Okay, so the educational bureaucracy officially sucks.
As I said in a previous post, two weeks prior to the beginning of classes, the USC-Upstate financial aid department had claimed that they'd never received my FAFSA information. So I contacted the Department of Education, who also claimed that they'd never received anything from me. Never mind that I HAD, in fact, submitted one way back in February....I said fuck it and filed a new one that day.
A few days later I got a letter from the school saying that I'm ineligible for financial aid this semester due to a "failure to show sufficient academic progress." And, technically, they do have a point. I should explain...
My first semester here at USC-Upstate, I had the brilliant idea to finish out a minor in biology. After all, I had so many biology credits transfer from my Erskine College experience that it'd be a shame not to do something with them, right? Well, there's a problem here. As the result of having credit for so many classes, the only ones still open to me are upper-level (400 and 500-level) courses. So I sign up for one called Parasitology....and promptly get lost. After all, I haven't set foot in a biology classroom in five years, so what the hell am I doing here? I try my damnedest to catch up, but when I'm reading entire pages of the book and not understanding a word of it, really, what do you expect? After a couple of horribly-failed tests, I finally go ahead and give up on the whole "biology minor" plan and drop the class.
And immediately find myself on academic probation. Which, since I receive no further reminders or reprimands from the school, I promptly forget about.
Flash forward to last semester. Most of y'all remember how I wound up sick for virtually the entire month of January with a nasty respiratory infection, which was probably exacerbated by work-and-school-related stress. Well, to make a long story short I missed a LOT of classes because of this extended illness. When I finally recuperated I went to my professors to explain why my attendance up to that point had been so spotty (an explanation that was fully documented by doctors' excuses, hospital bills, and prescription medications, by the way.) Three of my professors were understanding; the other two (my French and Logic professors) were dicks. They pointed out on their syllabi where missed tests could not be made up and told me that since I'd missed so much course work already, I'd be better off to go ahead and drop their courses.
Which I did. And, unbeknownst to me, had signed my own financial-aid death warrant in the process.
Well, there are private companies out there that also offer student loans, right? I'm sure you've seen the TV commercials for those...companies like Astrive Student Loans and Chase Education One that make these grandiose promises of money for "tuition and other educational expenses--computers, books, fees, living expenses..." and claim you can apply for "up to $40,000 in as little as 15 minutes...the check sent directly to you in as few as 5 business days"? Now, I know it's basically a scam to put you insanely in debt immediately following graduation, but at this point classes will be starting in a little over a week and a half and I'm getting desperate. So I apply...and promptly get denied. So I apply again, this time with a different company and for a lesser amount of money...and promptly get denied again. (Understandably so, since I've got lousy credit and am currently earning about $800 a month.) So I call my biological dad in Colorado and beg him to co-sign for me. He agrees, so I apply--again--with him as my co-signer. And get denied...again.
So, I'm really getting stressed out here. So this past Friday (the day my tuition bill is due and less than a week before the start of classes, by the way), I go to the school to plead my case. And the financial aid department informs me (why they hadn't brought this up before, I have no idea) that there is an appeals process to go through to get the department's ruling overturned. All I have to do is to submit a letter explaining the shortfall in credit-hours along with a "course of study" from my advisor.
Well, since I'm still on track to graduate by what has ALWAYS been my target graduation date (May '07) and have a legitimate explanation for the shortfall up to this point, I think I've got a pretty good case. I write and submit my letter of explanation in twenty minutes, but the course of study is a bit more challenging, since my former advisor (Dr. Choong Lee) retired at the end of last semester. I have to check the school's website to even find out who my advisor is supposed to be and then write him an e-mail to ask when I could meet with him.
As it turns out, my new advisor is Dr. Lee's replacement, a fascinating man named Dr. Timothy Dale. He agrees to meet with me on Monday. So I go back to school yesterday for what I think is going to be a brief introduction and form pick-up. Well, it's a little more complicated than that. As we start reviewing my transcript and course of study, we come to the realization that Dr. Lee has royally screwed this form up. We have courses listed in the wrong places, credits listed where no credit was earned, etc. So, instead of just picking up a form, we've now got to figure out exactly what credits I do have and what courses I still need to take. And then we have to completely re-do my class schedule to finish out my required classes in the allotted time. After all this, we finally figure out that I still need thirty-three credit-hours to graduate. No problem, except I'm technically not supposed to be able to take but fifteen credits per semester.
Thankfully, Katie Salvo (the administrative assistant to the department chair and a pretty cool person to boot) was able to fudge her way around this little snag and submit a course of study to the financial aid department stating that I will, in fact, be able to graduate by my target date. (Even though I'll still probably have to take a course or two in summer school, I can pay those out-of-pocket and the financial aid department can't really say anything about that.)
So, now my shedule is revised, my appeal is filed, and classes start on Thursday. And, by God, I'm going, bills be damned. So keep your fingers crossed...even without the financial distractions, this is still going to be the most difficult semester I've ever endured. Let's just hope and pray I'll be able to sort through all the nonsense and come out a winner.
Stay tuned...
Update (7:45 pm): The universe has a strange way of righting itself in unexpected ways. Right after I posted this, a couple of my old buddies from Erskine College called me out of the blue. Good ol' Matt Davidson and Billy Owens....they were two of the best friends a guy could have, but we'd somehow lost touch in the 7 years since I left Due West, SC. Yet by some miracle they'd found my phone number, and now I have both their phone numbers too. As it turns out, Matt lives in Greenville now and Billy is about to move to Columbia. In the middle of this shit storm, it's good to finally find some friendly faces again.
As I said in a previous post, two weeks prior to the beginning of classes, the USC-Upstate financial aid department had claimed that they'd never received my FAFSA information. So I contacted the Department of Education, who also claimed that they'd never received anything from me. Never mind that I HAD, in fact, submitted one way back in February....I said fuck it and filed a new one that day.
