A new appreciation
Financial trouble helps student gain new perspective on education
Matthew Keil
Issue date: 2/23/06 Section: Student Life
When Eau Claire native Ian Jacoby was finishing high school in 2003, he was in a position most students would never experience.
Ian Jacoby excelled in music throughout high school, and was offered a scholarship to study music at UW-Eau Claire. After receiving this opportunity, he was sure music was the path for him.
Into the unknown
Before Ian Jacoby attended his first day of class, he realized a future in music wasn't really what he was looking for.
Ian Jacoby's mother, Susan Jacoby, said she supported his choice to switch to an English major, though she didn't quite understand it at first.
"He had this opportunity to move into something he had loved so much and something he had done so well in, but he wasn't completely sold on it," she said. "We are supportive of whatever it is Ian wants to do, but I always had a connection with the music world he was involved in."
Although Ian Jacoby said he was happy with his decision to switch his focus, this meant the scholarship would not apply, and he would have to look for a new way to pay for college.
Ian Jacoby studied English in Eau Claire from fall 2003 to spring 2005, but he soon ran into a roadblock when it came time to pay for another semester of school.
"I wasn't really clear on everything that went into getting financial aid," he said. "Basically I fell through the cracks of the financial aid office."
However, Jacoby is quick to assert that he wasn't a victim.
"The people in the office were as helpful as they could be," he said. "I just basically avoided it because I had no idea how close I was to the deadline or everything I needed to get in."
Ian Jacoby referred to the Free Application for Student Aid, or FAFSA.
The university is required by law to receive students' FAFSA information before they can process their student aid.
When Ian Jacoby went to turn in his FAFSA to obtain financial aid for the spring semester of 2005, he was already past the deadline of the lengthy process.
"I was looking for private loans and all kinds of different options, but that was when I got a letter from school saying that I owed them $3,000," he said.
Technically not enrolled as a student, he found himself in a situation where he was not only in debt to the school, and therefore not allowed to register for classes, but unable to obtain the financial aid to pay off his considerable debt to the school.
"I couldn't go back to school, so I couldn't get loans, but I couldn't be in school because without the loans I didn't have the money to even begin paying them," he said. "I've been paying (the loan) off for a year and a half now."
This brought Ian Jacoby to the situation he would be in over the next year - working part and full time to not only support himself, but to put together enough money to get back into school.
Kathleen Sahlhoff, director of financial aid at Eau Claire, said she will be the first to admit the hidden complexities of the FAFSA form and the other numerous facets of applying for financial aid.
"It's a complex application," Sahlhoff said. "It's our role to try and make that as easy as possible."
In response to Ian Jacoby's situation, Sahlhoff said the university has faced countless examples of students being lost in the shuffle without the experience or "know-how" to navigate the process.
To help alleviate this problem, the university has changed its process of application, barring students from registering before their financial aid is secured, thereby protecting them from accumulating a massive debt to the school.
"The new policy prevents students from missing the procedure entirely and getting themselves into a bad situation," she said.
Sahlhoff believes that part of the problem is that students don't understand the immediacy of the FAFSA form and how the financial aid office is often left without any ability to help the students.
"FAFSA is a federal process," Sahlhoff said. "We are not legally allowed to process the student's aid on our end until their information is returned to us."
Sahlhoff said the FAFSA form may take as long as four weeks to process.
For Ian Jacoby, this meant he wouldn't have the vital financial aid to get into school.
A long year
With a $3,000 debt to overcome before he could get back into school, Ian Jacoby switched his focus to his job at Walden Books, 4850 Golf Road.
"I worked pretty much full time," Jacoby said. "They will only allow you so many hours unless you're a manager, but I was basically full time for a year and a half."
During this time of working, Ian Jacoby found that retail wasn't putting together the amount of money he would need to quickly make up his losses. In the entire fiscal year of 2005, he took home $7,000 after taxes.
"I was really excited because I never look at the total amount I make for the year, and I thought I must be getting a huge tax return," he said. "When I got it back, I realized it really doesn't add up as much as you'd think."
Outside of the debt he accumulated, he also had to account for the cost of living outside of the house. Paying for rent, food, transportation and the expensive utilities that come along with winters in Wisconsin posed a challenge.
"At this point I've learned how to really minimize my costs, living off as little in groceries as I can," he said. "It's still hard to make payments on school to get back in."
Though his parents still live in Eau Claire, the last year and a half proved to be a strain on his relationship with them. Going into college, the family agreed it would be his responsibility to pay for school and any outside expenses.
