Bureaucracy
I want to recount something that happened to me, it has to do with this curious thing called bureaucracy, at least as I perceive it. On 9 November I applied for two official transcripts from my university. One was to go to the graduate school I’m applying to, the second copy was to be for my own records. The total cost, if you can believe it, was 41 dollars but that’s not the issue.
The large sign behind the secretary to whom I handed the paper application read “Transcript requests take 7 days.”
No big deal I told myself, the due date for the grad school was 1 December, almost three weeks, plenty of time. The second copy was for my own records and had no rush on it.
So 26 November rolls around and I decided it was as good a time as any to pick them up, having let two weeks go by. I got there and I inquired about my transcript.
I gave my name and student number and then waited while she searched high and low for the transcript.
It wasn’t any of the three drawers she checked, nor in the back. By this point I was sufficiently worried that I stopped her and asked about the transcript that was to be mailed off to the grad school. She sat down behind a computer and told me that copy of the transcript had been mailed out on the 15th.
So I ask then what about my copy? I suppose they lost it or something but she typed in my student number on the computer and printed me a copy on the spot, four pages.
I left there thinking to myself: “Why did the entire thing take so long if all that’s required is hitting the print button?”