defibrillate | Massive Bureaucratic Clusterfuck: How College Destroys Faith in Humans

Crossposts: http://lionfight.livejournal.com/13958.html

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Massive Bureaucratic Clusterfuck: How College Destroys Faith in Humans

I won't be shy about saying I'm a goddamn outstanding student. I'm a workaholic academic elitist. I also schedule like it's an Olympic sport, so it's a completely manageable endeavor for me to take more than the maximum course load my school allows in any given quarter - like I plan to do this fall. I meet all the requirements and wrote one hell of a convincing letter to Student Services so they'd approve my proposed schedule. True to form, they managed to completely fuck up their end of the process. This is how it went:

• 8/3
        -Registered for 15 credits and submitted request for 4 more.
        -Realized my proposed schedule overlapped with my set hospital volunteer hours, subsequently called Admissions and asked to have my request altered. Was advised to forget the old request ever happened and submit a new one.
• 8/4
        -Asked in-person at Admissions office if there was anyone I could talk to to speed the approval process along, as I need to submit a tuition bill to some people with deep pockets and have it approved before 8/17. Was referred to VP of Student Services.
        -Found the correct office and discovered that both the President and Vice President of Student Services are on vacation until the 22^nd. Halle-fucking-lujah.
        -Tracked down assistant to the VP and asked if she could help. She referred me back to Admissions. I told her I'd just come from there, she called them and confirmed (what the hell?) and then looked at my transcript and told me that I didn't have the minimum GPA to take my proposed course load. The thing is, I do. I over-qualify. Assistant to VP told me to write an appeal letter, assuming my request would be denied.
        -Wrote appeal letter, sent to Assistant to VP who promised to make the VP aware of my request and do what she could to get it approved.
        -Assistant to VP wrote back and told me she couldn't approve 23 credits, and was confused because she thought I'd wanted 19. It turns out, my first request was approved. My second request, the one that wouldn't jack up my schedule, was denied because my first request had already been approved and no one thought to wonder why I'd want to take a duplicate course in the same quarter.
        -Replied to Assistant to VP and explained the situation, requested one more time that the course I actually need be added to my schedule. Thanked her profusely for her help even though she's a moron because I believe in bribery and ego buttering.

Now I'm just waiting on her reply. If this doesn't get sorted out, I'll have to go do the same dance tomorrow, and probably also kill something.

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Now that's a migraine-y situation. I'm not totally surprised by this, as August is probably one of the worst times for college offices. More chances to mess things completely out of proportion.

Yeah. I would have done all this in June, but it took this long to sort out who was gonna be paying for me to go to school, so... We're at deadline! Yay. orz

Twenty credits is a hell of a lot of credits to take in one semester/quarter. Particularly if you're going into a science route. Please make sure you rest.

Aww, thanks for worrying dude, but really it's no big deal. I swear. And come on, I'm 20, if there's ever a time I'll be able to handle a crazy schedule it's now. I'm not kidding when I say I've had worse. Science high five!

What are you taking? Like... I'm very serious about that. The school I went to would not have allowed you to take so many core courses at once. Period. Homework alone for my courses was well over four hours of work per.

I mean, if they aren't all Calc, Physics, BioChem, then I can sort of see it.

Good luck to you, regardless.

I wish they were all calc, physics, and biochem. I so wish. You have no idea. But sadly, these are just a bunch of prereqs for clinical lab science and phlebotomy - there are a couple slightly technical classes, but most of them don't seem rigorous in the least. One of them doesn't even run for the whole quarter. Most of them don't even have a text book, just a couple manuals. This is my schedule. See, nothing too serious.

Ahhh that's better. See, I made the huge mistake once and took 20 credits of PURE CORE. And I had to FIGHT AND SCREAM to get it.

And I really wish I would have just gone one more quarter. Because dear GOD, I wanted to shoot myself in the face

I had Physics III, Medical Imaging, Advanced Biomedical Theories, Circuits, This bitch of a math class (and I love math), among other things. :/

That sounds wonderful to me. Have I mentioned that I'm a complete masochist with regard to anything academic? But I'd probably want to shoot myself too, just in a sort of 'this is how life should be' way. ...Are you feeling me here or do I just sound silly?

