The light at the end of the tunnel...
...and maybe it's *not* a train?
This whole ridiculous financial aid saga may be coming to an end (at least until the next school year starts). I had gotten to the point where the only thing I needed to turn in was my income transcript from the IRS, as proof of low income. Folks may remember me bitching that last fall this took something like six or seven weeks (and then the FA office lost it, argh!). So I had been waiting a month already for it this semester, and when I'd called to check on it I was told that because it was tax season, they were swamped, so they couldn't estimate when I might get it.
So this past Monday evening I go to class, and my professor pulls me aside and tells me I have been purged from his class.
W.T.F.
So when I got home, I checked online and found that I'd been purged from ALL my classes, and I had no access to them through Blackboard (fucking up my ability to turn in papers and preventing me from doing ANYTHING with my online class). I had e-mails from almost all my professors asking what the hell was going on and if there was a financial aid issue, because that was usually the cause when this happened (and isn't it scary that this happens often enough that they can say "usually"?).
So I went in the next day and talked to FA and Student Accounts. The problem was that until I got the last form turned in, none of my pending financial aid showed up on my account. And I hadn't made any payments. So student accounts had to shut me down. I offered to make a $1K payment, but I would have had to make more like a $6K payment for them to reinstate me, which was just impossible. O_O The person I spoke to kind of conspiratorially told me to keep going to all my classes so that if/when I did get reinstated I would not be behind. I get the feeling they get kind of frustrated with this shit themselves.
So anyway, A gave me the great idea of running over to the federal building, which is a short walk from my campus, and visiting the local IRS office to see if that would make a difference. So you know that form I'd been waiting a month for? They printed it out for me in ten minutes. For fuck's sake.
So runrunrun back over to the FA office to photocopy it and turn it in, with two minutes to spare before I had to be in my Shakespeare class. They told me everything was fine, and to keep checking the student FA/accounts portal online and when the loans and grants showed up in 5-7 business days, to be sure and accept them and whatnot. I've been in there every day this week making sure there was nothing else I needed to do and generally being a charming bastard - all those ladies know me by name now and get big smiles when I come in. Totally manipulative, I know, but what the hell, it actually kind of worked, because that 5-7 days estimate? It was ready in two days. ;)
So last night I got home from class and logged on, and there were my federal and state grants and two federal loans. Hallelujah! I accepted them and did my master promissory note thingy online for the loans. I *think* everything's done from my end (will be double-checking today) and if the numbers don't change, I have my full year's worth of financial aid - nearly twenty thousand dollars - being applied to this semester. That will give me a nearly $9K refund, which I can use to pay off the loan from my parents and the remainder that we put on a credit card to pay off that $7K balance from *last* semester. With some left over, even.
So this morning I will be going in to campus and meeting with student accounts again. Now I can say "Look, pending massive amounts of cash!" and get my classes reinstated, which I was told should take only about five minutes.
Whew. I love my school, as far as my classes and professors and such, but keeping on top of the administration side of it is almost like having a full-time job. I am going to do all of my prep stuff for Fall 2010 this weekend and then have months and months to drop in on the FA ladies and smile prettily and make sure everything is as it should be.
Anyway, wish me luck - all this drama might be over as of today.
This whole ridiculous financial aid saga may be coming to an end (at least until the next school year starts). I had gotten to the point where the only thing I needed to turn in was my income transcript from the IRS, as proof of low income. Folks may remember me bitching that last fall this took something like six or seven weeks (and then the FA office lost it, argh!). So I had been waiting a month already for it this semester, and when I'd called to check on it I was told that because it was tax season, they were swamped, so they couldn't estimate when I might get it.
So this past Monday evening I go to class, and my professor pulls me aside and tells me I have been purged from his class.
W.T.F.
So when I got home, I checked online and found that I'd been purged from ALL my classes, and I had no access to them through Blackboard (fucking up my ability to turn in papers and preventing me from doing ANYTHING with my online class). I had e-mails from almost all my professors asking what the hell was going on and if there was a financial aid issue, because that was usually the cause when this happened (and isn't it scary that this happens often enough that they can say "usually"?).
So I went in the next day and talked to FA and Student Accounts. The problem was that until I got the last form turned in, none of my pending financial aid showed up on my account. And I hadn't made any payments. So student accounts had to shut me down. I offered to make a $1K payment, but I would have had to make more like a $6K payment for them to reinstate me, which was just impossible. O_O The person I spoke to kind of conspiratorially told me to keep going to all my classes so that if/when I did get reinstated I would not be behind. I get the feeling they get kind of frustrated with this shit themselves.
So anyway, A gave me the great idea of running over to the federal building, which is a short walk from my campus, and visiting the local IRS office to see if that would make a difference. So you know that form I'd been waiting a month for? They printed it out for me in ten minutes. For fuck's sake.
So runrunrun back over to the FA office to photocopy it and turn it in, with two minutes to spare before I had to be in my Shakespeare class. They told me everything was fine, and to keep checking the student FA/accounts portal online and when the loans and grants showed up in 5-7 business days, to be sure and accept them and whatnot. I've been in there every day this week making sure there was nothing else I needed to do and generally being a charming bastard - all those ladies know me by name now and get big smiles when I come in. Totally manipulative, I know, but what the hell, it actually kind of worked, because that 5-7 days estimate? It was ready in two days. ;)
So last night I got home from class and logged on, and there were my federal and state grants and two federal loans. Hallelujah! I accepted them and did my master promissory note thingy online for the loans. I *think* everything's done from my end (will be double-checking today) and if the numbers don't change, I have my full year's worth of financial aid - nearly twenty thousand dollars - being applied to this semester. That will give me a nearly $9K refund, which I can use to pay off the loan from my parents and the remainder that we put on a credit card to pay off that $7K balance from *last* semester. With some left over, even.
So this morning I will be going in to campus and meeting with student accounts again. Now I can say "Look, pending massive amounts of cash!" and get my classes reinstated, which I was told should take only about five minutes.
Whew. I love my school, as far as my classes and professors and such, but keeping on top of the administration side of it is almost like having a full-time job. I am going to do all of my prep stuff for Fall 2010 this weekend and then have months and months to drop in on the FA ladies and smile prettily and make sure everything is as it should be.
Anyway, wish me luck - all this drama might be over as of today.