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Well, it’s 12:30 PM and I can’t sleep. It’s my turn to rant about life’s difficulties.
Three years ago I attended a state university (which will remain nameless). My time there was horrible. I spent all three years homesick, poor and depressed. But I got through it. Despite the university messing with me at every turn. No less than three times did they push my graduation date back.
And, come graduation, I was told, “Oh, by the way…congratulations on getting your teaching degree from us, but there’s one other class you have to take. Why we didn’t tell this before you left the university and your financial aid? I don’t know. You have three years to take it, have fun.”
Alright. So I get a teaching job, love teaching, and then remember that I have to take this silly course. POS (appropriate) 220. A constitution class. Even though I don’t teach government. All teachers in the state are required to take it. So I procrastinate until this year, and finally look around to taking it.
The local community college (which I love) does not offer it. Bummer. Other smaller colleges around the state do not offer it as an online course. What’s my only option? To re-enroll in the university that was the bane of my existence for 3 years.
First, I have trouble enrolling. Then they don’t mail me my enrollment information. I call, they help, I call again. I can’t log in, they send me my password. I enrolled in the wrong semester because I could not access any other semester in their course list. I call again. They fix it. I find a mistake. I call back. They fix it. (To their credit, the people who work there are very nice.)
Then I see the cost of the class.
$761.
For a 3 credit, online course.
?!?!?!?!?!?
I have to take this class to keep my teaching job. It is a requirement from the state education department. But $761? Are you kidding me? Frankly, I don’t have it. I won’t bore everyone with details, but we don’t have it.
Bye bye, Windstones. I have to take this class in the next three months in order to keep my job. I have to pay for the class right now. I no longer qualify for financial aid (that I can find – I’m going to be making phone calls on Monday). I’m flabbergasted that an online course could possibly cost $761. But there it is, clear as day. $761. I can’t sleep, I’m so stressed. Where are we going to find the money for this?
And it’s all this university’s fault, for not telling me that I had to take the class while I was there and had financial aid! I’m so furious I can’t see straight.
Sigh. Thanks for reading. 😀 *hugs* Keep an eye out in the Flea Market for yet another list of ‘please buy me’s.
Oh I’m so sorry to hear this. What I can’t understand is how it could have slipped through the cracks. At the university I went to in order to graduate you had to see your advisor and they had to run a credit check to ensure that you had all the credits/required classes you needed to graduate. If you didn’t have all the credits you didn’t walk.
Good luck coming up with the money for the class. I find the bill hard to swallow, but considering the cost of higher education I’m not terribly surprised.
pegasi1978 wrote:Oh I’m so sorry to hear this. What I can’t understand is how it could have slipped through the cracks. At the university I went to in order to graduate you had to see your advisor and they had to run a credit check to ensure that you had all the credits/required classes you needed to graduate. If you didn’t have all the credits you didn’t walk.
Good luck coming up with the money for the class. I find the bill hard to swallow, but considering the cost of higher education I’m not terribly surprised.
The kicker is, I /did/ talk with advisers. A different one every time. They all said I was fine. It wasn’t until I got my teaching certificate from the state that the state said that I needed the class. How convenient for the university.
I’m going to call them on Monday and seek financial aid and debate the cost of the class. *HUG* Thank you for your sympathy.
Well Steph, my university did something similar. Let me do my whole graduation ceremony, then tried to tell me I hadn’t graduated. Turned out they had not run my credits against the revised credit courses that matched everything up so I had. Once they did, ta dah, what do you know, I HAD succeeded in earning my degree…duh!
Took me 3 months after I graduated though to get it official.
Not that it has helped me much, not working in my field and have a nice $50k student loan.
Can you borrow the money from your parents or somebody?? I’d loan it if I had it.
Good luck, get that course done and get on with life, everything will work out in the long run.
I find it interesting that you have to take a course on the Constitution when they aren’t even allowing public schools to teach about it anyway, since it is a “racist” document. Yeah, I see that move as a way for the government to guarantee that in a another generation people won’t know their constitutional rights, which I believe is the whole plan.
I think perhaps we the people need to have that document printed up and posted in our homes and make each of our children read it at least once a month so they know it well. Otherwise we just might be very sorry someday.
Anyway, hang in there.
Kyrin
I’m very sorry that you’re suffering because of their incompetence. 🙁
I hope you’re able to get the price down, get through the class without any more screw-ups on their part, and get the whole mess behind you for good.
Kyrin wrote:I find it interesting that you have to take a course on the Constitution when they aren’t even allowing public schools to teach about it anyway, since it is a “racist” document. Yeah, I see that move as a way for the government to guarantee that in a another generation people won’t know their constitutional rights, which I believe is the whole plan.
Our school teaches it (I teach in a public school), and every classroom in our district (regardless of subject) has to have a poster of it on the wall. So at least here, it’s still seen as important.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, Kyrin and Adaneth. I’m feeling a little less overwhelmed this morning, but still frustrated.
Stephanie wrote:Kyrin wrote:I find it interesting that you have to take a course on the Constitution when they aren’t even allowing public schools to teach about it anyway, since it is a “racist” document. Yeah, I see that move as a way for the government to guarantee that in a another generation people won’t know their constitutional rights, which I believe is the whole plan.
