Tuition chaos aftermath

It’s been a long day, but I’ll cut to the chase and say that I’ve figured out all the tuition stuff! That’s good news because this morning I got a email and phone call from the school letting me know that surprise! tution was due today. After I got that call, there was a ton of phone calls and emails, but somehow I got it done just under the wire.

Yesterday I realized the term was starting next week and I had no clue how to pay for my classes. Things sneak up on you and truthfully I had never had to worry about it because the only good thing about being in grad school is that you get paid to do your PhD. Alas, I’m not technically a student anymore, so I get paid at the hospital and have to pay my own way, well that is the hospital pays my tuition now.

After figuring out how to submit my request for payment (instead of paying it myself and asking for reimbursement, which how?!) I was warned that it could take up to two weeks to get approval and this was before the news today that I was at the either pay or get dropped part of the term, so yeah a little bit of panicking.

Turns out the person in charge of us had to approve it, since they are incredibly responsive I emailed and let them know they should have the email and they approved the request. I had assumed there would be more people it needed to go through or other “checks” before I could get the letter saying that they would take care of the bill. But minutes after I got word that they approved it I got the letter I needed for school.

That was one hurdle down, but the second was how the hell to use the letter properly. So yet more emails to the graduate advisors, student billing, and just about everyone I could think of. I even had to call, but it turns out that there were so many calls I couldn’t even be placed on hold for someone I had to call back later. I guess notices that payment is due will cause that.

Every email I sent I attached the letter hoping that someone would be the correct person to take care of it and I would get it sorted out eventually. With the huge influx of people probably trying to figure out financials and what not, I assumed it was definitely not going to be taken care of by end of business day today, so it was time to look into a deferral. I didn’t want to have to do it, because they charge you money, then interest, but whatever.

The story goes like this, I’m about to accept the terms of the deferral and hate myself for having to pay out of pocket since money is tight (see: non-existent) at the moment, but what else can you do? Right as I click the checkbox that I accept the terms, I get an error. I had waited too long to accept the terms, or so I assumed. So I refreshed it, logged back in and found that I no longer had a balance.

Yep, the stars must have aligned for me, because someone who had the ability to apply the letter to my account must have done so. The only problem now is that I have no idea who the correct person was! That’s something I have time to figure out now, but that’s the news for the day. And yet another friendly reminder to make sure you take care of your tuition stuff well before the term starts!