Monday, September 29, 2008

Financial Aid

Jeremy went to school today for orientation. He stopped by to finish up all of his financial aid stuff. They told him that he hadn't registered for Selective Services, so he wasn't eligible for any financial aid.

I would like to say something right now. I married the most straight as an arrow man ever to walk the face of this earth. He has always complied with every aspect of US law that he is aware of. He knew about Selective Services (how could he not?) and he registered for Selective Services.

But now he's 31. He is no longer in the Selective Services, so he doesn't have his card anymore. So he gets home at 11:35, after he had been working through the night and then gone up to the school for orientation and dealt with Financial Aid. He calls the number the FA lady gave him, and the automated menu looks him up, but doesn't recognize him. The poor man is dead tired. Now he's trying to remember...did he really sign up for Selective Services? He MUST have, he knew it was the law, and he loves his country. There's no reason why he wouldn't. So he calls back. Goes through all the menus again. Finally, he gets an option to speak to someone. The estimated wait time is 38 minutes! All he wants to do is go to bed, but he has to get this cleared up today or pay for his classes all by himself. So I stayed on hold while Jeremy had something to eat. I finally talked to a lady, and she looked him up. It turns out, one of the digits for his Social Security number was off by a digit in their records. Oops. So she's going to send us verification of his enrollment, but FA wants proof today. I hope they can get it all cleared up. Poor Jeremy keeps running into new obstacles.

I told him we may end up having to wait until next quarter. But he doesn't want to hear that of course. I think he wants to get doing it before he has the chance to think about it hard enough to chicken out. I understand, but now I don't know what to do to encourage him. Why do these things seem to happen to us more often than others? Does it seem to you like we have an inordinately large amount of bureaucratic hang-ups? And now for the most important question: "Why me?" ;)

10 comments:

Dana Cheryl said...

I was turned down once myself because I was not registered with selective service. Ummmm... I'm a girl. Luckily I'm obviously a girl & they qualified me once they saw me. lol.

Then there was the time they lost my transcript, then they lost my ACT scores, then they lost my payment, then the double charged me, then they denied me saying that I was on academic probation on the very same day that I got a letter stating that I was on the President's List (which fyi is better than the Dean's List)...

The really trick with getting a degree is putting up with the freakin' red tape. Enjoy!

Mary said...

LOL! I feel so much better now! I'll have to make Jeremy come up here and read this! Congratulations on actually getting that degree!

timpani76 said...

Financial aid is the hardest thing to get, but it IS worth it. Have you guys applied for scholarships too? There are millions of unclaimed scholarship dollars out there.

My brother once got a $800 scholarship because one of our ancestors is Czech. My sister just got a $2000 scholarship this semester that she did not think she would get.

Mary said...

You know, we haven't tried scholarships. Where would I go about looking for possible scholarships?

Eyepoke said...

oh, ug, yes. college red tape is the worst. have a good time with that.
liz

Mary said...

Hey, I guess many millions of others before me have made it through this. I will too. So will Jeremy. He's just so easily discouraged. We'll make him get through this!

timpani76 said...

When I was in college, they had forms in the main office on campus for hundreds of scholarships. But, that was 10 or more years ago so I wonder if you could fill out forms online instead?

Mary said...

I'll have to look into it! Maybe I'll go to the library (Yay! Coolest library ever!) and check out a Matthew Lesko (the "Free Money to ..." guy.) book. Maybe I'll just go over there and see if they have scholarship help. Brilliant! Thanks Timpani!

Chris Bern, DVM said...

Man, that's frustrating. He's had so many setbacks lately. Make sure he doesn't give up!

http://avetsguidetolife.blogspot.com/

Mary said...

Thanks Chris. Ooh! I was just on my way over there, thanks for the addy.