This is really long, but this is what I sent my enrollment counselor today. Have any of you experienced anything similar? If I miss the cutoff to start by June 1 because of this, I don't want to continue with WGU.

"1) I submitted all my documents a month ago.

2) I was told to wait. I was not notified that anything additional was needed.

3) I noticed the deadline was approaching, so I reached out to you to see what the hold on financial aid was. You called someone and had them confirm that I had submitted everything I needed and that there was some kind of secondary manual review that mine had to go through... HOWEVER, even then I was told that nothing else was needed from me.

4) Friday before the deadline comes along, with still no news, so I reach out again and get your out of office email. So I call A. A tries to call someone in financial aid, but she is unable to reach them. She directs me to M* in admissions, I believe. M* takes a look at my financial aid and suddenly says I am missing something, that they weren't able to continue the process, because they were waiting on me. (My thought: "The nerve?! Waiting on ME?")

4a) I NEVER received word that I was missing ANYTHING. Every time I asked, I was told, "No, you have submitted everything."

4b) IF that was suddenly required, the last business day before the due date, I feel that should be communicated to me immediately. Thankfully I called to follow up like a madwoman, but even now, I'm not confident that I will make the deadline, because things like this keep happening.

4c) The directions M* gave me to access this part of the site were too vague to be correct. Either the site needs correcting or the directions need an update. He said to access my "student portal" which is different, in my opinion, than the "enrollment portal." When I sign into my.wgu.edu, BEFORE clicking on the enrollment portal, I see the "student services" tab WITH "financial services" under it as M* mentioned in his emailed instructions. However, what I see from this part of the site tells me yet again that I have submitted everything I need. No additional documents link or anything. In order to get to what Mo was talking about, I have to access the ENROLLMENT portal -- again, different in my opinion than the student portal. EVEN THEN, on the surface, everything says it's been submitted with pretty white checkmarks on the nice dark blue background. I have to go into it and poke around to find the additional documents link that then tells me something is missing?!?! If I didn't want to believe better of WGU, I'd almost think you don't even want students getting financial aid if you make it that difficult to access.

5) I called financial aid myself and waited to talk to a real person. Thankfully, I got someone. As I'm on the phone with her, I tell her ALL of the above, that I am quite frustrated, and then I let her know that I have uploaded a document that I would like her to check while we are on the phone, since the deadline is so close, and I want to make sure it's correct. She then tells me that, no, a digitally signed form is not acceptable. I need to print it out and upload it. I tell her that's fine, but I need help because the portal will not allow me to upload a second document now that the first has been submitted. She puts me on hold to get in touch with whoever has the power to make that possible. After a few minutes, she comes back and says, "I learned something new. Because you submitted the tax transcript and it's been approved, you do not have to submit the signed form for this. What you uploaded is fine." I was happy to hear this, but since I already have no confidence in what anyone at WGU is telling me, I asked for confirmation, "Are you SURE there is nothing else I need to do?" Her response was along the lines of, "Yes, everything is fine now. You just have to wait." I get off the phone thinking I've finally gotten everything taken care of.

6) Imagine my outrage when I check the additional documents link today to see that this form has been rejected because I did not print it out and sign it. So what did I do? Print it out and submit it today, Sunday, May 21, one or two days before the deadline, which I'm also not even sure of, because everything says May 22, but you told me it was extended to May 23, but since that isn't in writing anywhere, I do not trust it. "