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| No, not talking about sports. I really couldn't care less about USC Sports. I'm talking about Financial Aid, and all other departments that have "Finance" in their name.
It was high time that I receive my diploma, but I still hadn't, so, I called the school to find out what was going on. Now, I had called a month earlier and over the course of an hour or so, touched base with everyone that needed to know that I had actually graduated, so that I was sure that, at the very least, I had everything I needed in order for it to be sent to me.
Well, first I called student affairs and asked "how can I find out if my diploma has been mailed?" They didn't know, transfered me to the Production office, who transfered me to Degree Progress. Degree Progress said there was a hold on my diploma because I hadn't completed Exit Counseling. "But I got you there" I said triumphantly, "because I called them like 3 weeks ago and they assured me that they had gotten notification of my completing exit counseling!" She tells me "well, that may be true, but you need them to take the hold off."
Ok, so I call Financial Aid, they transfer me to Student Financial Services (why is this a different department?) Who then tells me, "yeah you completed exit counseling for your Ed Dept funds, but not for your Perkins Loan. That's through a different system. You graduated in 08 right?"
Um, Perkins Loan? OK, my bad a little bit on this part. I'd had a vague feeling for a while that I had a Perkins loan, but I was too lazy to go back through my paperwork and figure it out. However, I had called Sallie Mae, specifically for this reason, and asked them "are all my loans here, or is there any possibility that I could have a loan serviced by someone else?" And they said "No, ALL your loans are here, you don't need to talk to anyone else." But I won't get started on Sallie Mae in this entry. Needless to say, Sallie Mae had put me at ease, and I didn't remember that a Perkins loan is serviced by your school.
And by the way, back in June I found out that Financial Aid thought I'd graduated in May 08 and I had them correct that little typo. But apparently "Financial Aid" and "Student Financial Services" are soooo far apart on campus that they can't talk to each other.
Furthermore, BECAUSE they think that I graduated in 08, I finally do my Perkins Exiting Counseling, and I have all these finance charges. I'm hoping they will automatically get taken off once all info is updated, but I predict at least two more angry phone calls before that happens.
I NEVER got an email, mail or any kind of communication about my Perkins loan. And if they thought I'd graduated in 08, um, don't you think they'd want to know what I was doing? Apparently I was suppose to start paying them in March, which obviously didn't happen.
So, yet again, USC (and Sallie Mae) have conspired to 1) probably make me pay more money to both of them than I should and 2) kill off any niceness that is left in me towards USC (I don't have any left for Sallie Mae for different, yet similar reasons).
I hate being a grown-up.
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| Ok, I'm not saying that Ade and Melissa's Breast Cancer routine wasn't great, it was. But, I think the reason it was so emotional for everyone is because, like Mia said, everyone was thinking about someone they knew with Breast Cancer, or Cancer in general, and it made it that much more emotional. And I feel like, had they not told us it was about cancer, it wouldn't have gotten such a huge response.
I'm not really complaining, but I feel like it's kind of not fair to the other contestants on the show. What do you think?
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| So I couple of weeks ago I find out that Sallie Mae is capitlizing interest on my loans even though I am still technically a full time student. I call USC and find out that Financial Aid doesn't know that I'm still a student, in fact their records show that I graduated May 2008! Hence they never passed the information on to Sallie Mae.
Today I realize that I was charged a student health center fee for the summer (this charge occured before the sallie mae problem above, I only caught it just now). I call, they say that because I am a student it's a mandatory cost. However, it's only a mandatory cost for students who are enrolled for credits and I am technically enrolled for 0 credits (it's a thesis thing, work with me), hence I should not be charged.
So one part of USC has me as a student while at the SAME TIME the other part of USC has me as graduated.
You guys can't talk to each other? What is this?
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| Yesterday Anthony and I and our friend Sarah went hiking in Malibu Creek State Park. From everything I'd read, it was suppose to be a really easy hike, and it would have been, except it was FREAKING HOT!! But it was ok because we were hiking to a lake! Except we missed the turn that takes us to the lake (it was NOT properly visible) and finally this guy guided us to the lake, but it was the wrong side of the lake (you can't really get in from that side) so then we had to go back and FINALLY we got to where we could get into the lake, and then someone pointed out "Lake water = infections you know where" and I was like oh crap, you're right. So no one got in the lake. The hike back was rather hot again as well. But we finally made it to the car.
Anthony then was determined to run into the ocean because it was so hot and whatnot, so then we drove down the PCH looking for a parking spot (because it was packed of course). And we finally found one. I still refused to get in the water because of my fear of "infections you know where" but Sarah and Anthony did and they seemed to have a good time. And then we went home.
I had to do a little writing, and then we watched Star Trek 6 (I have now seen all the Star Trek movies except for the first one, and LOVE them) and we had dinner, wonderful leftover leek, mushroom, and lemon risotto which Anthony made.
It was awesome. Yay for 4 day week!
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| So, I am watching the documentary "Who killed the Electric Car?" For those of you who have never heard of this film, it essentially tells the story of how mass-marketable electric cars were built and marketed by GM....and then killed off purposely by a combination of Automakers, Oil, and lax government. I've been putting off watching this movie for a while because I knew it would enrage me. And it has. Which is why I'm writing this blog entry.
But rather than go into a rant about everything that is wrong with the Government/Big Business reltaionships in this country I will just say that the only thing that makes me feel a little better is the fact that the car companies are now in bankruptcy. While I feel horrible for the job loss, I REALLY hope all the executives at the top are going "I think we were really really stupid by killing the electric car. I hate myself."
Obama, will you please bring back the electric car? I really hope that it's on the agenda for all the restructuring plans. I would buy one in a second. Anything to decrease my gas costs which are way too much. Yes hybrids are great too, but I think your problems in the Middle East and Afghanistan/Pakistan would be greatly decreased if you could make half the car-owning population of the US own an electric car.
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