On Hold For Nothing

(I am a PhD student in a program that is fully-funded, which is not at all uncommon in our field of study. This means that none of the PhD students in my program pay any tuition, and they give us a yearly salary for living expenses. Technically, for accounting purposes, we all have “full tuition scholarships,” and then the university has us on the payroll for our living stipends. The coordinator of our program talks to me the day after class registration.)

Coordinator: “I see that you aren’t on the list for dissertations. Did you have a problem registering?”

Me: “I did. But it should be getting taken care of. I had a hold on my student account.”

Coordinator: “Why?”

Me: “Well, I apparently didn’t pay my tuition.”

Coordinator: “What tuition?”

Me: “My tuition of $0.00. Yes, I had to go through the online payment system, put in my credit card and stuff, so that they could process a payment of $0.00. Hopefully, the hold will get lifted today.”

(It did get lifted and then I could register for my classes, but I still had to laugh at the fact that the computer that created holds on student accounts didn’t realize that $0.00 is… well, nothing.)