Graduating when?

As finals week opens, I still don’t know when I’m graduating. At the end of this quarter, I will have completed all the academic requirements, but missed the bureaucratic requirements. It all matters because I rely on financial aid to keep everything afloat.

Right now, I’m listed as graduating in Winter (March) 2006; only that’s the quarter I’m supposed to start the graduate program (in January). Thus the university hasn’t admitted me to the graduate program, because that application is for Winter 2006. We’ve requested that my graduation date be advanced to Fall (December) 2005, but have not, as yet, received a response.

So one solution would simply be to jump into the graduate level classes, even as an undergraduate. But if I do this as an undergraduate, I need 12 units to maintain full-time status for financial aid. Because graduate work expectations are higher, a normal graduate level load is 8 units. I’m a bit nervous about that.

Another solution would be to simply resign myself to the fact that the bureaucracy is very important to the bureaucrats, and continue on with undergraduate work. Because I have worked out a unique deal for graduation with my department, I could do this, and continue on preparing to graduate with a speech communication degree in the event that my deal to graduate with a mass communication degree falls through. But I’m anxious to get on with graduate work.

So I wait. And wonder.

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