I'm spending today in a state of panic interspersed with exasperation and occasional despondency.
As I think I mentioned, the one thing I'm lacking for my school readmission is my high school transcripts, for proof of California residence. I need this for the readmission application itself (as opposed to the change of college and declaration of major), which has a firm deadline of November 1 and a strongly-worded suggestion to begin submitting paperwork at least six weeks before the deadline. We are now at five and a half weeks before the deadline, so depending how you look at it I'm either early, on time, or late. I have, of course, had two years to get this transcript, but I didn't even see that it was required until Sunday night.
Sunday night I called my parents to see if they had a copy (negative). Monday I called my high school to ask about getting it, and was told on the second call that student records for my year are at the district records office. The district records office has wholly inappropriate open hours, so I called them before work this morning and figured out my options.
Option 1: Request by mail, 4-6 weeks for delivery. Nominal fee.
Option 2: Request in person, same-day pickup. Increased, but still nominal, fee.
There's just one problem, and that is that the district in question is Los Angeles. I can't get there, and there is no rush option that does not involve getting there. I can probably -- probably -- deputize my mom to pick it up and have the district still honor the request as long as she's got the proper form signed by me and faxed to her. If she can do it tomorrow before 12 pm, I can get my transcript in time to turn my paperwork in this Friday. She can't, as it turns out, and the district office is closed for moving for the rest of the week, but she can probably make it in next Wednesday. That's about four beauracratic setbacks so far.
By the way, as she pointed out to me, the district office's website says that records for 1995 and after (I'm 1999) are still held at the schools.
My school says that the records are held at the district office.
Neither place is open during the one working hour per day that I'm not answering telephones, so calling to find out what's going on will have to wait until Friday afternoon. That's assuming I've got time left on Friday afternoon after waiting around at the anthro department office. The admissions office, which could tell me if there's any way I can submit my paperwork without the transcript in the event of a wild goose chase, is available to me only by email until, you guessed it, Friday. My email to the admissions office has been mis-interpreted and accordingly mis-answered, and subsequently forwarded to another office.
If they don't get back to me to tell me that they were just kidding about needing the transcript, I'm going to scream.
Posted by dianna at September 20, 2005 01:22 PMThis is kind of a long shot, but presumably Berkeley's registrar has a copy of your High School transcript on file from when you first enrolled. It's theoretically possible that they could make a copy for the Residency office. I wouldn't invest too much hope in this scheme, since Berkeley's various offices don't seem to like communicating or cooperating with one another, but it is one other group that has a copy of the transcript, and their copy of the transcript might be more accessible than the LA School District's.
Posted by: Zach S. at September 20, 2005 01:33 PMYeah, that's my hope at this point as well. I've found someone in the Admissions office who would return my emails and asked her if it's possible to use that copy for my current proof of residence. That's the email that's been forwarded elsewhere, about which I'm still waiting to hear. My fingers are so crossed they're starting to hurt.
Posted by: Dianna at September 20, 2005 01:41 PMMy mother.
My mother.
Called the district office and bullied them into telling her whether they have my records, which they do. Found out that as long as she has my form and a copy of my picture ID she can pick up my transcript.
If she were not my mother, I would kiss her.
Posted by: Dianna at September 20, 2005 02:29 PMThat's what she sai... oh crap. That doesn't work, does it.
She called me on my cell, at work, to tell me. It's probably the only time someone's called me on my cell at work and I've been happy about it.
Posted by: Dianna at September 20, 2005 02:49 PM