I was supposed to get my BA in a week...

[Hatalles]

I just got an e-mail from one of the school's Graduation Evaluators... and even though I took every class I needed to for my major, took every single elective I needed to outside my major, had fulfilled every GE requirement I needed to transfer over from a community college to this school two years ago, and managed to maintain a 3.5 GPA ... she says I'm 4 units shy of the 180 units needed to graduate (for those unfamiliar with the quarter system, 4 units = 1 class). I had already submitted my application for graduate school in the Fall, so now I've got to waste my time and take any random garbage class this summer to earn my BA.

Isn't life just wonderful? :banghead:

[dsc]

1. I am so glad I went to a small undergraduate school

I hear these horror stories about undergraduate schools messing up people's graduations way too often. One of the teachers at my school had to retake a class due to a visiting prof messing up and thus had to delay entry into the job market for several months. It is inexcusible.

[Hatalles]

9. The admissions/records/evaluator folks are notorious here...

... when I first transferred over they had lost one of my transcripts so I had to re-send it. Not only that, but it took up until last quarter and two e-mails to finally get them to evaluate the last summer and spring courses from the school I had transferred from. I had a friend who worked in the department and he told me about the amount of work that just piled and piled up... he's since left but even him and several professors have complained about the dept. too.

It doesn't help that the Governator is shortchanging our schools either.

[dsc]

13. I feel your pain

I hope you can get things fixed. Maybe one of the law school grads can help you out. I bet something signed John Doe lawyer would help immensly to get them to figure out a solution.

[Wickerman]

2. See if you can take a few CLEP tests

for those remaining hours. If you don't have any other alternative credit most schools will allow up to 30 semester hours. Take 3 or 4 tests, you're bound to pass something even without much thought or prep, and you're ready for grad school.

[lenidog]

3. That is the way to go

I killed off twelve credits of basic history credits that way. I spend 90 bucks and could get on with taking the history classes I really needed and wanted.

[indy_azcat]

4. ditto - works for foreign languages too!

n/t

[lenidog]

8. I don't remember exactly what else there was

but I think there were some CLEPS for some basic sciences and business classes.

[Wickerman]

5. yep, wiped out a year of school doing that

made up for that, uh, lost year. :freak:

[Hatalles]

7. I'll look into it.

I just sent in a reply to this evaluator with a few questions... I don't have too much experience with CLEP tests but here's hoping...

[uppityperson]

6. Challenge classes, take tests, you can get something.

When I graduated I had a double major, was supposed to get a BS and an AD. They gave me the AD and I didn't notice they missed the BS until 2 months later when I got an official transcript. They apologized, but it looks like I got the BS after summerschool when I really got both together. This was after almost not getting it because my advisor missed a basic English class I needed.

Congratulations on the 3.5 GPA. Good job.

[Hatalles]

12. Thanks. =)

[stopbush]

10. Check out my story:

Similar...but ultimately silly.

I came from a family of 8, a one-income house with little income to speak of. If we kids wanted to do college, we did it through scholarships and money we earned doing shit work. I saved all through Jr High & HS, and after HS graduation, went to a 4-year college in Music Ed. I needed 192 semester hours to earn a degree. I wanted to make the most of my college experience, so I took heavy course loads all the time, summer sessions too. If I ran out of money, I'd go to the local branch of the school and work part-time from home to get the $ to get back to the main campus.

After 4.5 years, I was ready to graduate. My student teaching was done, I had a 3.14...and 240 hrs of coursework. But by that time, I had decided I didn't want to teach, I wanted to perform. So, I filed out my graduation papers and headed to NYC to pursue a singing career opportunity.

After about 2 months in NYC (now employed and singing around town), I get a notice from the U - "You have an incomplete in a required piano course that must be finished to process your graduation." Huh? Yep. The fucking grad student who ran the course fucked up! Well, I was in debt to the school to the tunes of thousands of dollars, had established myself in NYC and was earning a living, and had about enough of the academic/bureaucratic BS (in addition, I had found a great singing teacher who was busy fixing what my college teachers had fucked up in my voice), so I said, "to hell with it."

Over the next 8 years, I slowly paid off my college loans. Every couple of years, I'd inquire to see if there was a way to finish that degree, just to have it (so much work and nothing to show for it). At the same time, I got out of the music performance racket and started making real money in a totally different discipline...which pushed the desire and need to finish that degree farther down the pecking order. The last time I inquired was back in 2003, but I didn't do anything about it.

Now, I'm looking into the CA system to see if I could finish this degree by proxy. I could have done it years ago, and I probably should have. If I had had the $ resources back then, I should have probably turned around from NYC and headed back to finish that never-to-be-used degree simply because THAT was the time to do it. But I didn't have the $ and the frustration clouded my better judgment.

So, while I can understand your frustrations about the incompetence of the system, you're better off eating their shit NOW than dealing with it down the road.

At the end of the day, I'll find the time to finish that degree, even though it won't mean anything to my professional life, even though I have never and will never be a music teacher in the PE sector. But, I owe it to myself to do it. And you owe it to YOURSELF to put this thing to bed ASAP and move on to real life.

Who knows, it may even be fun!

[Hatalles]

11. Thanks for your post. =)

It may be fun, we'll see... I'm in the middle of a move and a job hunt this summer so finding out about this *now* makes things a little bit more frustrating. Ah, well... hopefully I can find a one day a week PE or Art class that'll earn me the 4 units. But like I said in another post, lack of funding here in CA = less staff, less classes, and longer waitlists.

I appreciate the advice. Good luck to you too. :)

[grace0418]

14. I'm sorry. I had an opposite but equally annoying thing

happen to me. My advisor sucked, hard, and I ended up finding out second semester senior year that I could've graduated in December. But I had to stay in school at that point or else I would've lost my scholarship and I would've had to pay the scholarship money from first semester back to the school (which I did not have). Plus, I couldn't just take a few blow-off classes, I had to take 16 hours of classes in my major.

Also, because I started out as an architecture major (before switching to art), I was in this advanced calculus class that was kicking my ass. My advisor said I was required to take the next level of calculus or else I would have to start all over again with my science requirement for art majors. The next class was even harder and I killed myself to get a "C"- my only "C" all through college. I found out later I could've taken ANY math class I wanted to fulfill the requirement, even basic algebra. God she sucked as an advisor.

[Hatalles]

15. YIKES!

Wow... I have it incredibly easy compared to what you went through. Glad to see that you made it through that hellish experience... pretty much literally imprisoned in school.

:wow:

[grace0418]

16. Thanks. And you will too. I remember being so pissed that

the stupid "C" I got in calculus (it was five hours) changed my gpa from 4.8 to 4.75 (out of 5) because I was still trained to believe gpas mattered a lot. Then I got out in the real world and discovered that no one gave a rat's ass about my gpa. At least not for art majors. I wouldn't trade my four year there. I had a blast in college, and appreciated it even more after I got a regular job and stopped having any free time. I miss free time.