10 minutes flat

I asked for a copy of my grade transcript from the University of Pittsburgh (where I'm currently studying) yesterday. An official transcript.

Okay, so back in Indonesia, I would have to send in a request (putting my name on a book). Then wait three days for it to be printed (10 copies, each copy about 4 pages). I'm not sure what kind of printer they used back in Indonesia, but it took that long :).

Then once it's finished. I would have to go to the dean's office to have it sealed. Another 3 days. I'm not sure why all the run around. There's no easy way to do these things in Indonesia.

Anyway back to my story. So there I asking for my transcript. I told the person behind the table what I wanted. She told me to fill out a form (basically just put my social security number and my name), gave her my pitt ID. She asked me how many I needed (I asked for 8). Then, as I was about to ask her when I would be able to pick the transcript up, the printer started printing, and out came my transcript. All 8 copies of them.

I was amazed. She asked me if I wanted it sealed in an envelope (which I did). She even asked me whether I wanted the university to send it to the respective graduate schools which I intended to register to. I was in awe. Talk about service.

Anyway the whole process took about 10 minutes. Let's see that's 288 times faster than in Indonesia (6 days, assuming 8 hour workdays). Or if you prefer to talk in percentage that's .34% of the time it takes to do it in Indonesia, or 28800% increase over the speed in Indonesia.

I was so amazed it was so fast I had to keep myself from asking "that's it?"