I almost split this quarter's stuff up between two quarters, but I'm so anxious to get things done and move my plans along. It's been over a year since I've really gotten to be a student, so... I just hate the thought of taking more time than I absolutely have to for anything.

Well here's the thing. College is an experience. And if you're overloaded you don't get to experience it. 20 hard core credits mean that you have 40 hours a week of HOMEWORK, plus the reading/study/classtime. I got it done, but I didn't get to actually focus as much as I wanted or REALLY get into the subjects the way that I wanted.

Once further, if you've never had college level maths/engineering/phsyics it's basic suicide to do it. It's a whole other level from anything else. It's like wading through fire and scrambling and always missing deadlines. It's balancing group work and projects and everyone needs downtime.

It is not wonderful. I don't care what your IQ is.

Okay. Of course I didn't mean to offend or imply anything about your capabilities. Are you offended? I can't really tell if you're just defending your point or if I came off as an ass (and if I did I'm sorry).

Nope not an ass at all, hon. I do worry that you're being naive and not realizing how challenging the coursework CAN be. There is a massive jump from being an excellent HS student to an excellent college one.

And while it's certainly possible to take over 20 credit hours, I'd never willingly do more than 18. It's just... you're not enjoying your life when you're working that hard.

You're far too young and far too passionate to burn yourself out. That's what I'm worried about.

Oh, okay, good.

I've been in college since I was 16 (finished HS on college credits), so I don't think I'm being incredibly naive. Just moderately naive. And not to tell a sob story, but I'm not enjoying my life anyway. The sooner I can get a job that allows me to support myself more than minimally and is related to my eventual career, the sooner I can disentangle myself from the things which are keeping me unhappy. Which is why I'm trying to get everything done so fast. And really this is kind of a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel scenario, so it'll take an awful lot for me to burn out. It's only one quarter and then I'll have a lot less to deal with anyway~~, sempai.~~

So there's not nothing to be worried over, but it's not as bad as it looks. And come on, being youthful and passionate are supposed to drive you to do inadvisable things :]

God, I hate university bureaucracy! And the thing is that there is no reason whatsoever that you should have to jump through so many hoops. If certain offices and people were designated for this type of thing then it would all go so smoothly, but sadly, there are always too many hands in the pot and the departments never talk to each other.

Seriously, I have much the same issue with the office of anthropology - particularly with staff members that I have to take courses from to get credits for my degree. There is one that is completely culturally centered while another is physical centered. The physical centered one is so elitist about the science that in her mind the cultural side should exist and it is so difficult for me to get her to communicate with my other prof about some things that I need to have done to complete my degree. It's awful. And they are in the same department.

I guess it will be my good luck to be able to get the history department to confer with the anthropology department if that is ever a need. Forget getting Financial aid to talk to the registrar or academics. UGH!

So, you have my sympathies.

In the words of my favorite history professor, the administration is so full of shit its eyes are brown. Incompetence is a sport for these people or something. And yeah, if everyone knew policy and bothered to communicate with their coworkers, there wouldn't be half as many problems - but most peoples' strategy seems to be to send you to as many offices and deliver as much conflicting information as possible.

I think the issue is really that very few people take pride in their work. It seems like everyone's goal is to get the cushiest gig possible and shove all their duties onto someone else, at least, almost everyone I've run into with an administrative job is this way.

You have my sympathies too, mate.

I'm just gonna agree with Drak here--be careful. Don't be afraid to mix things up if you find out this schedule doesn't work for you. Don't be afraid to drop one or two classes out of the entire monstrous lineup because it's just too much for one semester.

It may not seem overly hard looking at it on paper, and you may be an absolute academic masochist, but it can be mentally and emotionally dangerous to overload yourself, and burning out is not a fun experience.

That said, best of luck getting it all worked out. ♥

I swear, it's not just that I think this is manageable, I have a track record that supports that it is. I wouldn't set myself up to fail. It also helps that these are things I want, not just things I have to do.

Thanks for the support dude :] That of course is a huge help also.

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