Question For Grad Students

[CatherineM]

What would you think if you were 75% through with your program, 4 years and much money invested, to be told that you would be required to take 12 additional hours. Not just any old classes either, but classes in a subject you detest. Classes that you had made sure you wouldn't have to take before initial enrollment. I literally made sure my prior coursework would count towards this requirement before enrolling in my first class. Now out of the blue I'm told I have to take four more classes before I can begin work on my dissertation. Had I known they would do this to me, I wouldn't have stepped foot in the place.

Funny thing is I just endowed a scholarship there. I'll have nothing more to do with them. I guess I'll look for another program to transfer my credits to. Schools don't want that many transferred, so I'll miss most. This has been a hard day.

[Jaime]

I am so sorry Catherine!! Grad school is hard enough without shenanigans like that.











(ok its not hard for me because I'm getting my master's in Special Ed. But most grad school programs are hard!)

[Groo the Wanderer]

scram.,...and take your endowment with ya

[Luigi]

It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but I think you'll lose more credits by transferring that you will by staying and taking the additional four courses.

I've heard of other schools doing this sort of thing... I guess that doesn't make it any easier, but at least know that thy're not picking on you in particular...

And even if [i]every[/i] school did it, it still stinks.

[Brother Adam]

So you don't have anything in writing? I would pull the endowement as well. That might change their thinking.

[CatherineM]

Actually I do think this was planned. I made it clear upfront that I wouldn't enroll if this was required. I think I was lied to because they were desperate to increase their lay enrollment. I think they figured once I was almost finished that I'd do whatever they wanted. I don't need the degree, so I'm calling them on the lie.

They might as well ask me to take a class in orgies. I won't do it under any circumstances.

[Lil Red]

may i ask what class it is?

and p.s. that s[i]u[/i]cks.

[AnneLine]

This is truly underhanded and M E A N.

However, see this a lot in colleges.... sad. One wouldn't expect it at a seminary.. . but just proves that people run those, right?

Do you have anything in writing that documents that you asked about whether you would have to take the class. I remember being STRONGLY advised to keep a copy of the Univerity Bulletin (which listed, classes, prereqs, etc.) for my grad degree until AFTER I had graduated, because they said that if I could prove something was on the books and the rquirements changed, that I could make an argument citing that source. Perhaps there is a copy in the Seminary or a nearby university library?

Can you offer to challenge the classes, and threaten to raise the issue to a higher forum if they refuse? And or that you might go public in print or on the TV? (not serious on the last one, but this kind of publicity wouldn't help them, and they might think that Audacious Catherine might really do it!).

You do sometimes sound to me more like Teresa of Avila than a Catherine.... truly a strong, audacious woman! What a wonderful thing! (not bad to have TWO strong women patrons here....)

But I totally get how you feel about not going on any further- it isn't as if you don't have anything else going on in your world, right?

Prayers for your discernment on this, Catherine!

Edited February 29, 2012 by AnneLine

[Deus te Amat]

[quote name='AnneLine' timestamp='1330487724' post='2394363']

You do sometimes sound to me more like Teresa of Avila than a Catherine.... truly a strong, audacious woman!

[/quote]




You certainly can't be talking about the St. Catherine that stared down a corrupt college of cardinals and won, convinced a weak pope to return to Rome from Avignon, wrote letters to more than 50 majorly influential men during the Schism, represented her state to the Florentine government, and did so much in 33 years to be named Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Italy, and Patroness of Europe?

Obviously we can be thinking of the same Catherine, because I think CatherineM is doing a pretty darn good imitation!

[tinytherese]

Do you have any documented proof from the past where you were told that you wouldn't have to take these classes?

I also know that program requirements can be modified over time. This one guy and I are supposed to graduate in May but not that long ago, the requirements to graduate with our major were modified. Our adviser got permission for us to operate under the old system since we were so close to the finish line.

[Basilisa Marie]

If it were me, I'd pull the endowment, and explore my options. If I could find a program that would let me transfer most of my credits, I'd jump ship.

[sixpence]

What considerate programs will do is grandfather you in to the older system.... also... shouldn't the program course requirements be in writing somewhere??

[eagle_eye222001]

I promise colleges and grad programs make 5% of their money through this illusion course game.

In high school they entice you to spend extra money so you can skip classes later in college, and then college advisers lie to you claiming you have to repeat certain classes or FAIL to inform you that you could have skipped class 1A and gone to 1B right away.

I hate colleges and universities for several reasons with CatherineM's complaint being one of them. It's the greatest SCAM on earth!!!! My food bill was cut in half by moving off campus!

Colleges and universities paint this magic fairyland where you come to their system, and at the end, your $XXX,XXX in debt with a piece of paper declaring to the world your now smart.

I don't deny that colleges and grad programs can provide some real instruction in some areas, but I would argue that half of the education at universities is basically a scam.

I know CatherineM is talking about grad programs....but they play the same game at lower levels.

[HopefulBride]

I'd claw somebody's eyes out



([size=1]oops, did I say that out loud?[size=4])[/size][/size]

[size=1][size=4]Seriously though, can they do that? I know in the states most schools go by your catalog year. Whatever was in the active catalog for the year that you began school. Can't you fight it and ask to be held to the requirements as they were the year you began the program?[/size][/size]

[CatherineM]

The requirements haven't changed. I knew exactly what was required, and four undergraduate philosophy classes were a prerequisite to enter. No problem, I had them. The registrar agreed, and it never occurred to me to get it in writing. Silly me, I thought her word would be sufficient. Now I've been told that only one of my 30 hours will count. They want me to take 3 more undergrad philosophy classes.

Now before everyone starts telling me how wonderful and spiritual and theological philosophy is, don't bother. I detest philosophy. As far as I am concerned, it is a bunch of guys with nothing better to do sitting around talking just to hear their heads rattle. I think the biggest problem in seminary education is that seminarians can spout off Kant and Lonergan by heart, but have no real world street smarts. I'd rather have a priest whose undergrad is in psychology or child development or even business sitting across a desk from me when I need real priestly advice.

My last philosophy instructor was in love with Bernard Lonergan. He just babbled on and on. I wanted to shoot myself. I literally wrote exams in gobbledly-gook. I thought up the most outlandish, non-nonsensical things I could, pulling rambling incomplete sentences out of my arse, and made the highest grades in the class. I turned in one assignment that was a two page long sentence. One sentence that had no real subject or verb. I got an A+. It was like something someone on LSD would write. I just don't have the time or interest for drivel.

I'm just going to put my time into finishing my next book. I have asked to have my name removed from the scholarship.