guys, it's so much

I'm trying to start school again in the spring.

My school is offering a certificate program that will lead into the master's program once the master's program gets approved by the graduate school board, but get this: the deadline for enrolling in the spring is October first. That's a little over two weeks away.

As if that weren't stressful enough, I have two options:

1. Come up with $500 for a readmission fee and fill out a one page form (my preferred option)
2. Reapply to the university for a lesser fee, but potentially as a new applicant, which would mean I'd need letters of recommendation, possibly have to retake the GRE, order an official transcript, pay an application fee and have to redo my personal statement.

Trouble is, here, that they're trying to make me do the second option, because the certificate program is technically "a different program" than I was originally enrolled in.

I'm like, look here, people. You accepted me into your master's program in science journalism. I got all A's. It's not my fault that my mom got sick and died, or that my job refused to allow me to continue school when they PROMISED at hire that I could attend grad school and they knew about it from the get-go. It's also not my fault that when I was ready to return, your program got shut down and then the opening date got postponed by nearly two years.

I think that with all that taken into consideration, I should be allowed back in, no questions asked. Like, for real.

I guess this is what they speak of when they say "red tape."

It's annoying, frustrating and discouraging. If I speak to them in person, they get all excited and say they want me in their program. Yet I have to jump through hoops to get back into it.

I'm not going to give up, though. They'll grow tired of me and have to let me in just to get me to shut up and leave them alone.

I'm going to keep at it as far as I can go (although I refuse to retake the GRE...that would simply be unfair and I'm pretty sure that me re-applying from scratch would cost just as much as just re-enrolling) until they say "okay, come on in," or "we don't really want you."

One or the other.

Funny. I was getting stressed and then I realized, duh, you're dealing with college again. Of COURSE it's stressful.

You'd forgotten.