I am not looking forward to this; it will more than likely involve at least one trip over to the actual financial aid office so that I can sort this stuff out myself, but I have devised a three-step battle plan of which I have to enact. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, really, but I'm left with no recourse -- bills and rent are coming due, and I don't have the time to wait anymore with no answers and no new information to go on. So, here's the plan:
1.) Send an email not to the one lady who worked on my account before, but directly to the financial aid office tonight before I go to bed, explaining the situation and adding that I've not heard back from said lady or anyone else there about it since I sent my first email on Tuesday. Basically tell them everything that needs to be done and ask if I need to come in, if they need to call me, etc, but to let everyone there know that hey, something's up, and it's something that definitely needs to be fixed. Tell them my teaching schedule and that I'll be on campus both tomorrow and on Friday and to please get back to me ASAP.
2.) Go to bed, go to school, and check my email in the morning before I teach at 9:30 to see if I've gotten a reply. If I have no reply then, return to my office at 12:30 when I'm done teaching for the day to see if they've replied by then. If they haven't, go home for the night and wait some more.
3.) Reply or not, on Friday morning (if necessary, of course) mentally dress myself for proverbial battle and go to the actual Financial Aid office before the 10AM departmental meeting I am required to attend, and talk to someone there in person, because clearly if I'm forced to go over there nothing else is goddamned working to get this fixed. It should not have to come to this, but it is the first week of classes, and I would imagine they've been busy. Still, whatever's going on should not be terribly difficult to fix.
There's not a lot else I can do. As I mentioned above, my bills and rent are coming due for this month. My rent alone will more than cut my bank account in half, and depending on what dates my bills are due for electric, water, and credit cards, those things may take the rest of it -- not to mention that I obviously still have to eat and put gas in the car for next week until I get paid for the first time this semester.
So, with that in mind, I began to write the email. Half an hour later, I had this (with some pertinent information obviously redacted):
Hi there. Hopefully you can help me. My name is Brandon [last name and student ID number redacted], and I'm a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Department of English. I contacted you folks before Christmas to make sure everything was clear on my account for the spring semester (as I graduate in May), and I was referred to [redacted], who reviewed my information, called me, and told me everything was good in my student account, credit hours, and that I was fine for the spring. However, something new has popped up that more than likely requires attention.
I took out an unsubsidized Stafford loan (the only type now available to graduate students) for the full amount for both fall 2012/spring 2013. As you know, that loan is split into two parts; one chunk for the fall, and the second for the spring. The first half for the fall came through on schedule back in August with no problems or issues. However, the second half has not yet come in -- or, if it has, it has not yet posted to my student account, nor have I received the expected refund of it (after student fees and the like are applied) direct-deposited into my bank account as per the usual. As [redacted] last handled my student account back in December, I sent an email to her about this as well on Tuesday, but have not yet received a reply, so I figured I'd send this one off to the main office to see if you folks can figure out what has gone wrong and hopefully remedy the situation.
According to everything I can access on my own student account, I have no holds, all of my proverbial paperwork has been completed, my MPN was updated as of this past July, and I am a student in good standing with the university...so this strange delay in the other half of this loan coming through has me puzzled, to say the least. Therefore, anything you folks can do to help figure this out with me would be immensely appreciated.
Tomorrow (Thursday) morning I teach at 9:30 and 11, but if you get back to me via email before 12:15PM, I can stay on campus if you need me to come over to the Financial Aid office and discuss this in person, as I know you cannot discuss details of my account via email. You may also call me at [redacted] and I'll answer (provided I'm not teaching at the time, of course) if necessary. I will also be on campus on Friday morning before 10AM, as I have departmental meetings I must attend after that time.
Thank you in advance for your help; I realize all of you must be quite busy this week with it being the first week of classes and all, so your help is even more appreciated.
When it comes to professionalism, I know there's a time and a place for it, and this email is definitely one of those times and places. That was about as brief of a description I could've given them while still giving them all of the pertinent, important information they need. Now the next move is up to them, really. I almost feel as if I am positioning chess pieces with some sort of swelling, dramatic music playing in the background.
I can't be much more proactive than this, really. At least not right now, and not without barging into the Financial Aid office and asking them a bunch of exasperated questions. That's not going to help anyone or anything, obviously. But, as I told Daisy, I don't have much of a choice in the matter of being proactive -- the madness must stop. So, this is step one of the master plan to make it stop. I sent the email half an hour ago, and now I just have to wait to see what happens. Hopefully, it's something that can be fixed, as I said, with a simple click or two, and I'll receive an email or call tomorrow that will say that the issue has been resolved. But, well, if it's not -- and I don't really see why it wouldn't be, but okay -- then as of right now, I've done everything I can. Hopefully, knowing that will allow me to rest a little bit easier tonight, as I'm getting up at 5AM for what I'm sure will be another delightful day of teaching.
Daisy went home this afternoon and arrived safely back in Omaha in almost record time; I spent the afternoon trying to relax and obsessively checked my school email over and over waiting on something, anything to come through about the money before I gave up around the end of the day. I then took a shower and made something to eat before coming back here to the computer.
Tomorrow on the way home I must also stop for a few minor grocery items, as much as it pains me to spend more money right now; this afternoon before Daisy left, I put gas in her car and we went to the discount grocery store here in town so I could show her the place. I spent a whopping eight dollars there, all cash, and she found some snacks for the drive home as well as a massive box of grapefruit. Sadly, today they were very well-stocked with new stuff, which isn't always the case, and of course I don't have any money to use there, really. Once all of this financial aid mess gets cleared up, I do intend to go back.
On that note, however, now I must go to bed, as I do have a long and potentially stressful day ahead of me tomorrow, and an even longer one on Friday.
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