I had a great few days off.. They’ve really gone fast. Sadly, I’ve only got a week until my residency starts. My plan for this week was to just get ready for my residency and get lots of rest…. But alas life always manages to happen. Monday I drive up to Lebanon about an hour and 45 mins from here. Then I’m off to get my allergy shot and to pay Belmont for spring semester. Tuesday, I actually have nothing planned but Wednesday is back up to Murfreesboro to get my allergy shots again and clean/organize my area at my parents house. Thursday I’ve got to go to driving school. UGH, I dread it… not only do I hate driving school because it’s boring but I actually don’t have the money to waste on it. That’s what I get for speeding. Now that I think about it if I didn’t live in nowhere I wouldn’t be so miserable… It’s just at least 3 hours of driving, Monday and Wednesday. Thursday’s “class” is actually in town here.
So let me tell you about Belmont. Belmont… oh how I love to hate you. First, I have to say I love you because you’re going to make me a Dr. of occupational therapy, I’ve learned a lot and because I’ve met an amazing group of
The newest insanity presented is about my residency. Let me give you all some background on this topic. When I was accept to Belmont they were using the term residency and I understood it to be a residency much like many physicians do, which is working under current physicians in an area of interest/specialty. However, we have something we call fieldwork which much like a medical residency (we work for two 12 week rotations while paying tuition to Belmont) and we have a residency which is like a capstone project. We have 640 hours to complete a project of our choice in an area of specialization (Faith-based advocacy, entrepreurial leadership, clinical excellence in practice or technological advancements). I chose technological advancements and originally my idea was to make an certification program at Belmont for assistive technology but somehow that got changed… and then I was doing something about seating and positioning in geriatric populations as well as a certification in special need care seats and now I’m doing something more broad regarding all sides of wheelchair services from research, design and manufacturing to supply and client services. There is also some HCPCS coding in there somewhere too which is funny since it’s what I did before I started at Belmont. I’m really excited about my residency and that I’ve got a place to go and even a little cubical to do my work from but I’m not so happy with Belmont. They’ve made this process so painful if I wasn’t so honored and excited to be working with this company I’d be complaining way moe.
So anyway back to the bologna, as of this month we have to be paid in full for Spring semester before we can start our residency, which doesn’t seem so crazy except it’s almost 15K and my student loans don’t come through until early 2011. They’ve always allowed me and everyone else to start school before the money is actually in the accounts because it’s guaranteed to be there. As I was planning my residency I was unaware of this policy as previously we were told if we didn't have client countact it wouldn't be an issues. However, now Belmont says we must be paid in full because of liability issues but I’m still paid up for Fall and Fall doesn’t end until the 17th I believe. So I should be covered at least until then, right.. well no. Also, I have health insurance and facility has all kinds of insurance as a worldwide company not to mention I’m not going to touch a single person until well into 2011, when my tuition would be paid in full. Did I mention my own malpractice insurance would run aournd $200 for a year.
So, yes, I’m a little bitter, not to mention Belmont hired an assistant for our residency coordinator and now any question I have has to go through the assistant. Let me give you an example I called the residency coordinator, she has assistant call me back, I miss the assistants call because I’m at fieldwork, I call assistant, assistant can’t answer question says she’ll ask residency coordinator and call me back and I still haven’t heard anything… that was Monday.
Alright so I gave up and I decided I’d pay with my credit card but nope can’t do that because there is no bill yet for Spring and won’t be until December 20th. So now, I’ve got to pay a ton of money I don’t have to the school, who doesn’t have a bill for me yet… but here is the real kicker.. Belmont charges 2.5% for using a credit card! Yes, you read that right there is a fee of 2.5% for using a credit card to pay tuition…… they actually suggested I bring cash to avoid the charge. Right, I’ll be right over with my 15K in cash. To keep this excessive money in my account a paper must be filled out and signed allow them to keep a + account of that much. I talked to financial aid on Monday and they said they’d be open on Wednesday. I’m on the way to Belmont Wednesday when Jason cracks a joke about them closing at noon… and guess what… he was right!! It was 11:30 and I was just leaving town. AHHHHH!
So now back to tomorrow, I'll be driving to Lebanon 1hr 45 mins away, driving back to Murfreesboro 30 mins to get my allergy shot, I’ll also be driving to Nashville 50mins and then back home 1 hr 30 mins. That’s more than 4 hours in my car lovely. Like I was saying it’s a love hate relationship. I can’t wait to be done!
Speaking of being done I’ve spent the last couple days planning my massive graduation trip and getting ideas together for what I want my graduation announcements to look like but alas that is for another post. Hopefully I won't regret this post in the morning... and well if I do I guess I'll just delete it.
PS: My face is broken out because I'm nervous and I'm having trouble using paragraphs appropriately.
I love that Belmont is so predictably cluster-f****d that my joke turned out to be true. Thank God we didn't get all the way there!
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