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WORK AHEAD: A friendly reminder

September 1st, 2010

This post is still valid! : – )

http://weaver.net/MFA/2010/01/working-ahead/

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To Loan or Not to Loan

September 1st, 2010
Pay the Price

Pay the Price

That is the question…here.

I can’t answer that for you.  I am thinking about it.

The student loan process is a lot simpler and easier than it was when I started my MBA some 18 years.  It seems to be a lot easier to get a lot of money for school and that is very DANGEROUS.  That you can get a lot of money for school doesn’t mean that you should take it.  I think the best method is to pay cash…that was until I reviewed my tax returns from 2009.

This info applies to me.

I am a struggling professional (full-time) photographer with a part-time job to help pay for grad school.  Think of the part-time job as putting food on the table, gas in the car, and rent while I pay for tuition and all my business costs from my business income.

Financially speaking: I am poor

I am not a CPA and I highly recommend you find and use a good one.

Now, looking at my 1040 I see that I have a tuition deduction of $4000 but I paid well over twice that amount and I don’t get credit for doing so.  Why not see if I can spread the cost of tuition over a longer period of time and receive the tax credit in the future.  Seems reasonable don’t you think?

This brings me to some research to determine how my future student loan payments affect my bottom line on my annual taxes.  This is from the IRS:

Publication 970 (2009), Tax Benefits for Education  (link here)

Paid with borrowed funds. You can claim a tuition and fees deduction for qualified education expenses paid with the proceeds of a loan. Use the expenses to figure the deduction for the year in which the expenses are paid, not the year in which the loan is repaid. Treat loan payments sent directly to the educational institution as paid on the date the institution credits the student’s account.

Ah ha!  So it seem I can reduce my adjusted gross income (AGI) with student loans but I cannot deffer the reduction to my AGI when I actually get around to paying the loan back.  Hmmm…so much for cash basis accounting.

Should I take the loans?  Should I increase the length of my stay at my institution?

While I have been offered over $32,000 in aid for the coming school year (2010-2011) I may only accept and use about $8,000.  I’m probably going to take the direct subsidized loans for at least one semester this year.  I have already spent over 4-grand on tuition so I’ll get that deduction for my 2010 taxes.  This is a side benefit of why I’m taking a loan.  I’m planning a major surgery in early 2011 and I won’t be able to work for about a month.  Given that I’m (barely) self-employed I don’t have things like vacation time I can dip into while I’m recovering.  Taking out this loan will allow me to pay for immediate tuition expenses, and conserve cash over the next few months for the time when I can’t work…seems to be reasonable financial planning.

As always (and as everyone seems to disclaim – rightfully so) consult a tax professional about your needs.

I strongly recommend that without any disclaimer!




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Throttled Back?

August 21st, 2010

Every semester I write about keeping pace and even working ahead, when possible.  It seems that AAU is happy to let you work ahead but thay are only going to let me see into the future by one module (week).

From the AAU site:

NEW ACCESS TO CLASS MODULES

Please note the new policy on access to course materials:
You can visit the entire syllabus and course outline at any time during the semester. In addition, students have access to the course materials for their current module, the next module and all past modules.

Please contact the Online Help Desk if you have questions regarding the new policy.


BTW: A module typically represents a week’s worth of online class material.  It doesn’t contain all the material as there are often assignments using physical books, and additional online media.  (Maybe I should write a module post?)

Modules are a great way of seeing what is really involved later in the course.  My experience at AAU tells me that some syllabi are weak or incomplete representations of what is really involved in an entire course.  Course outlines are slightly better yet they can also be vague.  The best instructors provide a detailed outline of deliverables at the start of the course.   I hope that AAU is toughening up their standards on outlines and syllabi so fundamental information about course work is well-defined across all classes.

I wonder why this is?  Are students downloading the material from all the modules during the first week or so of classes then dropping classes?  This new policy makes it more difficult to download content for future personal review and use.

As long as instructors tell me what they expect for mid-terms, projects, and finals I don’t see a problem.  Due to work assignments (Read: Austin City Limits Festival) I will have to ask my instructors for homework assignments that are more than a week out, a couple of times this semester.

Just more work for the student and instructor I suppose.


UPDATE: (8/21/2010): I’ve sent a request to the helpdesk at AAU for a comment on this post.  More later…

UPDATE: (09/01/2010) I’ve sent another request to the helpdesk at AAU as I have not received a reply yet.  More later…

UPDATE: (1/1/2011) BTW: I never got an update but I understand this is a generally unpopular idea withing the photo department.

