NWR - angry/frustrated tears, I can feel them … {rant} - UPDATE

wandajune6 · May 2015

AprilH81 said:

wandajune6 said:
Just be careful counting on advisers.

While this was years and years ago, I still hold a bit of a grudge against one of my college advisers. I had one for each major. I thought I would be graduating with 2 majors but found out while applying for graduation that an adviser gave me bad advice: I took one class too many in bucket A and was one short in bucket B. Basically, I took one higher level class more than I needed and was short one intro Spanish course. The requirements changed while I was in school and he never stayed updated. I graduated on time but with a major and a minor, not a second major.
Usually graduation requirements are set in stone based on the year you are admitted as long as you continue to be a student.

That totally sucks for you that you got screwed out of a double major.

It's been a long time but, if memory serves, it was something to do with being grandfathered in. I wish I remembered more precisely but the guy caused a lot of problems that year.

bizzy592 · May 2015

KatieinBkln said:

I loved messing around with this stuff. Maybe in my next job I should like, get paid to do it professionally, for others.

ETA boxes---------

There's a company, College Scheduler, which has a great piece of software that does this. I think they're in Palo Alto? You should work for them!

KatieinBkln · May 2015

bizzy592 said:

KatieinBkln said:

I loved messing around with this stuff. Maybe in my next job I should like, get paid to do it professionally, for others.

ETA boxes---------

There's a company, College Scheduler, which has a great piece of software that does this. I think they're in Palo Alto? You should work for them!

Ha--more like, they've already made a machine to do what I enjoy doing only more quickly and efficiently! Palo Alto does sound pretty nice, though...

littlemushroom · May 2015

Along with Wanda's story, I would be careful what an advisor tells you. I did a double major and a minor, but I only had one advisor who was the Philosophy Dept chair due to Philosophy being my declared major as an incoming freshman. That dept had less than 20 people as declared majors, and I was the only incoming freshman advisee he had EVER had, despite having been an advisor for decades.

He told me I could take level 1 and level 2 of calculus for my math and science gen ed requirements. Turns out, level 2 didn't count towards gen Ed. I petitioned to have it count, and lost. That is how I ended up having to take oceanography my last year to finish out those requirements. It sucked.

As for classes counting for multiple requirements at once, that is something else to be careful of. I wanted to use a feminism class to count towards both my primary major of Philosophy and towards my diversity requirements (and my advisor said I could). I found out later that wasn't allowed. I had to choose which requirement it would go towards. Once again, I had to petition for an exception because pretty much all the classes going towards diversity were Philosophy classes and I was already taking every philosophy class offered every semester to be able to finish my degree a year early. That time I won and they let it count towards both, but it isn't something to count on.

louxnoelle · May 2015

Alrighty, well ...

The department head emailed me back offering to give me the professor's phone number when he got into the office, which I thanked him profusely for, but never did. My advisor's advice is to just let it go and appeal the grade afterwards.

I'll be printing stuff and heading to the department offices tomorrow for some answers. I didn't do it today because I thought the phone number was coming, but I'll gather al my stuff tonight and move forward in the morning.

Bleh. Thank you all so much for your advice.

redoryx · May 2015

I would just be careful and double check the rules regarding double dipping: about a month before graduation I got a letter saying I was ineligible because I was missing a credit. Turns out, my advisor had fucked up my audit two years prior -- where we go over what I've done and make a plan for junior and senior year -- and counted a class for two requirements but because of whatever rule he actually wasn't allowed to do that in this case. The college didn't catch the mistake at the time and only after I applied for graduation did they go over my transcripts and see I was missing the credit.

Luckily I still had all the paperwork to back up their signing off on the credit but I was on the phone for hours with anyone and everyone I could so I definitely know what you're feeling. It all ended up working out and hopefully this will work out for you, too.

huskypuppy14 · May 2015

AprilH81 said:
My college had a page in the front of our course catalog that had the degree requirements with blanks that you could fill in with what course(s) you took to satisfy that requirement. It was a great visual tool to see where I stood at the end of each semester. My advisor was just someone who signed off on my plan if I needed her to.

