Life changed gears quickly. I was in my office when Wharton Admissions called to ask if I still wanted to attend. I wonder if I wasn’t at my desk to answer the phone at that moment, they would have moved along to the next person on the waiting list. School started in three weeks, so I had to give my “yes” answer right then on the phone. I was floating on air, and the reality of losing my income and insurance benefits on top of paying for school didn’t set in for a while.
Lou joined me to meet with someone in the financial aid office, but there really isn’t anything but loans available for me. He got into a heated discussion about how unfair and discriminatory it is that it seems only minority groups qualify for aid and complained that he never got aid because he is a white male even though he was in dire need. I understand his point, although I could have done without him getting on the reverse discrimination soapbox at my new school.
Playtex gave me a party and an HP 12-C calculator as a going away present, since my major concentration is in Finance. So far, the classes are pretty straightforward, and I expect to do well. I’m not the least bit nervous about the course work. I went through the face book with pictures and a little biography of the 750 or so students in my class. I could count on my two hands the number of students who went to undergraduate state schools. The majority had degrees from top private and Ivy League level schools. Their pre-Wharton job descriptions sound like everyone has already been successful in business and investment banking. Hopefully this is a good sign that I am destined for a great job after graduation. It is intimidating that my GED, AAS community college, BS from SUNY, and my job as Playtex Help Desk Manager doesn’t seem to stack up in comparison. I have no doubt that I will do well academically, to which my state-school-earned Phi Theta Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa membership pins will attest.