It's kind of a long story, part 1: The tuition situation

What have I done since graduating, you ask? Or maybe you don't, but that's what this blog is - and somewhere out there is someone who cares to read this story. Maybe even someone who doesn't already know the story!

Alright. Oh yeah, that's not a word, is it?

So, at my school, graduate tuition is roughly $4,000 per semester, whether you take 12 hours or more than 12 hours. Okay. Class started last June, and somewhere between last May and....now, I had to take one English class in addition to my grad classes. Just the one. No big deal.

So, I didn't take the class last May because senior year had JUST ended and geez that was brutal. Knowing that class started in June, I didn't want to be in class from August of 2009 straight through to May of 2011. So I skipped on taking the class last May. June and July were intense, super focused on the coursework, so I didn't take the class then. Fall was daily class, student teaching, and working at the library. Spring was more of the same. So I took the class in May 2011. Now, returning to the bit about tuition...

So, I paid for Fall and Spring semester, and I figured that the may tuition would just... kinda... come along with the whole deal. I guess I should have known that May was counted separately, but when you think about it it doesn't make sense. Why should I have to pay more (over $1,000) to be exact, for a class that would have been COVERED if I had taken it a few months earlier? Doesn't make sense, does it?

So, after calling (and insulting) most of the people in the financial aid and business office, I worked my way to a solution. Make a petition, collect signature, attend the class, and have it added retroactively, as though I HAD taken it in Spring. Presto change-o, magico and stuff.

Except no.

The powers that be called the issue a "financial planning issue" and refused to sign. One person even said that it causes errors in their bookkeeping and so they don't want to change anything in the records (BOOKKEEPING ERRORS, REALLY??). Finally the petition gets back to me, denied, with smarmy little notes on it about how I should know you have to pay for college. Of course I know that. But not when it would be FREE a semester earlier. What IS that?!

Soooooo.... Next step is to add the class legit, pay the thousand dollars that I don't remotely have, and move forward in the job-finding adult world. Right. Because it's that easy, isn't it?

The teacher of the class is now on sabbatical so he wasn't around to sign forms. Guess what the solution is? A petition. You know, there's a lot that can be done for you when you cry in the Registrar's office.

Anywho, another returned petition, this one approved, but with equally smarmy notes all over it about how this will not be allowed again (to which I responded with lots of flavor, something along the lines of "I graduated, ______" in my writing all over the neat little carbon copy. For my records. You know how it is.

So there we go, a month after class is OVER, the class finally gets ADDED. Time to pay for it. Which would be - should be - easy. Except that my school doesn't take Visa. That's right, the card that's accepted everywhere, endorsed by Morgan Freeman, "Everywhere you want to be." Well, either Morgan Freeman is a liar, or I don't want to be at that school anymore. and at the risk of making Morgan Freeman a liar, I will go with the latter.

Eventually Captain Discover came to save the day, except that now I can't USE sir Discover, which is unfortunate with the expensive gas/joblessness/moderate homelessness situation I've found myself in.

Moral of the story, kids? Bureaucracies suck. Forever. Tune in later to see the next exciting installment of "It's kind of a long story."