VERIFICATION & ORIENTATION

For those of you waiting for an update, I received an email this morning letting me know that my FAFSA was "selected for verification." That means, I get to dig through my papers and find my 2010 tax return, copy it, sign and date it, and send it to the financial aid office. My mom needs to do the same, as well as show proof of what her portion of the income for that year was (since they aren't together anymore, the school just needs her financial information).

I also got my Orientation Letter :) The gist of it:

• Orientation is mandatory
• Mine starts at 10am and will last about an hour and a half
• When it is over I will get an OCI tote bag with my uniforms, books, etc in it (they recommend we bring an additional bag to put stuff in as well)

I'm excited!

13 DAYS!

UPDATE

So, tomorrow I am taking my mom to a comped lunch at OCI (made by the advanced students). After that we will be meeting with Financial Aid to find out how much $$ I will be getting.....I'm hoping for some overage so I have money to live off of without having to find a full tome job on top of going to school. I'm really excited about this, and I want it to have my full focus. Then all I have left is my Acceptance Interview, and I am officially a student at Oregon Culinary Institute!

I heard this the other day, and I decided to adopt it:

Today is a new day, a new beginning. It has been given to me as a new gift. I can either use it or throw it away. What I do today will affect me tomorrow. I cannot blame anyone but myself if I do not succeed. I promise to use this day to the fullest by giving my best, realizing it can never come back again. This is my life, and I choose to make it a success.




Orientation is 2 weeks from Friday, and I start the Monday after that! I'm ready to use MY new beginning to the fullest :)

SHOE SHOPPING

So I've been looking online to find the best deal on the type of shoes we need--black, non-slip, closed-toed kitchen shoes. 

The school recommended Danskos, which I'm really not a fan of. I don't want to spend $115+ on a pair of shoes that I think are hideous (no offense if you like them....not my style).

I emailed the school to see what all the options were, and was kind of surprised to find out Payless Shoes has a line of restaurant shoes...and they're less than half the price! (yes I realize Payless doesn't always make the best shoes...but with no income right now, they fit my budget).

The safeTstep shoes come in a ton of styles, and I woke up to a 25% off my entire purchase coupon in my email this morning, so I went to take a look.

I narrowed it down to these....

In the end I went with the ones on the left, they seemed to have more padding to stand on them for hours at a time. With my coupon and the lack of sales tax (I drove to Jantzen Beach) they ended up costing about $26. And, once I figure out what's up with my Financial Aid on Thursday, I may end up getting the pair on the right as well :)

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For the record, I'm not sure Danskos come in my size anyway....I wear a kids size 4

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TOUR AND PAPERWORK

Today I went with my mom and met with the Director of Admissions at Oregon Culinary Institute (OCI).

We went over all the paperwork, coursework and school basics, and then she gave us a tour of the school--kitchens, classrooms, and restaurant. We got to sample what the students were cooking, and everyone seemed pretty nice :) After the tour we met with Financial Aid and were given a paperwork packet to read/fill out by next Thursday (the 23rd).

                              

Next I was measured/sized for the chef's uniforms.

Looks like I will be getting them tailored as they are unisex, so the sleeves are kind of large, and the pants are literally a foot too long for me (more about uniforms in a later post).

Then I was told I needed to take a quick test (about an hour) to assure them that I know how to read, write, and do basic math. It ended up being a fill-in-the-bubble, WASL/SAT like test. I felt like I was in high school again, and wasn't that surprised when I finished with time left over. The receptionist ran it through the machine and came back with a sticky note with my score attached to it (196/200).

With all of that taken care of, we set up a time to meet next week for a comped lunch, meeting with Financial Aid, and my "Acceptance Interview." I'm pretty excited, and Orientation is in 3 weeks!

PROGRAM OUTLINE

Here are the courses I will be taking over the next 14 months...

Course Number	Course Title	Lecture       Hours	Lab Hours	Extern Hours	Quarter Credits
Major Requirements
CUL111	Introduction to Professional Cuisine	40	60		7.0
BAK111	Introduction to Baking and Pastry	40	80		8.0
BAK121	Advanced Baking	40	80		8.0
BAK131	Intermediate Pastry Arts	40	80		8.0
BAK141	Advanced Pastry Arts	40	80		8.0
BAK198	Baking and Pastry Externship			240	8.0
RMT110	Beverage Service and Mixology	20			2.0
RMT130	Dining Room Essentials	20			2.0
RMT142	Restaurant Service Practical	20	40		4.0
RMT150	Fundamentals of Restaurant Marketing	20			2.0
RMT160	Food and Beverage Business Systems	20			2.0
RMT170	Oenology and Viticulture	20			2.0
RMT220	Labor Costing and Analysis	20			2.0
RMT230	Wine Regions of the World	20			2.0
RMT260	Advanced Restaurant Marketing	20			2.0
RMT270	Restaurant Management Capstone	20			2.0
	Total	400	420	240	69.0
General Education Requirements
CAP105	Survey of MS Office	15	10		2.0
HUM120	Human Resource Perspectives	20			2.0
HUM170	Food Ethics and Social Responsibility	40			4.0
COM130	Business Communications	20			2.0
COM151	Communication in Diverse Organizations	40			4.0
ENG115	Introduction to College Writing	20	20		3.0
ENG121	English Composition	20	20		3.0
ENG221	Writing the Research Paper	20	20		3.0
	Total	195	70		23.0
	Program Total	595	490	240	92.0

For those of you counting, that's a total of 1,325 hours.