Caelin Bragg
Advertising & Distribution Manager
Starting this school year, there’s a new requirement for students seeking their federal pell grants if their parents did not file taxes the year before yesteryear; it’s a single piece of paper from the IRS; its text doesn’t even cover a quarter of the page with “so-and-so did not file taxes.” Without it, though, one can’t receive their grant.
It should be a simple thing to get, that paper, which is what my family thought by August last year. We sent off the request, got what I needed and took it to Butler. But I was then informed that I would need one for each parent, despite my parents filing taxes jointly, so we sent off another request to get my other parent’s form.
Come September, and the letter we got from the IRS, instead of containing the paper we needed, contained a letter saying we filled the request wrong and had to send another. Annoying, but nothing Earth-shattering, fixed our mistake and sent it off.
It’s October, past the timeframe I was supposed to receive my grant, but we thought this saga would be over soon. Another letter comes in the mail, we had made sure to correct every error, and we received the piece of paper we needed… except it was for the wrong parent, the one we already had it for. “We can’t use this!” we exclaimed.
We were fed up at this point. My pell grant was a few thousand dollars, and I had scholarship money totaling almost another thousand being held up as well. Our family isn’t destitute, but we were banking on having that money already. We sent off another request, this time with a typed letter along with it saying exactly what we wanted and for whom.
The next letter from the IRS comes… and there was an issue with our request, a single checkmark on something inconsequential. We had to send another request, which we did (with some passive-aggression added on the accompanying letter). This was late in November.
It’s Thursday, Dec. 20, the final day Butler is open for the year. I had to head out to Butler that day for other reasons, but I had already given up any hope of receiving that pell grant before New Year’s. Afterwards, I went home and began to relax during my break. I went to our mailbox on a whim, and the correct piece of paper we had been waiting for was there. Butler was already closed at this point. The universe was gaining a sense of humor it seemed.
I had to wait until Butler opened again, which I did. They said they would get it processed as soon as possible, knowing that I was still waiting from last semester. An email came in telling me to wait two weeks for my check to arrive. Finally! This saga had finished!
The two weeks passed and… nothing. Don’t tell me… after all of this… it got lost in the mail!? It’s already February at this point, and I sent a very polite email, even if I felt justified if I was rude about it, inquiring into the matter. I received a response: they’ll just void the check, and I should pick up a new one at Accounts Receivable; it would take a few days though.
It’s Friday, Feb. 15. I walked into Accounts Receivable and walked out with my grant; it’s truly over. What should have been mine in September, I obtained half a year later. As I went to deposit it though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the universe had a reason for all this, as if it was trying to protect me from something… And then I got McDonald’s.