Ian Jacoby said the turmoil produced within his family from his transitional period is settled for the better since he managed to get a handle on his future.
"They've always been able to be really supportive in everything except for money," Jacoby said. "They helped me look for financial aid and they were always there when I messed up."
Susan Jacoby said the family of six was trying to help him find his way through the transitional period without carrying him through it.
"We're trying to accomplish something by helping him to help himself," she said.
Susan Jacoby attributes the early falling out between Jacoby, herself and his father to growing up and moving on.
"It was just him wanting his own life and not being able to abide by anybody else's, and we try to be supportive of that," she said.
Since he got himself past the point of debt, he's had time to reflect on what really happened in the last year. Between dealing with the falling out from school and maintaining his livelihood, he said he saw the difference between an impossible situation and a chance to grow.
What it meant
Both Ian and Susan Jacoby have seen this time off from school as a growth period for Ian.
"Since being out of school, I've kind of realized I want to go to school not just because I feel like I should, but because I really want to," he said. "I see the end result, rather than just seeing as that's what kids my age have to do."
In his time off, Ian Jacoby had the opportunity to get more involved at Volume One Magazine, as well as volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. He said these experiences helped shape the direction he would move into when he got back into school.
"The last year or so really got me interested in writing and journalism," he said. "I've got a better idea of what I really want to be doing when I get back to school."
Susan Jacoby said the experience helped usher Ian Jacoby into adulthood.
"I think this whole thing happened for a reason," she said. "He's come from a good place, and now he understands what he's had and what he needs to do to accomplish what he wants."
Susan Jacoby sees the educational value in what happened as well.
"The university isn't the be all end all of education. You can get an education in a lot of different places, and I think Ian has a new appreciation of what he's trying to do."
Appreciation is the word Ian Jacoby said best represents what he feels for his educational opportunity. Since going through the process, he now understands what it takes to get through with a purpose, he said.
"It's frustrating to me now to see people not appreciate it," he said. "I don't care if somebody decides to go to college or not, I just think for people that want to go to school and can't because of money, it's depressing to see others with an easy out not take advantage of it."
With the problems of how to pay for school largely behind him, Ian Jacoby said he is more focused than ever on moving into the next part of his life.
"I look at it as 'This is how it happened and I can't change that, but here is what I really want to do,' " he said. "I have a perspective now that is helping me figure things out."
Ian Jacoby excelled in music throughout high school, and was offered a scholarship to study music at UW-Eau Claire. After receiving this opportunity, he was sure music was the path for him.
Into the unknown
Before Ian Jacoby attended his first day of class, he realized a future in music wasn't really what he was looking for.
Ian Jacoby's mother, Susan Jacoby, said she supported his choice to switch to an English major, though she didn't quite understand it at first.
"He had this opportunity to move into something he had loved so much and something he had done so well in, but he wasn't completely sold on it," she said. "We are supportive of whatever it is Ian wants to do, but I always had a connection with the music world he was involved in."
Although Ian Jacoby said he was happy with his decision to switch his focus, this meant the scholarship would not apply, and he would have to look for a new way to pay for college.
Ian Jacoby studied English in Eau Claire from fall 2003 to spring 2005, but he soon ran into a roadblock when it came time to pay for another semester of school.
"I wasn't really clear on everything that went into getting financial aid," he said. "Basically I fell through the cracks of the financial aid office."
However, Jacoby is quick to assert that he wasn't a victim.
"The people in the office were as helpful as they could be," he said. "I just basically avoided it because I had no idea how close I was to the deadline or everything I needed to get in."
Ian Jacoby referred to the Free Application for Student Aid, or FAFSA.
The university is required by law to receive students' FAFSA information before they can process their student aid.
When Ian Jacoby went to turn in his FAFSA to obtain financial aid for the spring semester of 2005, he was already past the deadline of the lengthy process.
"I was looking for private loans and all kinds of different options, but that was when I got a letter from school saying that I owed them $3,000," he said.
Technically not enrolled as a student, he found himself in a situation where he was not only in debt to the school, and therefore not allowed to register for classes, but unable to obtain the financial aid to pay off his considerable debt to the school.
"I couldn't go back to school, so I couldn't get loans, but I couldn't be in school because without the loans I didn't have the money to even begin paying them," he said. "I've been paying (the loan) off for a year and a half now."
This brought Ian Jacoby to the situation he would be in over the next year - working part and full time to not only support himself, but to put together enough money to get back into school.
