Last night I found out that I was dropped from all of my Fall 2012 classes, which started two days ago. I logged into the schools website and discovered that I had been dropped because I did not meet the deadline for payment. I was expecting the Financial Aid Department to allocate the funds from my federal grant. This is what they do every semester, and about a week ago when I spoke with them they assured me the funds were available and that I didn’t need to do anything else.
I checked with the Financial Aid Department (online) and found that my federal grant did not cover the courses I was registered for because they are not part of my degree program. I checked the course requirements for my degree program and cross referenced that with my up-to-date transcript. I have not already taken these course numbers, and they certainly are part of the program. So I dug around a bit and discovered the real problem; in the schools system it shows that I am committed to the Web Design program, not Programming and System Analysis as I thought. This seems very odd because last semester I took courses that are not a part of the Web Design program, and the Financial Aid Department did use my federal grant money to pay for those. It seems that my degree program changed between last semester and this semester without me being involved, which is not too comforting.
I’m not sure who should be holding the blame, but I have a gut feeling that the discrepancy originated somewhere behind a maze of cubical walls deep within in the notoriously efficient heart of the government funded college’s bureaucratic system. I tried to call them this morning to sort everything out, but its a government holiday so that went nowhere. Ideally, they will click a few buttons to switch me to the correct degree program, re-enroll me, and tell me to call Financial Aid who will see the change and happily allocate the funds. Realistically, I’m probably going to have to go down to the school, wait in line, fill out forms, wait a couple days for approval, then go back and wait in new lines to fill out new forms and wait for new stamps. Visions of the bureaucracy planet in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are flashing through my mind, sigh. Cross your fingers for me!
P.S. This semester I will (hopefully) be taking C# Programming and MySQL Database Administration, WOOT!
UPDATE: I just talked to the Registration and Financial Aid Departments. They re-enrolled me in the classes, I still have to go down to the school, see an academic counselor to get a signature, and take that form to the Financial Aid Department. Once Financial Aid has the form it will take 15 days for them to allocate the funds from my federal grant. Because it will take so long I will be dropped again. Once they process that form I can re-enroll in these classes (for the third time this semester). So, I’m off to wait in endless lines at the school. I wonder if they’ve installed those fly swatters that smack you in the face for thinking.
David Kirkland