Ditto @katieinbkin about the catalog telling you what requirements each class satisfies and a tip (if you don't know this already) is to try to make each course satisfy two or more requirements. I took a World Music History class that satisfied a fine arts, world perspective and a history requirement. "Double Dipping" where you can will allow you to graduate on time without having to pay for extra classes.

Regardless, you should not be treated like you have been. Good luck!

Some colleges don't let you do that; mine didn't. It can fulfill the perspective and a major requirement, but not two perspectives.

I was a biochemistry major, so physics can fulfill my science requirement and obviously I needed it for my major, but it didn't also count as my math requirement. We had 8 perspective courses we had to take, but they had to be 8 different classes.

jacques27 · May 2015

Out of curiosity, does your school have a testing center that you were supposed to make arrangements with? At my school, most of the professors who allow make-up exams give their exam to the testing center in advance and then students who have to make up an exam call the testing center to make an appointment. My thought is maybe since he agreed to let you take the make-up exam, he assumed you'd just take the next step with the testing center?

Just one possibility I'd throw out there. It absolutely sucks that he's unresponsive and that's unacceptable, but just worth a shot if maybe your school has a testing center and you just weren't aware (the only reason I know about mine is one of my classes this semester was next door to it).

(Sidenote: This has given me a new appreciation for my school. It was my first semester back and not only is everyone super responsive to all communications so far, they have an interactive audit that basically calculates what you've taken and what requirements it fulfills for you and spits out a list of what requirements are left to fulfill and a list of the courses that fulfill the requirement. It's fantastic! One of the things I was most worried about figuring out how my transfer credits would work with their requirements and all that worry was for nothing. I just plugged in my student ID and it spit out a color-coded report for me.)

louxnoelle · May 2015

I just woke up to an email from the professor saying the math department would be scheduling a make-up exam in the next few weeks. No reference to my other emails. No "sorry to have worried you." Just letting me know that I'll have an "I" as my grade until the final is taken, which won't affect my GPA, and that somebody will be in touch.

So, YYYAAAYYY! but also *grumblegrumble*

Thank you guys again, not only for your practical advice, but also for your support. This really had me shaken for some reason; I think the bulk of it is that, as I mentioned, I had to really power through this semester (if not this entire year) and I was getting angry that other people didn't seem to be coming through on their end of things.

Moving forward, I know to continue being my own advocate, just as much if not moreso than I have been - just one more year!

allispain · May 2015

Glad it looks like the exam will work out for you! Save that e-mail!!!!

Also, I find it odd that the make-up will be scheduled "in a few weeks," as they should have scheduled it sometime during finals week. But the Incomplete until you take the exam is normal protocol if you're taking the exam after finals week has finished, so that seems completely legit. Once you do take the exam, I recommend continuing to document it by sending your professor an e-mail in which you thank him for allowing you to make it up (no matter how much it might gall you to do so, given what he put you through) and state that it has now been completed. Then keep an eye on your grades for this semester, to make sure he puts the change through. That process can take awhile (at my university both the department chair and the school's Dean have to approve the change), so don't get worried if it doesn't happen right away - especially over the summer. If anything goes wrong, though, you'll have both the e-mail he sent you about scheduling the make-up and then also your confirmation e-mail that you took it as documentation.

kvruns · May 2015

KatieinBkln said:

.

I may have been a little extreme - for every semester, I had three or four different "plans" to fit in requirements and prereqs. I knew some classes were offered at multiple times within a semester, while others were only offered once a semester - or, God forbid, once every spring but not in the fall, or vice versa. So I had backups for my backups I case those classes filled up.

LOL, are you me?

I loved messing around with this stuff. Maybe in my next job I should like, get paid to do it professionally, for others.

I did that stuff for my friends too. heck I picked my friend's major for her because she didn't know exactly what she wanted to declare so I picked one that best lined up with her classes taken thus far (I think we had to declare end of sophomore year). To be honest I didn't think it was that hard, my advisor never really "advised" me on what classes to take. I'd map it out, might have said hey does this seem ok and he'd say yes. I can't imagine an adviser being able to make a schedule for everyone, although I would think the registrar's office would be more help with that anyway.

kvruns · May 2015

allispain said:
Glad it looks like the exam will work out for you! Save that e-mail!!!!

