Sunday, May 21, 2006

So. Frustrated.

So, when you defer admission from Brown for a year, you have to contact them in February before you enroll to confirm whether or not you'll actually be coming (so they know how many new students they can accept for the following year.) You get a letter at the end of Jan, beginning of Feb, and it says to please reply letting them know for sure if you'll be there or not. I moved back in November, and I wrote to the people in charge of deferrals there with my new address. Nevertheless, they sent the letter to my OLD address and by the time it was forwarded to me, I didn't get the letter saying "please reply by X date" until a few days after the deadline.
No worries. I called them and explained and they said it wasn't a problem at all, just send them in a fax as soon as I could and it would be okay. So the very next day, I went to kinko's and did just that. Sent a fax, saying I was indeed coming the next year, and informing them again of my new address.

Then, in April, you are supposed to get the BIG envelope - you know, the one you wait for excitedly(/nervously) if you are only just applying, the one with all the forms you have to fill out and information for you and all. But I never got it, so mid-April I wrote to them again saying, maybe my address hasn't been updated in the system, I never got all that information I needed, and if I don't get it soon I'll miss the deadline again on some of those forms I have to return. I never got an answer, so I called. They sent me to talk to someone else, who told me the person I should email. So I emailed her. Five days later, I get a call from someone ELSE at the admissions office. I was out; she left two messages. I called back, and got no answer, just her secretary's voicemail (it's impossible to get real people at college, apparently, you just get people's secretaries.) I called about 4 more times this week, and every time got the secretary's voicemail. Friday I left a message on the secretary's voicemail, then wrote to say that I'd left a message on the secretary's voicemail.

This morning at 9 the woman emails me.

Dear Ms Marcel-Keyes,

I have tried to reach you to discuss your situation and left several messages on your home telephone number, but have not heard back from you so I wanted to at least begin the discussion by email.

Since you did not reconfirm by contacting us last February, we removed you from the list of enrolling students. We can still make a place for you in the Class of 2010, however, the financial aid situation will not be as optimistic, so it is important that you and I speak before you decide whether or not to enroll next fall.

Please contact me as soon as possible at xxx-xxx-xxxx to discuss this. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Woman I've been trying to reach all week]
Sometimes I think God just doesn't want me to go to school. I'm going to scream.

Anyway, I called her back as soon as I checked my mail (about an hour and a half after she'd sent it) but nobody answered, so I left another message on her secretary's voicemail (which is now full. I tried calling back 20 minutes later, but I can't even leave any more messages because the box is full.) and then emailed just about everyone I have spoken to so far in the admissions office letting them know that a) I did reconfirm in February, by phone, email, and fax exactly as they said I should and b) I've been trying to reach someone all week and all I ever get is secretaries' voicemails.

Gah. Why does nothing ever work out as planned?

Saturday, May 20, 2006

21!

... or, you know, I will be soon.

Tuesday it's my birthday. Not the greatest of times. I'm in Chicago without any friends, and last year on my birthday Matty killed himself, and this morning I woke up and my pet rat is really, really, sick, and I spent all my rent money taking him to the vet and he's still just going to die; and someone I love a whole lot is leaving the country for two years so I don't know when I'll see him next... and anyway now this year I have a feeling it will be teh suck. I'm not really feeling like celebrating. What's there to celebrate?

I'm homesick. I miss my Anjuls.

Monday, May 15, 2006

College? Life? What?

I've been thinking a lot about school in the fall. To be honest, I'm rather nervous. Financially, I'm still unsure how I will get through college. And I've been out of school so long I'm nervous about whether I'll be able to keep up with an Ivy-League workload.

Mostly, though, I'm just worried about how I'll finance this. I'm sure if I manage to get there, I'll find a way to make it work. I usually do.