way one of my high schools operated actually came out of my stupid little stunts.

Why the hell else do you think that I can joke about it.......
and some of those meals are pretty good, but alas no seconds.....

There is a principle called being "quietly effective," coined by Libertarian and sometime nutball Harry Browne in his book "How to be Free in an Unfree World."

When faced with unreasonable constraints, you divide and conquer. Some things you suck up (stupid classes), some you change (hate the dorms? Live off-campus) and some you ignore (carry anyway and don't get caught).

Blowing off steam is fine, but some of the answers seem obvious.

You are if you went into the military at 18 and got out when you were 22.