Fianancial Aid Fiasco (again)

Well. Not like I actually expected them to do anything, but, when I went up there last Tuesday the 21st to see if my SAP Appeal had gone through or not (since I hadn't been notified either way) I got to talk to a really nice lady who seemed to be able to do a lot to help me in that office. Her name is Torri.

Torri checked the FA computers for me and told me I had indeed won my Appeal and could have my financial aid back, which is really good because the day that they tell you the status of your appeal (the 21st) is one day before the FINAL DEADLINE to pay for fall without fees (the 22nd). If your appeal doesn't go through you've got very little time to come up with the cash; it didn't apply to me (since my appeal passed) but distressed me none the less, especially when I was waiting for someone to get to my case and didn't know the results yet.

I had to go on the KSU Owl Express site and accept my financial aid in a drop down form. I did as soon as I left, with the promise this would help my paperwork be filed faster. Friday I should have gotten a refund on part of the tuition money, money I planned to save and use for the next two semester's books.

Friday came and went; no money.

I didn't expect anything to happen over the weekend but I still checked my account enough that I memorized the numerical passcode to the KSU Debit site.

Monday came and went. Got a funny form email telling me generically to check my KSU Debit account to see the a) total, b) transactions, c) fill out forms if necessary. Went to the site, nothing there, was redirected to the KSU Owl Express site.

Which informed me that I should probably pay out of pocket for fall since they've received no money from my loan.

Tuesday I went up to the office, waited in line, spoke to someone who wasn't Torri.

Apparently the aid money doesn't just go from the loan company to the school, it goes to some holding location which is probably a bank or something, and the school has to access the bank to get the money. And the get-the-money system is down right now. And I'm accruing late fines for not having paid yet. Apparently they have a manual system for getting the money from the bank (or whatever) and they're working really hard on getting all the money pulled in, but it takes time (and I should learn to respect that, her tone said).

The server thing I could understand, and I asked how long it had been down, and how much longer they expected it to be down.

Well, apparently it's down for SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE as of today. Like, they took it down this morning or something, and knew it was coming, which makes me wonder why they couldn't have gotten my tuition in say, THE LAST WEEK. Or YESTERDAY.

*sigh*

As for the late fees I huffed about them and the lady assured me that "If" I'd followed all the steps correctly, and done all my paperwork on time I should be able to have taken off.

I liked how she phrased it. "If" I'd done all my homework, filled out all my forms, ect.

It makes me wish there was a system of late fines for them not doing their work. Like
"If" they'd gotten my money from the bank last Tuesday there wouldn't be any fees.

When I continued to get upset, she pretty much told me that there's nothing more they can do today and to come back tomorrow and maybe they'll have my money then.

However, she assured me that if they can't get this settled by the Seventh of September (OMG) I can start applying for an emergency loan.

Believe me, if that happens, those people in the Financial Aid office are going to learn the full meaning of the word "Emergency".