Kathleen Sahlhoff, director of financial aid at Eau Claire, said she will be the first to admit the hidden complexities of the FAFSA form and the other numerous facets of applying for financial aid.
"It's a complex application," Sahlhoff said. "It's our role to try and make that as easy as possible."
In response to Ian Jacoby's situation, Sahlhoff said the university has faced countless examples of students being lost in the shuffle without the experience or "know-how" to navigate the process.
To help alleviate this problem, the university has changed its process of application, barring students from registering before their financial aid is secured, thereby protecting them from accumulating a massive debt to the school.
"The new policy prevents students from missing the procedure entirely and getting themselves into a bad situation," she said.
Sahlhoff believes that part of the problem is that students don't understand the immediacy of the FAFSA form and how the financial aid office is often left without any ability to help the students.
"FAFSA is a federal process," Sahlhoff said. "We are not legally allowed to process the student's aid on our end until their information is returned to us."
Sahlhoff said the FAFSA form may take as long as four weeks to process.
For Ian Jacoby, this meant he wouldn't have the vital financial aid to get into school.
A long year
With a $3,000 debt to overcome before he could get back into school, Ian Jacoby switched his focus to his job at Walden Books, 4850 Golf Road.
"I worked pretty much full time," Jacoby said. "They will only allow you so many hours unless you're a manager, but I was basically full time for a year and a half."
During this time of working, Ian Jacoby found that retail wasn't putting together the amount of money he would need to quickly make up his losses. In the entire fiscal year of 2005, he took home $7,000 after taxes.
"I was really excited because I never look at the total amount I make for the year, and I thought I must be getting a huge tax return," he said. "When I got it back, I realized it really doesn't add up as much as you'd think."
Outside of the debt he accumulated, he also had to account for the cost of living outside of the house. Paying for rent, food, transportation and the expensive utilities that come along with winters in Wisconsin posed a challenge.
"At this point I've learned how to really minimize my costs, living off as little in groceries as I can," he said. "It's still hard to make payments on school to get back in."
Though his parents still live in Eau Claire, the last year and a half proved to be a strain on his relationship with them. Going into college, the family agreed it would be his responsibility to pay for school and any outside expenses.
Ian Jacoby said the turmoil produced within his family from his transitional period is settled for the better since he managed to get a handle on his future.
"They've always been able to be really supportive in everything except for money," Jacoby said. "They helped me look for financial aid and they were always there when I messed up."
Susan Jacoby said the family of six was trying to help him find his way through the transitional period without carrying him through it.
"We're trying to accomplish something by helping him to help himself," she said.
Susan Jacoby attributes the early falling out between Jacoby, herself and his father to growing up and moving on.
"It was just him wanting his own life and not being able to abide by anybody else's, and we try to be supportive of that," she said.
Since he got himself past the point of debt, he's had time to reflect on what really happened in the last year. Between dealing with the falling out from school and maintaining his livelihood, he said he saw the difference between an impossible situation and a chance to grow.
What it meant
Both Ian and Susan Jacoby have seen this time off from school as a growth period for Ian.
"Since being out of school, I've kind of realized I want to go to school not just because I feel like I should, but because I really want to," he said. "I see the end result, rather than just seeing as that's what kids my age have to do."
In his time off, Ian Jacoby had the opportunity to get more involved at Volume One Magazine, as well as volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. He said these experiences helped shape the direction he would move into when he got back into school.
"The last year or so really got me interested in writing and journalism," he said. "I've got a better idea of what I really want to be doing when I get back to school."
Susan Jacoby said the experience helped usher Ian Jacoby into adulthood.
"I think this whole thing happened for a reason," she said. "He's come from a good place, and now he understands what he's had and what he needs to do to accomplish what he wants."
Susan Jacoby sees the educational value in what happened as well.
"The university isn't the be all end all of education. You can get an education in a lot of different places, and I think Ian has a new appreciation of what he's trying to do."
Appreciation is the word Ian Jacoby said best represents what he feels for his educational opportunity. Since going through the process, he now understands what it takes to get through with a purpose, he said.
"It's frustrating to me now to see people not appreciate it," he said. "I don't care if somebody decides to go to college or not, I just think for people that want to go to school and can't because of money, it's depressing to see others with an easy out not take advantage of it."
With the problems of how to pay for school largely behind him, Ian Jacoby said he is more focused than ever on moving into the next part of his life.
"I look at it as 'This is how it happened and I can't change that, but here is what I really want to do,' " he said. "I have a perspective now that is helping me figure things out."