Jack Rollins

There are a few signs which signal the change of seasons with exceptional accuracy; the leaves turning, the appearance of pumpkins on people’s steps, apple picking, and the long winding line of people trying to steal money from the school.

Receiving a refund check is ironically often times simpler than returning a pair of jeans at the mall. All one must do is drop a few classes, sacrifice twenty years of your life waiting in line, and shazam! You’ve got enough free beer, dope, and gas money to make it to Bonaroo this spring.

Unfortunately this is not the case.

Purposely signing up for a full course load with the intention of never showing up, just to receive the financial aid, is fraud. These actions can result in a loss of your own financial aid, a pulverized credit score if you fail to pay back your loan, and the government’s decision to limit the amount of Pell grants SMCC can award to students.

Gaming the system (surprisingly) does not yield free money what so ever, and even if you aren’t the one paying for it, future students will be denied an affordable life changing educational experience because you bled the “cash cow” of government funding dry.