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More misadventures in higher education
Mar. 6th, 2007 06:48 amI'm still here, but school is kicking my ass. Not in the sense of being overwhelmed, just in the sense of being totally buried under all of the crap I have to do, half of it by next week. I have to register for fall, and summer if I'm doing anything over the summer, on the 14th. I vaguelly had this figured out- and then I decided to shake things up, and transfer to UC instead of a CSU. I want to go to Berkley. Have always wanted to go to Berkley, actually, but now I think I'm going to try to do it.
So I thought, okay, transfer reques are different between the two types of schools, let's go see the guidance councelor type person to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.
Not only did she only tell me a bunch of stuff I already knew, we seem to have a little bit of a disagreement (or, you know, a major one) as to what in fact constitutes a duck.
Plus I know some of the stuff she told me was flat-out wrong.
And because apparently she only works afternoons, I hung around after my 10:00-11:00AM class, to see her at 3:00PM. Figured on getting done with her at 3:30, and decided I'd just wait for Mom to get off work around 4:30ish.
The only part of yesterday's plan that worked out the way it was supposed to was Mom picking me up on her way home from work.
My councelor is an idiot. Not as much of an idiot as the one she replaced, but really not that bright, either. I know I need 2 semesters of a foreign language for UC, which I don't exactly have. I have one semester of French I scraped through, and I will not be taking French 2. And they have to be the same language, naturally. So I told her I want Russian, and by the way, does she know if the local Christian college still lets city college people into their summer schools, because they're the only local people who have the Russian classes.
What I got was "Russian is a VERY hard language to learn," and a strong hint that I couldn't do it. Anyone who knows me- she obviously doesn't- knows that telling me I can't do something is a very good way to make me want to stick a pen in your eye, and do it anyway. With bells on if possible.
That's one. Then she tells me, when I ask a question I already know the appropriate answer to, that there's no need for me to retake the math class last semester's meltdown caused me to fail, because I don't need it for the psychology major, and "you would just be wasting time." For additional support, she cited the argument that "Your GPA will come up after this semester to at least 3.0, and that's a perfectly fine GPA."
I don't know how she failed to notice my jaw hitting the floor. First of all, I want to go to UC, and not everyone who applies gets in, disabled or not. Second of all, I'm an honors student with my eye on a future spot in a very competative government internship program. A B avarage ain't gonna cut it. I also think my honor society advisors might have something to say about the B avarage...
Do I want to retake the math class from hell? Not really. Am I going to retake it? Not really seeing a lot of options that I find acceptable.
This idiot also takes a look at the general education requirements, which are different for UC vs CSU, and tells me that I do indeed still need a Speech class. Goes to the trouble to write out a slip for me to register for Speech in summer school. Not a bad idea, I guess, except that it says in all CAPS on the GE checklist "Oral communication - CSU only."
*headdesk*
And they pay her for this.
Thank Gods I'm me, I read everything, question everyone, and have heard eight ways from Sunday from friends and my mother that sometimes your councelor is the last person you want to be listening to, about anything. I used to think I was just spectacularly unlucky to have been stuck with a councelor used to dealing with, uh, not to be as horrid as this sounds, but people with other, uh, less physical disabilities. But one of my old gaming buddies, who was going to the local CSU at the time told me he wasn't having much better luck with his personal guidance idiot.
Needless to say I'm not really pleased about having wasted an afternoon at school that I could have used at home to sleep, or to do my own research into transfering to UC. But I've learned a lesson from this. I now know better than to go out of my way to waste time with that woman.
It just pisses me off, because I thought she was better than the old one. Scary thing is, she IS. The old one would have fainted if I said I wanted to go to Berkley. At least this one just nodded, said "good school," and told me their disabled students program rocks.
...Maybe I should look into said program before I take her word for it.
*sigh* I think I have a lot more work to do.
So I thought, okay, transfer reques are different between the two types of schools, let's go see the guidance councelor type person to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.
Not only did she only tell me a bunch of stuff I already knew, we seem to have a little bit of a disagreement (or, you know, a major one) as to what in fact constitutes a duck.
Plus I know some of the stuff she told me was flat-out wrong.
And because apparently she only works afternoons, I hung around after my 10:00-11:00AM class, to see her at 3:00PM. Figured on getting done with her at 3:30, and decided I'd just wait for Mom to get off work around 4:30ish.
The only part of yesterday's plan that worked out the way it was supposed to was Mom picking me up on her way home from work.
My councelor is an idiot. Not as much of an idiot as the one she replaced, but really not that bright, either. I know I need 2 semesters of a foreign language for UC, which I don't exactly have. I have one semester of French I scraped through, and I will not be taking French 2. And they have to be the same language, naturally. So I told her I want Russian, and by the way, does she know if the local Christian college still lets city college people into their summer schools, because they're the only local people who have the Russian classes.
What I got was "Russian is a VERY hard language to learn," and a strong hint that I couldn't do it. Anyone who knows me- she obviously doesn't- knows that telling me I can't do something is a very good way to make me want to stick a pen in your eye, and do it anyway. With bells on if possible.
That's one. Then she tells me, when I ask a question I already know the appropriate answer to, that there's no need for me to retake the math class last semester's meltdown caused me to fail, because I don't need it for the psychology major, and "you would just be wasting time." For additional support, she cited the argument that "Your GPA will come up after this semester to at least 3.0, and that's a perfectly fine GPA."
I don't know how she failed to notice my jaw hitting the floor. First of all, I want to go to UC, and not everyone who applies gets in, disabled or not. Second of all, I'm an honors student with my eye on a future spot in a very competative government internship program. A B avarage ain't gonna cut it. I also think my honor society advisors might have something to say about the B avarage...
Do I want to retake the math class from hell? Not really. Am I going to retake it? Not really seeing a lot of options that I find acceptable.
This idiot also takes a look at the general education requirements, which are different for UC vs CSU, and tells me that I do indeed still need a Speech class. Goes to the trouble to write out a slip for me to register for Speech in summer school. Not a bad idea, I guess, except that it says in all CAPS on the GE checklist "Oral communication - CSU only."
*headdesk*
And they pay her for this.
Thank Gods I'm me, I read everything, question everyone, and have heard eight ways from Sunday from friends and my mother that sometimes your councelor is the last person you want to be listening to, about anything. I used to think I was just spectacularly unlucky to have been stuck with a councelor used to dealing with, uh, not to be as horrid as this sounds, but people with other, uh, less physical disabilities. But one of my old gaming buddies, who was going to the local CSU at the time told me he wasn't having much better luck with his personal guidance idiot.
Needless to say I'm not really pleased about having wasted an afternoon at school that I could have used at home to sleep, or to do my own research into transfering to UC. But I've learned a lesson from this. I now know better than to go out of my way to waste time with that woman.
It just pisses me off, because I thought she was better than the old one. Scary thing is, she IS. The old one would have fainted if I said I wanted to go to Berkley. At least this one just nodded, said "good school," and told me their disabled students program rocks.
...Maybe I should look into said program before I take her word for it.
*sigh* I think I have a lot more work to do.
