Financial aid lacks reliability

Julia Van Cleve — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:57:06 +0000

It’s almost time to register for next semester and I have a hold on my account. Apparently I owe roughly $4,000 plus a $175 late fee. I do have Stafford Loans, which I thought I took care of last semester, but for some reason they are still “pending.” The Bursar will usually tell you to just deduct a pending loan from the total amount that you owe. Of course, after a while if the loan is still “pending,” they get all mean and start yelling at you.

About a week ago I got an e-mail saying, “Please be aware that you have a Bursar hold on your account. This hold will prevent you from accessing many things on [the Student Information System] but, most importantly, will prevent you from being able to register for Fall 2009.” That’s very nice of them, punishing me for their own incompetence.

I e-mailed and called Key Bank’s Education Resources (twice) and even paid a visit to RPI’s Financial Aid Office, after sending them a sweet but angry e-mail about the hold. Financial Aid told me that things were currently being taken care of and that it should all be settled by the end of the week. It’s now the end of the week and the hold is still there.

So, now I’m just waiting for RPI to send the loan certification to Key Bank (something they should have done a long time ago) to basically let Key Bank know that I wasn’t lying when I said I was a student. Once this is all fixed, I then plan to nicely ask the Bursar to give back the $175 they charged me.

I can’t wait till next semester, when I get to do this all again.

Search for suitable financial management software

Search for suitable financial management software

Julia Van Cleve — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 06:10:22 +0000

Screenshot

I work as a student caller, making pretty much minimum wage, listening to voicemails all day long hoping that someone will just pick up the phone and talk to me; frankly it’s quite tiring to listen to a dial tone for three hours. This minimum wage job has managed to grant me approximately $195 a month. This seems low yes, but I only work two shifts a week, three hours per shift. If I can somehow manage to double the amount of income I recieve budgeting my money might be slightly easier.

I’ve used Microsoft Excel in the past and have had success keeping track of how tuition money, schedules and other things I feel Excel can help out with. Though, this time someone suggested to me to try out Microsoft Money.

I’ve only been using it for a few hours so I can’t really give a thorough review of it just yet. However, so far I’m finding it very useful. You can set up budgets, print reports or pie charts of your expenditures, you can even sync it with your online banking, though it only works with select banks and programs (my bank is not one of the included banks).

I should be writing more on this once I have used it a bit more. Till then, I should probably do something about my severe lack of funds.