I guess the story starts a month ago. I had applied for summer financial aid and had been denied any grants. I call the financial aid office, and the person I talk to tells me I need to apply for one specific type of loan. I do, and I'm approved by the loan company. They say they are sending the information to the school, so I think I'm all set. So, I assume everything is taken care of (which I suppose is partly my fault for assuming that people knew what they were talking about). I check my account basically every day for the loan to come through so I can accept it.
So, I get an email this morning saying that my loans haven't been approved and that I need to pay my summer tuition by 5 PM today to avoid my registration being cancelled. Yes, they sent out these emails this morning. And not just to me, clearly as the phone tree for both offices were completely full every time I called between 8 and 11 (which was pretty much every five minutes).
So, I have to go into the office. Which, since I don't have a parking pass and since financial aid doesn't have visitor's parking, means I have to go over to the parking office and wait in line an hour to get a 7 day parking pass. Which wouldn't be bad service except that the financial aid website says they have metered parking. Which meant that I'd wasted money getting cash out of my cash from a random ATM and getting quarters for a meter that it turns out doesn't exist.
So I get the parking pass and drive over to financial aid. And wait in line for two hours. Finally get to talk to someone, and it turns out they failed on multiple accounts. First, since I am considered "post-baccalaureate" instead of "graduate" (even though I'm in a graduate program, which makes no sense), I don't qualify for the loan I was told to fill out a month ago. Instead, I have to get a bank loan that my parents will have to cosign (because what college student has 5 lines of credit). And now my payment is due today, so I have to take out the emergency loan the school has and pay the fee for that when I pay it back.
Oh, and also, it turns out that even though I was told my multiple people (advisor, financial aid, department head) that since I only had to complete the internship to finish the program, I would be okay just taking that, I actually have to add another class to even qualify for financial aid. And the only class that I haven't taken that has any room now means I'll have to swap my work schedule around and have a class that goes until 10 PM when I have work at 8 the next morning.