<p>UMW has the worst billing office that we have ever encountered. Every. Single. Semester it gets screwed up. No matter how far in advance we pay, there is always a problem. That in itself would really be OK if they were even nice about it but they are snarky and rude about THEIR errors. Anyone else get this from them?</p>
<p>Oh, yeah. We’ve been trying to find out whether S has lost his academic excellence award after his stellar 1.54 semester. It keeps disappearing and reappearing on his account. We got an email from the Assistant Director for Financial Aid saying that he would lose it for the spring semester because he only completed 10 credits. Two days later, he received a “Dear Student” group email from the same person saying when the award would be deposited in their accounts.</p>
<p>We then fired off a W-T-F? email to get clarification. Same person said she just found out that they only count stats at the end of the school year, not the end of each semester, so he gets the award for spring. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR FINANCIAL AID didn’t know this? The incompetence is mind-boggling.</p>
<p>The Academic Services office is no prize, either. S was invited to attend the academic success seminar, which has limited enrollment, so he called first thing on January 4 to sign up. He was told he had to come in that week to have an interview with one of the deans and sign a contract before he could reserve a spot in the seminar. We live close to an hour away, so I would have to take time off from work to drive him down there. </p>
<p>He asked if he could do the interview on the 11th instead, and was told that he could but there might not be any spots left by then. I got on the phone and asked why he couldn’t sign up for a spot and do the interview when he got back to campus. She kept insisting that was impossible. I then asked her if that meant that anyone from out of state was screwed because they couldn’t just drop in for an interview. She left the phone for a bit (apparently to talk to a dean) and came back to say they would hold a spot for S and he could do the interview on the 11th. Why was that so hard?</p>
<p>Somehow that answer is what I would expect. Everything has to be so hard.</p>
<p>Oh the other hand, I’m trying not to wonder why you son gets an academic excellence award with a 1.54 while my daughter with a 4.0 gets, and has always received, zilch. Who is working there and what are they using for brains?</p>
<p>I don’t think having a brain was a job requirement!</p>
<p>I think the academic excellence award is only given to incoming freshmen, based on high school performance and/or test scores. S did a lot better in high school than he’s doing now (obviously!). The award is renewed for all four years as long as he meets the minimum GPA requirement at the end of each year (2.75 for freshmen, 3.0 after that) and lives on campus. So if he doesn’t bring his cumulative GPA up to 2.75 by the end of this semester, no more money.</p>
<p>I do wish him well. I hope he can turn this around and keep his money. I just find this funny. My daughter had over a 4.0 GPA in high school (weighted, don’t know what unweighted was) and higher than the 75th percentile SAT scores shown for UMW. I wonder if they are generous for males since they are so lopsided that way?</p>
<p>Brains for a job requirement? You are right, probably not. They don’t seem to require manners either!</p>