re: Not every story has a happy ending.

quote:

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Might try to walk on to the baseball team if I can get an old coach to get me back in playing shape. One hell of a long shot, but I was a pretty good ball player in high school.

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Here's my recco. Just some unsolicited advice and a different perspective.

Now since you're still in your teens all of what I'm about to write might be moot if you can't establish residency here to get cheaper tuition in Fayetteville.

Consider NorthArk in Harrison. It's a juco, tuition is dirt cheap. $73/hr for in county $168/hr for out of state. IIRC to get in state there you just have to have an Arkansas address on your application.

You literally can take an entire semester of 15 hours and buy books for less than what it cost me to take a single 3 hour class at Oklahoma State, and I still have to buy my brand new book b/c they change them almost yearly. Even still 15 hours at Out of State pricing is just over $2500. I learned not to count on the out of state tuition waiver, there's too many strings attached and once you come into a 4 year school as out of state it's hard as balls to change to in-state. College is a cash cow business first and foremost, never lose that perspective.

If you'd like to play ball, I know the baseball coach, they don't give scholly's b/c it's so cheap, everyone is a walk on and he doesn't cut players. If you want to play and will put in the time and effort you'll play, if you have talent and can produce on the field as well you'll get some attention from 4 yr schools. The NorthArk team is usually in contention for their conference, and when I was there the team made Nationals in their Division and was usually a Top 5-10 ranked team.

The town sucks but at least it's not dry anymore, there's an unbelievable ratio of hot chicks in Harrison, way more than should be in a town of 12,000. The little towns around Harrison might breed from the same gene pool, but they're pretty good genes. I was only there for a little amt. of time but I can introduce you to just about anyone you'd want to meet.

The classes are easy as hell as long as you actually go, teachers are wonderful and you can get to know them and they'll take an interest in you unlike being a face in a sea of faces. At least you got discharged while there's still time to file your FAFSA and apply late and still make the orientations.

If you're going to have to foot the bill for school yourself or rely on financial aid, doing your first 30-45 or even 60 hours at a juco is a great bargain, just don't even think about transferring to OSU or an out of state school. Once you get into a program and realize the school sucks dick and isn't really what you hoped it'd be, it's too late and you're stuck. The new restrictions on financial aid don't allow for wiggle room in changing majors or transferring, also don't screw off your freshman year, go ready to work and get it done. There's plenty of time to party and have fun, but Tue. at 11 am isn't it.

If you think NorthArk might be an option to explore, I'll get ahold of the right people for you that make things go there. It was the right choice for me and you won't find nicer more helpful people on any other campus.

/recruiting pitch.