Yet to hear back on my application to reenrol in a PhD. What should I do?

Hi all,

I'm in Australia, but thought I would post here because I'm not sure where else to post. Essentially, I have deferred my PhD in psychology at an Australian university for the past two years because of severe physical health problems, which are now under control, and an experience of considerable trauma within my family home (domestic violence).

In order to apply for re-enrolment, I was required to write to the Associate Dean, following a strict procedure followed by many students, and provide my reasons for deferring for two years. I gave many details about my physical health problems, including relevant medical documentation from my doctors, but was less explicit about my personal traumas, mostly due to embarrassment, although I did provide a letter from my psychologist to substantiate my claims of trauma and emotional distress.

I submitted my application on the 5th of January, and the application was supposed to take three to four weeks to process. I am yet to hear back. I have called three times, and each time they have told me that my application is in the right hands, the paperwork just has to be passed on to the correct person.

My current difficulty is that the Australian academic year, and classes for my course begin this Monday (the 25th), and I need to travel to another state by car, and find somewhere to live by then. They told me to call back on Wednesday if I still haven't heard anything, but it really is pushing it. I will need to leave on Thursday to arrive on time - Australia is a big country!

What do people think? Do you think I have been unsuccessful? I have a bad feeling about it, but I don't understand why it's taken them so long to get back to me if they're just going to reject me - I would've thought that sending a rejection letter would be a fairly straight forward process.

Many thanks for your thoughts!