I think I mentioned, a post or two ago, that I was requesting money from the school this semester (they're the middle man for Federal stuff) in order to be able to attend. I did this just this week, since I expected they would be out of the office for the Christmas and New Year's weeks, which they were.
Called them on Monday, got the answering machine and left a message telling them what I wanted to talk about and to call back on the home extension, then decided to send them an email explicitly detailing what I needed done and sent myself a copy. I get an email a day later saying my request was put through and all I needed to do was go on their student website and accept the offer, which I did the next day (due to access issues; the site is down after midnight so I had little option). It was then that I found out that instead of the four thousand dollars I had requested, I was being offered two thousand.
I was a bit aggravated because that four thousand number, as I indicated previously, was supposed to include money not only for tuition and books, but also food for the entire semester. I called them immediately, and the phone rang thirteen times (three sets plus one; I sense most patterns in four due to music so I tend not to need to actually count) and no answer or answering machine, so I hung up and stewed for a moment. I tried again to no avail, then decided that since the amount owed was a little less than fifteen hundred I would have enough to cover tuition and books with two thousand, and could use what was left, plus my Christmas money, to survive until I found a job and then pay myself back later.
Then yesterday my mother gets an email (and subsequently so did I, since I can't access as often as she can =P) saying the balance on my school account was still not paid in full and my schedule had been purged.
I felt very odd at this news, a sensation which I can only describe as being a combination of extreme exhaustion as if I had just come down off of the longest adrenaline rush ever and an internal temperature spike as if I were suddenly emitting heat comparable to a ninety watt incandescent light bulb.
So I went online to figure this stuff out. And what the system had done, apparently, was given me the two thousand additional dollars in the loan I requested, but because of bookkeeping methods and procedures I received one thousand for the upcoming semester and one thousand for Fall 2009. Therefore I still owed about four hundred and seventy dollars for Spring 2010. Essentially, I am being given one quarter of what I requested for the semester after being told I was to be given half. And if I cannot reconcile this before Wednesday, when the registration system reopens for students just now registering or students who had their schedules purged, then I will most likely be returning home to search for someplace to work—and hopefully to find one, since the two are not currently a tandem pair.
I am singularly displeased.
