![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sorry, I guess I promised to write this over a month ago. Part 1 is entirely unrelated and can be found here
So, after my day to day life fell apart, I started looking around for some new direction. Long-time readers will remember how, well before finishing my degree, I was already regretting not pursuing my childhood passion of Zoology instead of following my nose into Philosophy -- but by that point it was already too late to switch degrees, since I couldn't afford another two years of undergrad, which is the minimum it would've taken to switch, assuming they'd even have let me do so. After finishing my degree, I started looking around for ways to somehow shoe-horn it into some sort of scientific discipline, mostly unsuccessfully. Besides which, I'd found that I pretty much couldn't afford any kind of further study, since I would still be classed as an "overseas" student until I had been resident for three years "not primarily for the purpose of education".
Such were the rules then, or seemed to be, but looking around from my depressed stupor this past winter, I realised that, come September, I would fulfill that criterion, and so could perhaps afford to study again. I started looking around excitedly for options. It turns out that science test-scores and qualifications have what a local college advisor called an "expiration date", meaning I would have to take a mature students access course to get into university to do a second undergrad in Zoology, which seemed like the best idea at the time. I signed up. I've got an interview for it, still upcoming, but I don't think I'll be able to afford to actually do the course, because SCOTTISH "HOME STUDENT" CATEGORY REGULATIONS ARE FUCKING INSANE.
Yeah, I said it. FUCKING INSANE. Why? Because apparently it's not enough to meet the three-years' residence requirement; I must also be in a visa category called "settled", which I won't be able to get for another year and a half. However, EEA/EU citizens and their "relevant family members" are considered home students, if they've met the residence requirement. Well, hey, I thought, that's me! I'm married to an EEA/EU citizen! The UK is in the EU, after all. Nope. Turns out that that comes from some sort of law about EU parity between countries, and they don't actually have to apply it to their own citizens (unless they have "exercised their right of residence" in another EU country by living there for 3 months or more).
The upshot of this is that despite having lived here for seven years (three as a non-student), I cannot be considered a home student in Scotland precisely BECAUSE my Scottish spouse has only lived in Scotland and has never taken his taxable economic activity to another EU country.
Fucking madness.
It's worth noting, incidentally, that even if I wanted to go back to the US to study, I would of course no longer qualify for in-state tuition in NC, either.I ain't got no home-student status in this world anymore.
So, after my day to day life fell apart, I started looking around for some new direction. Long-time readers will remember how, well before finishing my degree, I was already regretting not pursuing my childhood passion of Zoology instead of following my nose into Philosophy -- but by that point it was already too late to switch degrees, since I couldn't afford another two years of undergrad, which is the minimum it would've taken to switch, assuming they'd even have let me do so. After finishing my degree, I started looking around for ways to somehow shoe-horn it into some sort of scientific discipline, mostly unsuccessfully. Besides which, I'd found that I pretty much couldn't afford any kind of further study, since I would still be classed as an "overseas" student until I had been resident for three years "not primarily for the purpose of education".
Such were the rules then, or seemed to be, but looking around from my depressed stupor this past winter, I realised that, come September, I would fulfill that criterion, and so could perhaps afford to study again. I started looking around excitedly for options. It turns out that science test-scores and qualifications have what a local college advisor called an "expiration date", meaning I would have to take a mature students access course to get into university to do a second undergrad in Zoology, which seemed like the best idea at the time. I signed up. I've got an interview for it, still upcoming, but I don't think I'll be able to afford to actually do the course, because SCOTTISH "HOME STUDENT" CATEGORY REGULATIONS ARE FUCKING INSANE.
Yeah, I said it. FUCKING INSANE. Why? Because apparently it's not enough to meet the three-years' residence requirement; I must also be in a visa category called "settled", which I won't be able to get for another year and a half. However, EEA/EU citizens and their "relevant family members" are considered home students, if they've met the residence requirement. Well, hey, I thought, that's me! I'm married to an EEA/EU citizen! The UK is in the EU, after all. Nope. Turns out that that comes from some sort of law about EU parity between countries, and they don't actually have to apply it to their own citizens (unless they have "exercised their right of residence" in another EU country by living there for 3 months or more).
The upshot of this is that despite having lived here for seven years (three as a non-student), I cannot be considered a home student in Scotland precisely BECAUSE my Scottish spouse has only lived in Scotland and has never taken his taxable economic activity to another EU country.
Fucking madness.
It's worth noting, incidentally, that even if I wanted to go back to the US to study, I would of course no longer qualify for in-state tuition in NC, either.
