Waiting on Reimbursement - Reach Out Or Let It Go?

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

The program I have decided to attend hosted a visiting event and offered reimbursement. Once I had chosen that program (and was done visiting others, which made things a bit hectic), I emailed the dept admin about getting reimbursed. They copied the correct person to talk to and told me what I needed to send. 

I gathered those materials and sent them to the new person on March 24 (didn't receive a confirmation email).

On May 1, nothing had changed so I sent an second email (in the same thread) confirming receipt and asking if there was anything else I needed to send. 

As of today, no response and no check.

Since this is the program I'll be attending, part of me thinks I should just drop it - I don't want to appear pushy prior to showing up and, while I'd really appreciate being reimbursed, I have absorbed the costs. Plus, the school has already had its graduation so I don't know if I've missed my opportunity to fix this.

The other part of me thinks I should try one more time and send the email from my official school account - I was offered reimbursement and (far more importantly) might be able to figure out how the whole reimbursement thing works in terms of time & whatnot (which would be really helpful to know prior to starting.) 

Granted, it could just take FOREVER to get checks to prosp students out but I'm a bit concerned about not getting any kind of response. 

What would you all do? Email the finance person one more time? Or email the dept coordinator directly?

I don't like the idea of going back to them but, maybe if I reach out to the financial person a third time and get no response, I should reach out to the dept admin (who is great about responding to emails). 

Edited May 22, 2018 by a_sort_of_fractious_angel

[MarineBluePsy]

I doubt this will make you feel better, but during my application season the programs that offered any reimbursement for expenses took a year to process those checks.  I sent everything to them a week after my visit, confirmed 2 weeks later that they got everything and didn't need anything else, and then heard nothing for months.  Then I got an email saying my receipts had finished being reviewed by whoever handles such things and a request for a reimbursement check was being sent to yet another department.  I had already started my first year in the program I chose when I got an email saying my check was in the mail.  So my thought is sure you can keep emailing them to follow up, but it is unlikely to speed things up.  Reimbursement checks are likely not the top priority and there are probably multiple people/departments involved in the process.

[iwearflowers]

University finance departments are SO slow. I work for a nonprofit that sometimes contracts with universities, and getting their paperwork together is like pulling teeth.

That being said, I would follow up one more time and copy the person who gave you this person’s name. Clearly state that you are following up again because you haven’t heard back and want to confirm that your paperwork is all correct. Your departmental contacts are typically your best advocate when you have to deal with the rest of the school’s administrative system. They can help you escalate issues and get them dealt with more quickly.

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Thank you both! It's good to hear that university depts being really, really slow (esp for stuff like reimbursing prospectives) is par for the course. I'll follow up again in a week or so but will otherwise just sit tight. 

Thanks again! 

[TakeruK]

Like others said, schools are often very slow. 

This is money that you are owed, so I would not give up on it. It makes sense to be smart about how much you want to push them, but you should continue to check in every few weeks or so until this is resolved. Graduation also has very little to do with anything. Most schools have fiscal years that match their government (i.e. US schools Oct 1 - Sept 30, Canadian schools Apr 1 - Mar 31) and even if the deadline is passed, most schools have processes to finish up slow claims as long as it was started / committed prior to the budget closed.

By the way, in grad school and other parts of academia, you will constantly have to maintain good positive relationships with others, especially those in power over you, while consistently holding firm to your own beliefs and what is rightfully yours. If you don't then you will be taken advantage of and trodden all over. So consider this a good first step.

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Thanks, @TakeruK, especially for putting into words what is definitely one of my first academic experiences re: maintaining the balance between being polite/positive & firm/not a doormat. 

 

[fuzzylogician]

^agreeing with the above. Be polite, but you are entitled to the money they owe you. For what it's worth, this happens all the time. You need to stay on top of them and on occasion, you need to cc more than one person on your email to get anything to happen. It's annoying, but that's the way it often is. Don't give up; follow up periodically. 

[TMP]

Involve the coordinator ASAP.  Whenever I've run into bureaucratic hold-ups, I just go back to my grad coordinator and tell him that the bureaucracy is being a nuisance and explain my timeline.  He then contacts the right place.  That's the job of the graduate coordinator in your department: they take care of all the administrative needs like reimbursements.

[TakeruK]

On 5/26/2018 at 8:34 AM, TMP said:

Involve the coordinator ASAP.  Whenever I've run into bureaucratic hold-ups, I just go back to my grad coordinator and tell him that the bureaucracy is being a nuisance and explain my timeline.  He then contacts the right place.  That's the job of the graduate coordinator in your department: they take care of all the administrative needs like reimbursements.

Good advice on finding the person that will best help you. Just a note for the OP that this depends on each department though. At my PhD department, the grad coordinator is the faculty contact for administrative things related to academics (e.g. signing a form for going on leave, adding/dropping classes etc.) However, for things like reimbursement, there is a small office of admin assistants in the department. Each assistant is responsible for a few faculty members so the current students are supposed to go to the admin assistant assigned to their advisor. One of the admin assistants takes charge of the recruitment visit process and prospective students should go to that person for reimbursement help if you aren't a current student. 

In the OP's case, it sounds like they already found the right person to talk to. But I thought this might be helpful to others in similar situations.