How to Drop a Class That Doesn't Exist

Today's been totally wasted for me. I was faced with two problems this morning: First, one of the classes I registered for this quarter was registered under the wrong course number, so as such it doesn't really exist. Therefore, I can't take it, which means that I am required to "drop" it. The class itself is not fundamental for me; it's a journal club in my department I go to during lunchtime on wednesdays, just to check out what recent scientific papers might be worth reading and to get a free slice of pizza (the main goal of the journal club, of course). So, I don't even need to take it for credit, really, since I have a full schedule already. I could say I was just auditing it, because I don't have any papers to present myself this term. However, and now we come to my second problem, the brilliant brains at the Office of Graduate Admissions (or maybe I should say "The Office" ), after studying my diplomas and transcripts for several weeks, found a typo in one of them. A grade with the decimal point .60 was replaced with .00 and vice versa. This wouldn't seem like a thing of importance when you're looking at grades on a scale of 0 - 20, but for the admissions' office this completely invalidates the document. (I think they don't truly realize what a feat it actually is to even get a document from a french university inscription office, let alone a correct one ...) So, the bastards put a hold on my registration again. Which means that I can't register for the upcoming Spring Quarter ("Den tid, den sorg ..."), but more importantly, that I can not drop the class that doesn't exist. Only, I have to do it, according to the Graduate Studies Advisor's Office!

So, I was caught up in this dilemma all day. Went and talked with the graduate advisor, filled out some forms, got a signature and a stamp, got a letter from my supervisor (the one giving this class-that-doesn't-exist), went to the admission's office, then to the graduate studies office, where after a long discussion explaining how I could actually be enrolled in a class-that-doesn't-exist (they wouldn't believe me) they finally signed my form, which I then took to the registrar's office, that subsequently sent me back to the admission's office because of my hold, only for the admission's officer to discover that he probably wanted more documents for my admissions file, but when I argued that wasn't possible he convinced me that at least he would need more documents translated, but when I explained they had all been translated already he wouldn't talk to me anymore but asked that I come back later, I then returned to the registrar's office where they sequestered me for an hour, forbidding me to leave the office while they decided whether to actually allow me to do that "drop". And everybody asked me how I could be enrolled in a class that wasn't offered ... Heck, how would I know? I didn't do it!

They finally told me that they would have to give me a "W" grade for that class. A grade "W" means that I withdrew from the class after a deadline passed. Apparently it's very bad to have a "W" on your transcripts. How you can even get a grade for a class that doesn't exist is beyond me. But, that's not my problem, I guess ...

So, this is how I spent my workday today! And whoever thought paperwork was entirely a french invention was totally wrong. Americans seem to enjoy it at least as much ...