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  • Why can't it ever be easy

    I've been in post secondary education for a long time, partially because I keep graduating during a recession.

    I've noticed a trend where schools have these hidden rules and surprises a lot of the time. This is my third school for the record. Schools really need to be more up front with their students about what is going on.

    Background: I am a grad student, for my credit requirements beyond my thesis I am required to take 4 courses, 2 are independent reading courses I've already done and two are in class actual courses one of which I've done.

    The fourth course is where the issue comes in, there are three possible choices to take, 2 are offered one year and the third the next flipping back and forth. I spoke to my supervisor asking him which course would be best for what I was working on and my current skills and he suggested the course that is on its own. So I did and I waited until my second year and signed up for it.

    The day before the semester starts I email my supervisor who is listed as one of the teachers for the course what the schedule is because I can't find it anywhere. He tells me it's the same as an undergrad course. He is listed as one of the teachers for the course in the calendar.

    See this course is an extension of an undergrad course, it overlaps about 70% and you have added extra work. I did not know this, and this is where the problem comes in. I took that course already for undergrad, so I ask him about that and he's the one that taught it at the time too. He says because of the extra work it's fine for me to take it. Ok problem solved right?

    Quoth Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor
    WRONG!
    so I go to the second lecture having missed the first due to this I go talk to the teacher who is the other person listed in the calendar. I tell her I need to be added to the blackboard for the course so I can see the notes and stuff. She didn't know I was enrolled in the grad course or that anyone was, or that I'd already taken the course. So she has to talk to my supervisor and according to an email I have in my inbox the other department supervisor as well who I'm meeting with on thursday.

    For the record this is normally a 2 year degree.

    by the way I am now considering the title of this thread to possibly be the title of my autobiography.
    Last edited by EricKei; 01-19-2014, 12:51 PM. Reason: merged consecutive posts
    Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
    Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

  • #2
    Quoth gremcint
    ... the title of my autobiography.


    Too true.

    My biggest bummer about school came at the literal last minute. I was chatting with the person seated next to me (alphabetically) at the graduation ceremony who turned out to be in my major and learned that replacing TWO lousy electives with business ed classes would have given me a double major, as she had.

    I totally understand that the number of options and variations at a large institution are complex, but (as with your supervisor) isn't it kind of my advisor's job to know and point out something that big?

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    • #3
      Quoth patiokitty View Post
      It's a bit complicated sometimes due to the way the requirements are worded, but one would expect an advisor to know how to figure it out, right?
      Indeed, but I can't really fault her for not helping me to do it, I just didn't know enough to even bring it up it up. Had I gone in and said "I want to double major in ..." I'm sure we could have figured it out fairly easily. I had no idea that it would have been as easy as giving up that 300 level Shake's Lit course for another accounting class (plus some other switch). Seems like a win-win for the college too; you pump out double majors for bragging rights, and get the same amount of money.

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      • #4
        I actually caught once in the course calendar where a class listed itself as a prerequisite.
        Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
        Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

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        • #5
          I wanted to major in Accounting and minor in Spanish. I wasn't allowed to because, as the university put it, you can't minor outside the B-School if you're majoring in it. (B-School=business school.) Which is stupid beyond anything. Evidently that policy has been changed according to the students who call me up wanting me to donate to the university scholarship fund.
          Figers are vicious I tell ya. They crawl up your leg and steal your belly button lint.

          I'm a case study.

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          • #6
            Quoth Cia View Post
            you can't minor outside the B-School if you're majoring in it. .
            Yeah, 'cause no country has international business...

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            • #7
              Isn't that what minors are for...? To let you focus a bit on something you're interested in without taking away from your primary degree? o_O Yeah, I know, some people use them for practical things like enhancing their degree, can't imagine why
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              • #8
                It seems to have been resolved now with me taking the course, though still waiting to be added to the blackboard site for it.
                Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
                Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

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                • #9
                  Quoth EricKei View Post
                  Isn't that what minors are for...? To let you focus a bit on something you're interested in without taking away from your primary degree? o_O Yeah, I know, some people use them for practical things like enhancing their degree, can't imagine why
                  A more common pattern down here is to dual-major. My undergrad was an Arts degree and they said that a majority of students at my uni dual-major, some just do a single major and the other triple-major (the degree let you do that at the time).

                  I wound up dual-majoring in politics and international relations, with a smattering of elective courses in French, sociology, criminology, Indonesian gamelan* and Asian Studies.

                  *-I am not kidding. My uni was one of the only ones in the state to have a full Indonesian gamelan area set up and a building specifically constructed for it called a pendopo. We could take the class as an elective or as part of an Asian Studies major. I did it as an elective.
                  The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

                  Now queen of USSR-Land...

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                  • #10
                    Quoth fireheart View Post
                    My uni was one of the only ones in the state to have a full Indonesian gamelan area set up and a building specifically constructed for it called a pendopo. We could take the class as an elective or as part of an Asian Studies major. I did it as an elective.
                    Amazing! I did an Arts degree here in Dublin (Ireland) if Music & Greek and Roman Civilisation but one of my ethnomusicology classes was on Indonesian music specifically gamelan. I would have loved a chance to have a go. I understand that the lecturer for that course has persuaded the Music Dept to let her get one and the students get to play it.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth tSubh Dearg View Post
                      Amazing! I did an Arts degree here in Dublin (Ireland) if Music & Greek and Roman Civilisation but one of my ethnomusicology classes was on Indonesian music specifically gamelan. I would have loved a chance to have a go. I understand that the lecturer for that course has persuaded the Music Dept to let her get one and the students get to play it.
                      There are different instruments in a gamelan ensemble. We had a mixture of all of them. One of the guys from the community ensemble came in and played the drums, while the other two helped teach us the parts to the songs we learned.

                      The running joke was that whenever we were playing "Udan Mas" (meaning golden rain) we'd be summoning the rain. It didn't help that I was on the saron panerus (which looks and sounds a little like a glockenspiel) and I was basically duplicating the notes, so it DID sound like rain!

                      One of my favourite songs to play hands down though, was one that had been written by one of the guys at the uni called "Kincir Air" or "Water Wheel." The song in itself was actually meant to sound like a waterwheel turning. Because we were playing it in "pelog" mode however and the particular instrument I was playing was slightly broken, it sounded more like a waterwheel skipping.

                      *Pelog: Basically one of the two "tuning" systems. Pelog ran on a 7-note scale, while Slendro ran on a 5-note scale.
                      The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

                      Now queen of USSR-Land...

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