ode to gmu

I want to make sure that the incredible ridiculousness of this all is recorded for future posterity. As part of the Teach For America early childhood cohort, I'm in the Early Childhood Education Curriculum and Instruction master's program at George Mason University. Teach For America is also part of AmeriCorps. As an AmeriCorps member, I am eligible for an education award that can be applied to my George Mason tuition. To get the education award, I contact AmeriCorps and request money to be sent to George Mason. They send the money, and then GMU has to accept it. That's the easy and efficient part. Now comes the good part.

(Prepare yourself.)

Since any reasonable student would expect GMU simply to accept the tuition money that AmeriCorps sent them, time is passing and the first the student realizes that something is wrong is when they are hit with a late fee for not paying their tuition. With a great deal of investigation, the student finds out that GMU, for whatever reason, has given AmeriCorps the wrong office to send the money to. As a result, GMU won't accept the money until the studentcalls them and asks them to accept the money. (What??) Then the money is in the wrong office. It really would be too easy and efficient for GMU to simply send the money to the right office, or even (heaven forbid!) giving the right information to AmeriCorps in the first place.

At this point, the student doesn't know that the money is in the wrong office, and again assumes that all is well - until fined again because they haven't paid tuition. The student, through more agonizing investigation, learns that the student has to call GMU (again) and ask GMU to mail the student the money. GMU then writes a check and mails it to the student, who must take the check to the bank, deposit it, and write out a check of their own and mail it to the correct office at GMU. Is this not the most unbelievable process for any institution to engage in? It has to be mail; faxing or online payment through credit card is not accepted (perhaps because it would save too much time). Since the process relies entirely on mail, it takes several weeks. Meanwhile, the student is fined again because tuition has not been paid or (in some cases) the tuition is sent to a collections agency.

Whomever thought up this procedure has to receive the award for the most difficult way to pay tuition. Or perhaps this is a really awful way for GMU to get extra money from all the late fees they collect from unsuspecting students or even knowing students who fall victim to GMU's inefficiency. After three unsuccessful attempts to pay tuition in a timely manner, I am again attempting to navigate this process. I contacted AmeriCorps in October (I thought I'd get a head start on the process) and got the money sent to GMU. The money sat there for two months, despite my phone calls to get it mailed to me so I could write a check back to the correct office at GMU. However, for unknown reasons, GMU has rejected the AmeriCorps money. Good thing AmeriCorps notified me, or I wouldn't have known. Looks like I better start saving my money to pay late fees.