Enter Grizz number and PIN. Look up classes to add. Plan the next nine months of your life. Breathe. Start paying for it.

Registration for fall and spring/summer classes by class standing started Monday. Picking out your classes and making plans can be exciting; you’re getting one or two steps closer to graduation.

At the same time it’s a bit agonizing. Can’t we get a break? Most of us have not even paid off the winter semester yet. Nor have we took a moment to step outside and enjoy the smell of soil and the warmth of the spring sun. Yet it’s time to commit to a schedule that will carry us through December.

Things seem to be happening faster and coming up quicker than they ever did in high school when the weeks would drag on like years. Being in college is like being a weeble that just keeps getting hit with assignments, bills and life, so we have no time to even fall before we have to get back up.

Taking into consideration the economy, the job market and tuition rates that are getting students down, Oakland University is putting in a lot of effort so that “You can afford this.”

But really, returning students are getting the short end of the stick. Incoming freshmen and transfer students are the ones benefiting most from the renewable, increased scholarship money and even 100 percent tuition grants for “need-based freshmen.” But in fall 2008 only 28 percent of OU’s student body belonged to these groups.

While freshmen and transfers are getting the gold and black carpet treatment, for the most part returning students are stuck with the same old acronyms: FAFSA, EFC, etc. Sophomores, juniors, seniors and lifers could also try their luck with the generous list of existing scholarships available at www.oakland.edu/scholarships, but most have very specific requirements, like being an upper-class undergraduate student from Macomb County with academic excellence.

One improvement made by the administration designed to help all students is an extended payment plan for the 2009-2010 school year. A variety of payment plans, which only began in 2007-2008, are being offered with up to 10 payments spread out through the end of the year. This year is also the first to offer payment plans for the summer semester.

But if you’re strapped for cash, enrolling in a payment plan with the smallest installments may not do any good considering the first payment would be due next week.

The university is also setting aside the registration hold until April 20 if students owe less than $1,500, but students are still subject to late fees.

Regardless of what you think you may or may not qualify for, each and every student should make a trip to the financial aid office to speak with an advisor and try to maximize your possibilities.  

If you have ideas for improving the financial situation for students, or if you would like to share something with the administration that is working or not working, you can e-mail Financial Services at [email protected].