Our school teaches it (I teach in a public school), and every classroom in our district (regardless of subject) has to have a poster of it on the wall. So at least here, it’s still seen as important.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, Kyrin and Adaneth. I’m feeling a little less overwhelmed this morning, but still frustrated.
I was gonna say: we learned it in school too and it was pretty important.
Check and see what fees you’re being charged for by the school and see which ones you can take off (like, say, SIUC charges for student insurance, but if you can prove you already have insurance, they’ll take that $200 fee off.)
I paid $900 for one summer screen printing class before I graduated. I boggled at that, but part of it was that insurance fee. The actual tuition for one regular fall or spring semester with about 12- 14 hour is somewhere i the neighborhood of $2000. Add on fees? That bursar bill is now $3300.
That REALLY Sucks!!
I hope you can work something out!!
My sister had something similar happen. She graduated but owed 1 paper to 1 professor. Got the paper done and got her 1st degree. Was trying for a job in Japan and got it but almost lost it becasue Humbolt State sent a letter with the phrase that she WOULD HAVE graduated May 1988 instead of DID gratuate and they company she was going to work for had a panic attackStephanie wrote:pegasi1978 wrote:Oh I’m so sorry to hear this. What I can’t understand is how it could have slipped through the cracks. At the university I went to in order to graduate you had to see your advisor and they had to run a credit check to ensure that you had all the credits/required classes you needed to graduate. If you didn’t have all the credits you didn’t walk.
Good luck coming up with the money for the class. I find the bill hard to swallow, but considering the cost of higher education I’m not terribly surprised.
The kicker is, I /did/ talk with advisers. A different one every time. They all said I was fine. It wasn’t until I got my teaching certificate from the state that the state said that I needed the class. How convenient for the university.
I’m going to call them on Monday and seek financial aid and debate the cost of the class. *HUG* Thank you for your sympathy.
Ew! That’s probably where your problem came from too many different people without all the right facts. While I was in college I had two different advisors (one when I was going Pre-Vet and a new one when I went Ag. Journalism) and I met with only that one person each and every grading period so they could look over what classes I was intending to take to be sure I was getting what I needed to graduate.Hmm… that’s stinky that they didn’t tell you about that course. I got stung and had to take another class when I was in college just before graduating, with no warning after I already walked for graduation. I was not a happy camper! 👿
Public schools cover the Constitution here several times in elementary school, in 7th grade social studies, and again in US History and Gov’t (11th grade), plus if you take the AP class for US History and Gov’t. Something that I do have to say for the Northeast… early US history and the American Revolution do get covered pretty well up here (I’m sure there are exceptions of course). Then again, it is kind of easy when it happened in our back yard! ❓ Now, I have heard that a lot of places in the TX and the southwest don’t cover US history very much before the Spanish American war and the acquisition of those areas to create the southwest. How true is this? I’m curious to know. ❓
See if any relatives can help, or, if possible, a small loan for that course. I’m not sure if you can find a grant on short notice for it. Maybe your state’s teacher’s union might have a loan program? I’m not familiar with AZ and what is there for programs/etc. You could always pay it back sooner, rather than later. Maybe partly through your tax returns.
My college charged $1400 for a 3 credit course, so for me, that price is a bargain! Granted, state colleges in NY (SUNY) charge around $400-500… my geology course I took cost me about $430 when I took it, and it had a lab with it. Just mean a one mile hike up the road from my college to the state college for part of a summer, but worth it (and the class was a lot of fun too!). Good luck!
Im really sory. Follow Rusti’s advice and see if you cant get a discount. The cost of the course doesnt seem high compared to some of the on line ones I’ve seen, so I’m not surprised about that, but I think you should def qualify for some financial iad or a discount. 😕
siberakh1 wrote:Now, I have heard that a lot of places in the TX and the southwest don’t cover US history very much before the Spanish American war and the acquisition of those areas to create the southwest. How true is this? I’m curious to know. ❓
Honestly I’m not sure. I don’t teach history. I know 6th grade does world history, and 7th is US. History. 8th is more government, if I remember right.
According to the state standards for Social Studies (which I just looked up), they start with early civilizations and end with post WWII and ‘contemporary’. So they do try to get in the entire history. As well as touching on world history (from 6th grade), civics, geography and economics. So, that’s what the state of Arizona expects 7th graders to learn.
So, I guess the fee for the class isn’t as outrageous as I’d first thought? At least I’m not getting ripped off. I’m going to call financial aid on Monday and see if there’s anything I can do to string out payments or get some aid. I doubt it, with the payment due on December 10th, but it’s worth a try. If not, I’ll just suck it up, sell more things, have a cheap holiday and bounce back next year. What else can you do, right?
Thanks, everyone. It really helps. 😀
That really sucks because the one person I know (other then you) who fell through the cracks on that, didn’t get caught until he was teaching for 15 years. And it wasn’t just a little class either. It was his university English. Yup. My father was teaching for 15 years before someone realized that he didn’t have his English requirement. At that point they didn’t care. The figured if they made that many mistakes, that they might as well sweep it under the carpet so to speak, I mean, the UofA gave him his degree, the Alberta Teacher’s Association gave him, and renewed, his license for 15 years, AND he got hired… lol
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