Greetings. My name is Back and I am attending college in pursuit of an English degree and Journalism minor. During my five-semester stint at a predominant Big 10 school (yes, one of the ones with a rodent for a mascot), I completed many of my general education requirements such as natural sciences, physical sciences, and math. In addition, I completed a number of higher-level English courses. Now, at the end of my first semester at a smaller state-system university, I am being told I have to take: THREE more natural sciences, TWO more math classes, an INTRO to English studies, and a fiction workshop IDENTICAL to the one I already completed at, let’s face it–a better school. Why? Those Big 10 credits simply didn’t transfer. This, ladies and gentlemen, translates into one extra semester of schooling and I am PISSED.
I cannot even wrap my head around this tremendous waste of time and money right now. It’s not that I have to go an extra semester–that’s almost standard nowadays. Hell, even Forth took 5 years to graduate. It’s WHY I have to. I’m a fucking ENGLISH MAJOR. Do I seriously need Topics in Biology 103 when I’ve already taken Astronomy and Anthropology labs? No. This girl’s got all the science she’ll ever need. I took math up at the Big 10 school and finished though I’m RETARDED at numbers. But I transfer here, take the placement test, where I was asked trig. questions from high school, and suddenly I need to take not only another math, but remedial not-for-credit math as well. The thing is–I can’t get out of this shit. I looked up appeals to the university and not only would that probably not work, it is likely to be “detrimental” to my existence at the university. And that is a direct quote.
It is my nature to freak out about things like this, and I’ve been so upset that I’ve gotten waves of nausea off and on during the past two days, and I feel like I have to force myself into an appetite. I have another meeting with my English adviser tomorrow, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to continue to bend over and take it. Hell, I don’t even want a real job, so I certainly don’t want to dick around with university politics longer than I have to.
Blarughh.
In the immortal words of Incubus “rest assured they’ll screw you complete, till your ass is blue and gray.”
**Back
P.S.–Three cheers for the PB&J make-out sesh at the end of this week’s Office. Giggety!
2 responses so far ↓
t-dizzle // May 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Hey-o. I’m pretty sure that you’ll be able to float your English credits over. I had the same issue when I transfered from UW. They had issues with my intro course, as well as my Shakespeare. I looked at my English advisor and told him basically your complaint. These courses were more intense and ultimately more difficult at my previous shitbox of wealth, and, he agreed. Pretty much no questions asked. He may be able to sign off on your other GERs but I’m not sure. Good luck kiddo.
Back // May 9, 2008 at 11:00 pm
UPDATE: Alright so I got my intro course waived, as well as one of the workshops. I have to do another fiction workshop though, because 2 is their policy. So whatev. I have contacted a couple higher-ups in the Letters & Science department about my science, so we shall see what happens there. The worst that could happen now is that I graduate in May and finish up a class or two the following summer. T-dizzle, I was extremely relieved when I read that comment this morning though.
Leave a Comment