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No Summer School

July 21st, 2010
A tilled bean field shot while I was NOT enrolled in Summer classes.

A tilled bean field shot while I was NOT enrolled in Summer classes.

I’m so happy I didn’t take Summer courses.  I may take some next year and I may still do one of those wacky 15-day intersession courses.

There are few things I’m happy about.

Being able to travel and shoot for myself.  This included starting up a workshop and scouting locations in the beautiful Northern Nevada high plains.

Saving up money for Fall tuition is important.

Not having to constantly switch between being a student and being a pro-photographer as I do when I’m working and attending classes.

I have to go back to my days in grad school where my friends and I would look forward to starting the next year of school.  The break makes me a bit nostalgic for going back to school.  If I had taken Summer courses I would still be excited about the classes I’m heading for this Fall semester but it might also be some continuation of the grind of schoolwork.

There is some unneeded rationalization here that follows the line of taking it slower makes me learn more and learn it deeper – that may be true, or not.

I will not be qualified as soon as I originally planned (as I need 18 hours in my subject field to teach at a collegiate level), but for me, plans are just that and subject to change.

Overall, it’s a good thing to take a little more time for me, save up a little cash, spend a little more time with friends (which actually means spending more time working as most of my friends are out of town on vacations) and get excited about Fall courses at AAU.

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The Demotivating Bad Class

June 15th, 2010
The lowest grade in my lighting class went to this image. :-)

The lowest grade in my lighting class went to this image. : -)

It was bound to happen.

I took a class and the experience was abysmal, dreadful, and appallingly bad.  It would be easy enough to pan a course and an instructor but that won’t do a good job explaining my perceptions during the semester.

Lighting is an elective course. It was my first elective course at AAU and I can’t recommend it.  My experience here gives it a solid D-minus.  Tamara Hubbard , Associate Director of Online photography MFA, and I had a dialog concerning issues surrounding both the course and the person assigned to teach it. Three points stood out from this discussion:

  1. I may have been over-qualified to take this course.
  2. The course is being revised.
  3. The instructor issues have been noted and I should additionally contact another Director to follow-up.

For the first point: I don’t agree. I am an experienced photographer but I only do a little studio work and I really wanted to take something that I knew I was good at but would greatly improved my skills and knowledge of the subject by taking this elective.  Other classes I’ve taken had students with a huge range of abilities from poor to excellent yet it seemed that most students that applied themselves did really good work and improved personally over the duration of the term.  The director did encourage me to contact her directly about future course suggestions which I find to be very commendable.

Second: So the course is being revised.  This means that I do not recommend the PH608: Lighting class I took in Spring 2010.  It also means I cannot make any judgments on any revised course until I see the new course material.

Third:  The MFA-Photography AAU folks do occasional online town hall meetings.  I haven’t attended one but one of my fellow students did and her takeaway was that if you have particular issues with a class then contact a director.  I didn’t want to be a whiny student so I contact a couple other students in my class, and I discovered that the issues I had were also held by some other students as well.  One of the students actually met face-to-face with one of the directors and did voice concerns about the course and instructor.  This made my follow up easier as all I had to do was validate how I and the other student felt and I could be contacted for additional information.

Being able to document and criticize (both positively and negatively) is very important when praising a course/instructor.  Being able to easily communicate that to the directors of the program speaks highly to the department’s desire to build and maintain a strong program.

This is my second Master’s.  I draw on my experience as an MBA student where I went into a class and didn’t like the instructor or the material and I would change my courses to reflect that.  As an online student I have to remind myself that I am the master of my schedule and education, therefore I need to be informed about my classes and take action when I feel there are serious problems with a class.

The worst thing about the lighting class wasn’t the waste of money, nor the waste of time – the worst aspect of that class was the incredible de-motivation felt by this student which drove me to do mediocre work in a class I was initially very excited about taking.

The best thing that came out of this class was learning that the department appears to really care about the program, the course, and the quality of the instructors.


[UPDATE 6/17/10 : I've learned that the person that taught my section is also teaching at least one Summer section - email me if you want to know the instructor (or go find another post). I have (for better or worse) suggested to a former classmate to drop that class or find another instructor  that is teaching it. It is that bad a class in my personal opinion]

[UPDATE 8/29/10 : I believe this instructor is still teaching the lighting class at AAU. My recommendation is that you do not take this class.  If you want to take it I would suggest contacting the Director and ask for a complete course listing for this class which will allow you to decide if if you REALLY want to take it.

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