Also, I find it odd that the make-up will be scheduled "in a few weeks," as they should have scheduled it sometime during finals week. But the Incomplete until you take the exam is normal protocol if you're taking the exam after finals week has finished, so that seems completely legit. Once you do take the exam, I recommend continuing to document it by sending your professor an e-mail in which you thank him for allowing you to make it up (no matter how much it might gall you to do so, given what he put you through) and state that it has now been completed. Then keep an eye on your grades for this semester, to make sure he puts the change through. That process can take awhile (at my university both the department chair and the school's Dean have to approve the change), so don't get worried if it doesn't happen right away - especially over the summer. If anything goes wrong, though, you'll have both the e-mail he sent you about scheduling the make-up and then also your confirmation e-mail that you took it as documentation.

yea the "in a few weeks" thing was weird to me too. I could see other students being mad if they found out because it then gives her a "few weeks" extra to study. Glad it is working out although for me I'd contact the math department asap to schedule the retake myself so it doesn't get forgotten or dragged out half the summer. I personally would want to take it asap before I forgot all of the material.

anjemon · May 2015

kvruns said:

KatieinBkln said:

.

I may have been a little extreme - for every semester, I had three or four different "plans" to fit in requirements and prereqs. I knew some classes were offered at multiple times within a semester, while others were only offered once a semester - or, God forbid, once every spring but not in the fall, or vice versa. So I had backups for my backups I case those classes filled up.

LOL, are you me?

I loved messing around with this stuff. Maybe in my next job I should like, get paid to do it professionally, for others.

kvruns said:
I did that stuff for my friends too. heck I picked my friend's major for her because she didn't know exactly what she wanted to declare so I picked one that best lined up with her classes taken thus far (I think we had to declare end of sophomore year). To be honest I didn't think it was that hard, my advisor never really "advised" me on what classes to take. I'd map it out, might have said hey does this seem ok and he'd say yes. I can't imagine an adviser being able to make a schedule for everyone, although I would think the registrar's office would be more help with that anyway.

I usually went into my Advisor's office with a plan, and she would look and see if that plan would fulfill my requirements. Or if I was missing one. So she didn't really make my schedule, I still had to try and get into the classes, but she made sure I was completing all my requirements.

It was also nice because she could look at my major-related classes and give me advice on them. Sometimes she would question why I took a specific class. Sometimes she just told me she thought a particular class would be good.

ETFix: BOXES

huskypuppy14 · May 2015

anjemon said:

KatieinBkln said:

.

I may have been a little extreme - for every semester, I had three or four different "plans" to fit in requirements and prereqs. I knew some classes were offered at multiple times within a semester, while others were only offered once a semester - or, God forbid, once every spring but not in the fall, or vice versa. So I had backups for my backups I case those classes filled up.

LOL, are you me?

I loved messing around with this stuff. Maybe in my next job I should like, get paid to do it professionally, for others.

I did that stuff for my friends too. heck I picked my friend's major for her because she didn't know exactly what she wanted to declare so I picked one that best lined up with her classes taken thus far (I think we had to declare end of sophomore year). To be honest I didn't think it was that hard, my advisor never really "advised" me on what classes to take. I'd map it out, might have said hey does this seem ok and he'd say yes. I can't imagine an adviser being able to make a schedule for everyone, although I would think the registrar's office would be more help with that anyway.

I usually went into my Advisor's office with a plan, and she would look and see if that plan would fulfill my requirements. Or if I was missing one. So she didn't really make my schedule, I still had to try and get into the classes, but she made sure I was completing all my requirements.

It was also nice because she could look at my major-related classes and give me advice on them. Sometimes she would question why I took a specific class. Sometimes she just told me she thought a particular class would be good.

ETFix: BOXES

My advisor never made my schedule either. She just looked over what I picked and signed off on it. If I had questions about something, she was always helpful, but it's not their job to pick your classes from scratch.

The other thing an advisor does is tell you if a class meets a certain requirement for your major. For example, I took a class that was only offered once, and it was from a visiting professor. Therefore, it wasn't in the course catalog. It was a science class, and I asked if it would still fulfill one of my requirements for my major. She said it would, and signed off on it. I had no problems. She was great, and if she didn't know the answer, she would find someone who did. I am sorry for those of you who had shitty advisors.

NWR - angry/frustrated tears, I can feel them … {rant} - UPDATE

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