Another Rant

The semester has ended. It ended last Tuesday (the 12th). The new semester starts January 16, I believe. This means that there's about a month between classes; time to relax, work, wait (and wait and wait and wait) for the professors to get their grades in to the registrar's who will then take forever to post them (anyone who's been to my school can attest to the agony of waiting forever, such as Red Hot Mamma).

There is a problem with this semester, though. Apparently, furthering the school's goal of driving me completely insane before I graduate, it sent me an e-mail telling me I had to pay off the balance of my tuition for next semester, or I would be dropped from my registered classes. As nice as it was for them to send me an e-mail reminder during winter break, they seemed to think that this catch-all would work wonders. I don't check my school e-mail every day; I usually only check it a couple times a week, and I checked my e-mail yesterday morning, at which time I had no new messages.

Fortunately, RHM got back from Beaumont yesterday, though, and checked her e-mail and commented on her blog that our Payment Systems professor put comments from his grading of our finals (which he turned in to the registrar, but aren't posted as of right now) out. So I went on my e-mail today to check it. I saw two new messages. It turns out that yesterday afternoon, the school sent out an e-mail to me telling me of my tuition amount due. I got it at 3:50 yesterday. The message told me that I had to make my payment (only $250) by today at 5:30 or I would be dropped from my classes and have to re-register in January, at which time I would have to pay a $40 per class late registration fee. This is because I am ineligible to elect the deferred payment option that I took each of the past five semesters (long story, but suffice it to say I'm ticked).

Anyway, since I went to school yesterday and was there at 2:30 buying a textbook for spring semester (International Environmental law - it's as big as the title is long; freaking huge text), I was understandably annoyed that the e-mail I got. I don't like driving and meandering about downtown with three kids. I especially don't like driving to school two days in a row during the winter break. But I also don't want to have to pay an extra $200 bucks to register for classes I've already registered for.

Here's the crazy logic - I take deferred payment because I'm poor. I'm a law student; law school ain't cheap, especially with having to plunk down a grand a month in daycare expenses. Yet, the school tells me that 1: I can't take deferred payment because I was late before (because I had no money, see above), 2: If I don't pay by today they will drop me from class, and 3: if I get dropped from class because I don't pay (due to the lack of money), I will have to pay them more money to take the classes I signed up to take that I otherwise would have been able to take had they let me do what I have done every other semester I've been in school, which, as you've seen above, I don't have.

Add to that the $250 we're spending to get the wife's car fixed, and Christmas just got a whole lot more Dollar General-ly.