My college is a circus of incompetence

[Zahhak]

Caution: adult language

[angry rant]So, I've spent the last year in a protracted fist fight with the local 4 year college because I'm trying to transfer from a community college. This started the end of last year when I was rejected because I tried to apply late. Fine, my own stupid fault for assuming I'd have more then 3 days from the end of the community college's semester to apply for the college's semester starting in two months. Whatever. So, I apply later (since I cannot apply right then for the next semester!), I get accepted, and I get handy card in the mail telling me what I need to do to actually start classes. I get it, after the enrollment period for the college's next semester, so I cannot take classes. OK, whatever, I can take a few more classes at the community college, no big deal. Then as that semester is wrapping up I get another card in the mail telling me I still need to do things to take classes, and that includes sending in my final transcript from the community college and my high school. I have two days from the grades from the community college getting posted to when I have to enroll in classes. It will take "5-10 business days for transcripts to get to and be processed by the institution". OK, again, this is my own stupid fault for assuming I'd be able to send in my final transcripts after the semester has started so I can start giving them my money. But, on the bright side this is the point where I finally got an account with the school's "my college" bull**** so I can finally see a list of what all I need to do to take classes. That might have been useful like 6 goddamn months ago, but whatever. So, I do some looking and notice that if I take one more semester (ending earlier this month) I'll have two months to do whatever bull**** they still need me to do, but haven't gotten around to telling me about.

So, my final grades were posted last Wednesday, but I didn't have the money to pay my school bill until Monday. So, I paid, the check cleared Tuesday, so I sent in my final transcripts, called my high school and had my high school transcripts sent in, still no idea why they needed it, but whatever. So, yesterday I called to make sure I don't need to do anything else that they aren't going to tell me about for a few months otherwise. Turns out, I do. Because I originally applied for the spring semester but I couldn't go (because they were too stupid to let me know what I needed to do when I could actually get in) I have to re-apply. So, while doing my absolute best to contain my rage, I tried to sign into the "my college" BS, and I cannot remember my password, or apparently any of the security questions, which cycles through a random combination of 2 of the 12, most of which I have two possible answers to ("What is the name of your pet" "I have two. Which would you like me to tell you about?"). So, my account is locked. I think it'll be unlocked today, worst case scenario. Nope. I have to call them, tell my college ID and my personal email. Jesus, that is a brilliant security system.

And I've been there a few times for other things (the mandatory campus tour I didn't need to do and meeting with an academic advisor who told me I was set, and then I went home). Each time I spent atleast ten minutes trying to find a ****ing park spot, and I was there when there was literally -2 parking spaces. A negative number of parking spaces. I didn't know that was possible. Last time I got a $200 parking ticket for not having a parking permit, when the whole reason I was there, was to find out where the ****ing hell to get a goddamn $350 parking permit while on the mandatory campus tour. Which, for the record, did not actually include where to get a ****ing parking permit.

And Christ, don't get me started on the academic problems I have with this ****ing school[/angry rant]

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

[warty goblin]

Transferring is always a chance for stuff to go tits-up. When I applied to transfer the first time, the college flat out lost my application, so they couldn't admit me for another semester.

Then I showed up, my academic advisor glanced at my transcript, decided I probably didn't know what a vector was (despite having linear algebra and differential equations on it) and spent the time I was supposed to have to figure out my classes explaining it to me. So I had to come in over the weekend to actually register for classes. Except the building was locked and she was half an hour late, so I had to stand outside in a snowdrift at -10 Fahrenheit with a cheerfully howling north wind. Fortunately some kind professor who had to prep his class let me in before I froze completely solid.

Our advisor/advisee relationship really did not improve from there.

[Zahhak]

You'd think colleges would at least pretend to have some interest in taking our money, instead of just trying to come up with more and more idiotic ways to demonstrate their own incompetence.

[Morbis Meh]

Screw academic advisors lol The ones I had sucked i did all of my scheduling despite having transfered (that in itself was an interesting experience) Mine stuck me in organic chemistry despite me telling her that I took it already at the previous institution her excuse "That was a junior level course this one is a senior level" So i went to the class low and behold if it wasn't the exact same material I learned previously... To top it all off after the first week of this class she calls me back in and says I cannot take the class because it is too similar to the one I took before :smallannoyed:

[valadil]

Earning my diploma didn't teach me much about my profession, but I sure did learn to jump beuarocratic hoops, which is an invaluable skill in any profession.

