And now for another Saga--Tales from Financial Aid (cue spooky music).
Whenever I think everything is arranged with this office, I'm usually wrong. Why? Because Financial Aid has the communication skills of an antisocial squirrel. Cue this week. Summer 1 is coming up, and because of all of the Stuff I'm doing this summer, I took out lots of money.....enough to pay for everything I have to do this Summer without worry. And then I looked at my account summary online. I have less than half of the money alloted for me. So calmly, I send an email to the financial aid office, thinking that like most things having to do with financial aid, it was just going to take a while to get through the tape. 48 hours later, two days before cancellation for non-payment I get a cheery little email from someone in their office that reads:
"We did have to make adjustments to your awards since you are only attending one summer term and you received some scholarships, we had to reduce your award. You should be able to view these awards online at www.financial aid sucks.com in a few days."
So.....the only reason that I have any inkling that I might be vastly underfunded this summer is because I sent you an email asking about it? When the f*** was someone going to tell me so that I could fix it before it became a crisis??? So, trying to rein in my fit of panic, because these people are better dealt with when you act like you've taken a few too many happy pills, I call the financial aid office/send them an email. 26 minutes later, I hang up my phone, never having actually talked to a human being, but hearing the same light jazz remix about 20 times. The email STILL hasn't been answered as of the time of this writing, so I walk to financial aid and ask my questions to a kid who looks old enough to be a Freshman......maybe. She tells me that if I register for Summer 2, my award would go back up, but it would be a HUGE hassle for them to fix the award issues. At about this point I wanted to yell: Do I really and truly look like I care how much of a hassle it is for you? Do you know how much of a hassle it'll be for me to have to cancel conference appearances, and workshops, and to bike to Mississippi because gas prices are insane?!?!?!? And again, the question comes to mind: Why didn't they tell me before it became a crisis? So fast forward to me sitting in the library, having sent about 3 different emails to different people about it, trying to figure out exactly what the rules are of this freaking game. Why? Because I don't mind playing the game.....that's half of what graduate degrees are about. Someone just has to tell me the f***ing rules so that know what to do. And now my favorite part.....I get to wait for responses......goody.
