Tution chaos!
Well the term is about to start and I got a no-so-friendly reminder of that today when I started trying to figure out how to access my theoretical tuition benefits via the hospital. There was a lot I didn’t understand and now that I’ve dug into it there’s a bit of a concern, but hopefully it will work out… maybe? I don’t even know at the moment, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens because what else can I do?
Why is everything about money? It’s so annoying to need money all the time, especially when it comes to education. Education, of all the things that cost money, should be free for all. Alas that is not the world we live in, at least not here in the US. With classes starting I’ve been politely ignoring the fact that I needed to figure out how to pay for them. My understanding was that the hospital would pay for, up to, a certain amount. That was the plan anyway and I was good with that. I know the amount I have access to, I know the work commitment that comes with it, but what I didn’t know was how to get the money.
Turns out there’s a weeks long process. Guess who has class next week? This guy. I mean I guess I could get a deferment and work around it until it’s approved. The alternative would’ve been to pay for the classes out of pocket and ask for a refund after the courses end, but who has an extra ~$3k laying around?! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that I didn’t royally screw my first term using this new benefit by not submitting my bill in time. This is what happens when you don’t read the extra fine print.
I’m hopeful things will work out, but I’ve sent a ton of emails today trying to determine what I need to do and how to do it in order to make sure the school doesn’t drop me from the classes and that I can get them paid for by the hospital. They say a two week minimum, so I’m a little nervous I’ve just ruined my chances to use the benefit for this fall term. At least now I know going into the spring term that I need to take care of this ahead of time (this is all very new to me).
It’s another one of those hurry up and wait situations, but I signed up for the hospital job to make sure I had funds for school and maybe I should’ve done a better job of looking into it. To be clear, this is 120% my own damned fault, but it’s still a little stressful. Things the past few weeks have just been so hectic I lost track of when the term started.
So once again this is a friendly PSA, read the fine print, figure this stuff out in advance, and don’t be like me!
Lunatic Laboratories 
Are these classes in the abstract sense (your lab meetings and PhD support) or are you taking some lecture classes this year? If the funding isn’t on time and you don’t get the deferment, does that mean you … won’t be able to take them? What’s that going to do to you?
I hate everything about managing money and moving it around. I work hard enough to get the stuff already – why are people making me do more work just to keep and use it?
As a case in point, in addition to my main bank account I have one at a credit union, because my mom begged me to – she was afraid the economy would crash and the national bank would go insolvent and appropriate all my money. But I barely have enough wherewithal to manage one bank account, so I keep a small reserve at the credit union and ignore it. After I bought my house and moved in, I didn’t think to change my address with the union. So they kept sending bank statements to my old address – and charging a small fee for every one that got returned undeliverable. (Which is the stupidest thing, because if I’m not getting my own statements, who is that a problem for? Not the bank.) After six months I finally bothered to check on the account through online banking, and discovered I’d quietly lost about fifty dollars.
It better all work out okay for you. Maybe it’s “your fault,” just like me wasting money because I can’t keep track of everything, but it’s completely understandable nonetheless.
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August 15, 2022 at 10:14 pm
Sort of. They are “dissertation hours” so I need to register for a few each term. In this case I have 3 credit hours, but full time is 9 and I don’t need to be full-time. If I don’t get a deferment (which of course, costs money), then I would be dropped from my classes. Which would then cause a whole lot of other problems! I would basically have to petition the school and see what happens because technically all the funds they gave me for my degree would need to be paid back, which is more than I make in a year so that would be bad, really bad. So this would just make more work, probably cost more money too.
Ugh same! Managing money is so time consuming. I can’t believe you got charged $50 just because your address changed and you forgot to update it. It’s such a ripoff!
Thanks, I literally just got a call telling me the funds are due today, so double oops. Hopefully I can just get a deferment and pay the cost for the deferment out of pocket I guess. It’s a bit of a mess at the moment, I don’t understand how the hospital would think I have that kind of money laying around that I could just pay the tuition costs myself up front and get reimbursed later. So stressful!!!!!
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August 16, 2022 at 10:40 am