A few days later I got a letter from the school saying that I'm ineligible for financial aid this semester due to a "failure to show sufficient academic progress." And, technically, they do have a point. I should explain...
My first semester here at USC-Upstate, I had the brilliant idea to finish out a minor in biology. After all, I had so many biology credits transfer from my Erskine College experience that it'd be a shame not to do something with them, right? Well, there's a problem here. As the result of having credit for so many classes, the only ones still open to me are upper-level (400 and 500-level) courses. So I sign up for one called Parasitology....and promptly get lost. After all, I haven't set foot in a biology classroom in five years, so what the hell am I doing here? I try my damnedest to catch up, but when I'm reading entire pages of the book and not understanding a word of it, really, what do you expect? After a couple of horribly-failed tests, I finally go ahead and give up on the whole "biology minor" plan and drop the class.
And immediately find myself on academic probation. Which, since I receive no further reminders or reprimands from the school, I promptly forget about.
Flash forward to last semester. Most of y'all remember how I wound up sick for virtually the entire month of January with a nasty respiratory infection, which was probably exacerbated by work-and-school-related stress. Well, to make a long story short I missed a LOT of classes because of this extended illness. When I finally recuperated I went to my professors to explain why my attendance up to that point had been so spotty (an explanation that was fully documented by doctors' excuses, hospital bills, and prescription medications, by the way.) Three of my professors were understanding; the other two (my French and Logic professors) were dicks. They pointed out on their syllabi where missed tests could not be made up and told me that since I'd missed so much course work already, I'd be better off to go ahead and drop their courses.
Which I did. And, unbeknownst to me, had signed my own financial-aid death warrant in the process.
Well, there are private companies out there that also offer student loans, right? I'm sure you've seen the TV commercials for those...companies like Astrive Student Loans and Chase Education One that make these grandiose promises of money for "tuition and other educational expenses--computers, books, fees, living expenses..." and claim you can apply for "up to $40,000 in as little as 15 minutes...the check sent directly to you in as few as 5 business days"? Now, I know it's basically a scam to put you insanely in debt immediately following graduation, but at this point classes will be starting in a little over a week and a half and I'm getting desperate. So I apply...and promptly get denied. So I apply again, this time with a different company and for a lesser amount of money...and promptly get denied again. (Understandably so, since I've got lousy credit and am currently earning about $800 a month.) So I call my biological dad in Colorado and beg him to co-sign for me. He agrees, so I apply--again--with him as my co-signer. And get denied...again.
So, I'm really getting stressed out here. So this past Friday (the day my tuition bill is due and less than a week before the start of classes, by the way), I go to the school to plead my case. And the financial aid department informs me (why they hadn't brought this up before, I have no idea) that there is an appeals process to go through to get the department's ruling overturned. All I have to do is to submit a letter explaining the shortfall in credit-hours along with a "course of study" from my advisor.
Well, since I'm still on track to graduate by what has ALWAYS been my target graduation date (May '07) and have a legitimate explanation for the shortfall up to this point, I think I've got a pretty good case. I write and submit my letter of explanation in twenty minutes, but the course of study is a bit more challenging, since my former advisor (Dr. Choong Lee) retired at the end of last semester. I have to check the school's website to even find out who my advisor is supposed to be and then write him an e-mail to ask when I could meet with him.
As it turns out, my new advisor is Dr. Lee's replacement, a fascinating man named Dr. Timothy Dale. He agrees to meet with me on Monday. So I go back to school yesterday for what I think is going to be a brief introduction and form pick-up. Well, it's a little more complicated than that. As we start reviewing my transcript and course of study, we come to the realization that Dr. Lee has royally screwed this form up. We have courses listed in the wrong places, credits listed where no credit was earned, etc. So, instead of just picking up a form, we've now got to figure out exactly what credits I do have and what courses I still need to take. And then we have to completely re-do my class schedule to finish out my required classes in the allotted time. After all this, we finally figure out that I still need thirty-three credit-hours to graduate. No problem, except I'm technically not supposed to be able to take but fifteen credits per semester.
Thankfully, Katie Salvo (the administrative assistant to the department chair and a pretty cool person to boot) was able to fudge her way around this little snag and submit a course of study to the financial aid department stating that I will, in fact, be able to graduate by my target date. (Even though I'll still probably have to take a course or two in summer school, I can pay those out-of-pocket and the financial aid department can't really say anything about that.)
So, now my shedule is revised, my appeal is filed, and classes start on Thursday. And, by God, I'm going, bills be damned. So keep your fingers crossed...even without the financial distractions, this is still going to be the most difficult semester I've ever endured. Let's just hope and pray I'll be able to sort through all the nonsense and come out a winner.
Stay tuned...
Update (7:45 pm): The universe has a strange way of righting itself in unexpected ways. Right after I posted this, a couple of my old buddies from Erskine College called me out of the blue. Good ol' Matt Davidson and Billy Owens....they were two of the best friends a guy could have, but we'd somehow lost touch in the 7 years since I left Due West, SC. Yet by some miracle they'd found my phone number, and now I have both their phone numbers too. As it turns out, Matt lives in Greenville now and Billy is about to move to Columbia. In the middle of this shit storm, it's good to finally find some friendly faces again.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
At Furman, long ago, a friend and I got so pissed off at the financial aid office that we somehow managed to feed the computer (the ancient "punch card" variety) a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some mashed potatoes from the dining hall. It was down for three days.
Interesting about your new advisor. Tim Dale is the son of my sister's best friend!!
woah man thats a lotta shit.
hope it works out mate
keep us posted eh?
best of luck mate yer gunna need it