Ah, the sweet summer smell of August Rain and financial aid not arriving when it's supposed to.
Seriously, I've been compulsively checking on everything for quite some time to ensure everything was finished. Last year, my first year at Angelo State, Financial Aid took the better part of the semester for me. It was a mess trying to line up parent loans, income verification, this form, that form, guaranteeing loans online, and such. By the way, ASU doesn't really TELL you that all of this has to be done, you simply have to wait for nothing to happen, get frustrated, then go to the financial aid office to see what's wrong. They'll give you one step, and upon taking care of it, nothing happens - given enough time, a frustrated student will go back to Financial Aid and get the next step. They never give a complete checklist, only the next step in the process. After the fourth time (or so) this happens, a student finally realizes the inevitable and goes from there, which is where I'm at.
I was finally ahead of schedule! I had everything taken care of, BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED. Even after going through a fairly big problem (which took weeks to solve), it seemed I was done. I could only smirk and laugh at those who had not begun the financial aid process yet. And, it seemed, that financial aid funds were to be dispersed to me today. Just to compulsively be sure, I went by Financial Aid yesterday, they spent several minutes checking on my stuff, and assured me everything was good to go. Luckily for me I was getting this money this week, because as you've read, I kind of need some extra money to get caught back up.
And then today began, and thus far, no money available. My account balance is $4.53, from last semester (and after my spend fest in NY). Never mind the fact that they still haven't paid me for graduation ceremony services in May, and that I've called every affiliated department (Dept. of Art and Music, Student Accounts, Payroll, Vice President's Office [handles the paperwork for grad.], and Student Affairs, so bare minimum 5 calls, though it's more like 20] every month to figure out where that money is. I discovered on the 13th that apparantely, since I'm technically an employee of Angelo State (re: gigs for Pippin and OMT), I'm on a "different" list that's handled by Payroll as opposed to Student Affairs, and that list got truncated into nothingness. It took them 3 months to tell me this? I don't understand, but this is how ASU works. So, since payroll has already been taken care of for the August 15th disbursement (ASU only does payroll once a month), and because it's the end of their fiscal year they are unable to cut special checks, I get to wait yet another month for those funds to become available. Not that it's a big deal or anything, it's really the principle of the matter - my dad went through a similar problem when he was contracted as an architect for Angelo State - the whole ordeal actually put my family in an ugly financial situation for a few years. I remember being so mad at ASU that I swore to become a lawyer and come back and sue them. Ironic that I'm attending their institution.
Anywho, I just need to tap my ruby red slippers and remind myself there's no place like school, and with enough drugs, maybe it's so. But, for the meanwhile, as I have no money to buy the aforementioned products, I will post in LJ.
It's crazy - maybe everyone deals with this sort of week all of the time. But I will admit that I somehow feel unecessarily burdened - maybe because I compulsively try to make sure everything's taken care of and see the loopholes as they occur? Or maybe I dig myself into these holes. Who knows. But, seriously, I keep asking myself when I'll have a smooth week without problems, and someday, that may indeed happen! I'm not really in a bad mood any more today, I'm just poor and so frustrated that I'm kind of laughing about it to keep from doing anything else. Off to play in the rain. And I wanna watch Running with Scissors!
~Adam A
I was finally ahead of schedule! I had everything taken care of, BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED. Even after going through a fairly big problem (which took weeks to solve), it seemed I was done. I could only smirk and laugh at those who had not begun the financial aid process yet. And, it seemed, that financial aid funds were to be dispersed to me today. Just to compulsively be sure, I went by Financial Aid yesterday, they spent several minutes checking on my stuff, and assured me everything was good to go. Luckily for me I was getting this money this week, because as you've read, I kind of need some extra money to get caught back up.
And then today began, and thus far, no money available. My account balance is $4.53, from last semester (and after my spend fest in NY). Never mind the fact that they still haven't paid me for graduation ceremony services in May, and that I've called every affiliated department (Dept. of Art and Music, Student Accounts, Payroll, Vice President's Office [handles the paperwork for grad.], and Student Affairs, so bare minimum 5 calls, though it's more like 20] every month to figure out where that money is. I discovered on the 13th that apparantely, since I'm technically an employee of Angelo State (re: gigs for Pippin and OMT), I'm on a "different" list that's handled by Payroll as opposed to Student Affairs, and that list got truncated into nothingness. It took them 3 months to tell me this? I don't understand, but this is how ASU works. So, since payroll has already been taken care of for the August 15th disbursement (ASU only does payroll once a month), and because it's the end of their fiscal year they are unable to cut special checks, I get to wait yet another month for those funds to become available. Not that it's a big deal or anything, it's really the principle of the matter - my dad went through a similar problem when he was contracted as an architect for Angelo State - the whole ordeal actually put my family in an ugly financial situation for a few years. I remember being so mad at ASU that I swore to become a lawyer and come back and sue them. Ironic that I'm attending their institution.
Anywho, I just need to tap my ruby red slippers and remind myself there's no place like school, and with enough drugs, maybe it's so. But, for the meanwhile, as I have no money to buy the aforementioned products, I will post in LJ.
It's crazy - maybe everyone deals with this sort of week all of the time. But I will admit that I somehow feel unecessarily burdened - maybe because I compulsively try to make sure everything's taken care of and see the loopholes as they occur? Or maybe I dig myself into these holes. Who knows. But, seriously, I keep asking myself when I'll have a smooth week without problems, and someday, that may indeed happen! I'm not really in a bad mood any more today, I'm just poor and so frustrated that I'm kind of laughing about it to keep from doing anything else. Off to play in the rain. And I wanna watch Running with Scissors!
~Adam A