Bright Minds?

      This post is very much inspired by a conversation I had yesterday with someone who helps create the scholarships for PG&E. While at an event for women owned and operated businesses, I was approached by a woman who heard that I was a 22 year old and had recently been accepted to a doctoral program.
     Our conversation started off with hope and a  promise of enlightenment but ended with a note of dismay and an overall feeling of fighting a battle I was not going to win. When she walked up to me I saw a woman who looked well-dressed and full of zest. My hope for this conversation was reinforced by the fact that she not only created scholarships but was a personal college counselor for high school seniors around the city. Throughout the conversation she continued to tell me how amazing I was and in the same breath told me that there was "simply not enough money to go around." She did however, give me some insight into the resources that might be available through private funding and through agencies around the country.
    The long and the short of what I got from this conversation and most of what she actually told me was that "everyone", meaning schools, organizatgions, websites and administration, says that there are scholarships and grant money to be had. But in all actuality, most of the scholarships advertised by websites and free search engines are also being advertised a hundred other places. So, in contrast with school administration telling you, "there's money out there, you just have to apply to it" or "no one applys because they wont think they'll get it, so apply and you'll get it", I've got a woman who helps create scholarships telling me that its actually very much the opposite. I couldn't help but feel as though she had popped by preverbial hope bubble. Being young and suprised at my successes in life, I am hopeful to a fault at times.This conversation showd me that I really need to come to grips with the fact that even though Im putting so much energy into paying for my education, if no one knows about it, no onw will help. for that reason, I have decided to just keep trucking and apply to as many scholarships, grants and sweepstakes as I can get my hands on.
However.....
    This leaves me with so many unanswered questions which are as follows:
-If the country is encouraging students to get higher and higher degrees to ensure long-term employment, who is going to pay for mt education?
-If the minimum wage is such that working full-time is still living below the poverty line, how many hours do
I need to work while going to school in order to feed,clothe myself and pay for housing?
- How long will it take me to pay back my student loans?
- How much will my first job pay once I have finished my doctoral program, and, will it be enough to cover paying back my loans and supporting the family that I will probably have by the time Im out of school?
-If I have applied to over 300 scholarships by the fall and have not be awarded a single one, what do students without the time, energy or drive do to afford post-secondary education?