[Sipex]

I've read a lot of stories like these about colleges and I have to say, the one big lesson to learn is when you're applying for college, hand hold everything you can, double check everything you're told and assume that ANYONE who has the potential to affect your application in even the smallest amount is a gigantic idiot, liar or some cruel combination of both.

[Jay R]

Each time I've enrolled at a new school, I have taken all my paperwork and a big book, and spent the entire day going from office to office.

If somebody tells me that they cannot do X, for any value of X, I ask, "OK, who can? And where is that person's office?"

People always work better with people than with phones or emails, and they can't hang up on me when I'm in their office.

Be polite, soft-spoken, understanding, and firm. Recognize that they are trying to get their job done, while you are trying to get enrolled. I want to be that nice, friendly, polite person who is still in their office until the issue is fixed.

Take a book, because this involves large amounts of time sitting outside someone's office waiting for a turn, but it usually gets everything done within a day.

[warty goblin]

Screw academic advisors lol The ones I had sucked i did all of my scheduling despite having transfered (that in itself was an interesting experience) Mine stuck me in organic chemistry despite me telling her that I took it already at the previous institution her excuse "That was a junior level course this one is a senior level" So i went to the class low and behold if it wasn't the exact same material I learned previously... To top it all off after the first week of this class she calls me back in and says I cannot take the class because it is too similar to the one I took before :smallannoyed:

I had one of my advisors at my post-transfer school inform me I had to take a mandatory 'writing intensive' class my junior year - thankfully he did let me out of having to take Freshman tutorial though. I'd already sat through two semesters of that at my last school.

This was in spite of the fact that the day I walked into the place I could write better than most of the students there, writing intensive class or no. The first essay I wrote after transferring was the only 'A' in a class chockablock full of juniors and seniors, and the professor put it online as an example of how to write an essay. But my advisor was immovable, so I ended up taking Classical Greek Literature, which I'd already essentially done at my old school, and writing a grand total of six pages for that class all semester.

To be fair to that advisor though, he did insist I take the 300 level statistics course, which turned out to completely change the trajectory of my life, and for the better. So in the end I owe the guy.

[valadil]

I've read a lot of stories like these about colleges and I have to say, the one big lesson to learn is when you're applying for college, hand hold everything you can, double check everything you're told and assume that ANYONE who has the potential to affect your application in even the smallest amount is a gigantic idiot, liar or some cruel combination of both.

One piece of advice to add to that. Take names. Whenever you talk to someone ask for their name and write it down. Even if they have a name tag. If they know that you made a note of who they were, they're a lot less likely to let you fall through the cracks. I learned that freshman year, when I was denied entrance to the housing lottery even though I would have been student #7 to pick housing.

[Karoht]

Caution: adult language

[angry rant]~snip~[/angry rant]
I feel better now. Thanks for listening.
Some observations:
1-You used the word 'whatever' quite a few times in that first paragraph. I was starting to chuckle just a bit ever time I came to it.
2-Timing between two organizations has a tendancy to be spotty at best. I did once manage an event between two colleges once. Yeah, never again. So I can only imagine the trouble of trying to apply to one college while still attending another.
3-The place you are applying to doesn't sound very good. Any other options available?
4-Campus parking is always bad. It's either unnecessarily complicated, exclusionary, expensive, overcrowded, poorly laid out, or any combination of the above. While public transportation brings along other annoyances, I've typically found those annoyances to be the lesser of two evils.

My advice, take a semester off to sort it all out if needs be.

And because you seem to need a laugh...
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

Best of luck.

[Zahhak]

Screw academic advisors

Yeah, it was required or I wouldn't have bothered. Wasn't told anything I didn't already know


I've read a lot of stories like these about colleges and I have to say, the one big lesson to learn is when you're applying for college, hand hold everything you can, double check everything you're told and assume that ANYONE who has the potential to affect your application in even the smallest amount is a gigantic idiot, liar or some cruel combination of both.

Yeah, that's about where I am in the cynicism department.


Each time I've enrolled at a new school, I have taken all my paperwork and a big book, and spent the entire day going from office to office.

Good advise. But half of this was stuff no one bothered to tell me about until it was too late, and a lot of it was stuff I cannot even do in person (like deal with transcripts) or needed an appointment for, and of course I cannot get an appointment to have blood drawn and see an academic advisor in the same day


One piece of advice to add to that. Take names. Whenever you talk to someone ask for their name and write it down. Even if they have a name tag. If they know that you made a note of who they were, they're a lot less likely to let you fall through the cracks.

I'm writing this down as we speak.

Oh, and I'm planning on transferring again. Whoo!