Nail School - Day 4

Today was actually pretty good. The "nails and waxing" girls are learning waxing so I still am not doing anything that actually relates to school. But today I got to paint a bunch of random nail art on fake tips and some of the other students nails! It was a lot of fun, but I'm still a little sad that I'm not doing anything that feels like learning yet. I got a 97% on our test today. The one question that I missed was the question that during our "review" session (see this post to learn about what a "review" session entails) I answered correctly. I just circled the wrong bubble. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

Since I didn't do much today I thought I would answer these awesome (nail school related) questions that Leslie from Polish Art Addiction asked me the other day:


What's your history of college that you mentioned in this most recent post? You said you just finished college or something? Graduated? Or a break between semesters? 
I just graduated from college! I did college a little differently than most people. Right after high school, I went to high school like most people. But then my junior year of college I decided to take some time off. I took a 1.5 year break and then started back up again! So I graduated in the middle of the year as opposed to the end of the year. I'm so happy to be done, but I think I might be one of those people who is a career student. I loved school a lot (most of the time).

If graduated, what's your degree? 
I have degrees in economics and mathematics. I fell in love with economics midway through my schooling and I would say that that is my real passion.

Do you have a job currently?
I do not have a job currently. I'm super fortunate that during my year break (and even while I was in college some) I was working an amazing bartending job. Because I was always working I never had the time to spend any money so I was able to save a lot. My parents also helped me with school, so I'm lucky to not have payments to make on that. I also don't own a car. And my fiancee and I live in the SMALLEST apartment in the world. So I don't have a lot of monthly expenses.

Or are you pursuing the nail school program to have that as a career?
The nail school program is partially an intended career. The only "job" I've ever wanted, since I was a little girl, was to be a homemaker... more specifically, a mommy. I have a lot of passions but the work I get the most joy from is cleaning up and taking care of a family. The reason I decided to go to nail school is that it became obvious that Ron and I couldn't be supported by one income, so my plan is to build a salon in my (eventual) house and run a nail art salon where I am the only employee. I will also do more basic manicures, but my passion is with nail art, so if I could do exclusively that, I totally would. I figure I'll have to work in a real salon for a while after school to build up a clientele and then when I switch to my home I won't have to promote SOO much.

And last question, I swear... Do you mind telling me how much it costs? A friend of mine in my area recently looked into it here, and they told her it would be $12,000! But it's an entire beauty school program. So I'm curious to know how it compares to other areas.

I don't mind at all. I am taking a nail specialty program that lasts 8.5 weeks and requires 250 hours. It costs just over $2,000. Because my program is only 250 hours (300 is the cut off), I can not get financial aid. But, they seem to hand out financial aid willy-nilly for programs that accept it. I don't know about the prices of other programs because I didn't ask, but I think that $12,000 seems high! That was probably without financial aid and I sincerely believe that they give EVERYONE financial aid. Here the "entire beauty school program," which at my school is called cosmetology, is 1000 hours. That means I would expect beauty school to cost about $8,000. Though they might add in more expenses because hair products are probably more expensive than nail products. Are there other people out there that have been in some type of beauty enhancement or other trade school that wouldn't mind sharing how much it cost?