Latest dispatch from the front

[A brief recap, which will update my educational quest to the present day]

As I explained in the previous post, I have wrangled my tuition money from those who were kindly taking care of it for my retirement. (And fear not: I took out enough to pay taxes and the penalty for early withdrawal.)

I have, after many heated e-mails, convinced HOTH to let me drop my scheduled classes and gotten them to refund my already-paid tuition. (By-the-by, I'm not the only one in a state of high dudgeon at that fine institution. Many students who are not dangerously over-educated, and are entitled to financial aid have had their money delayed over and over due to "procedural changes." Some, like my friend Lacey, have found other sources of payment to tide them over until their financial aid arrives. Others, without backup funding, have had to drop out of school before they could even start. The aggrieved students have even set up a Facebook page demanding reform at HOTH. I wish them well.)

I have put up for sale one of the textbooks I bought. (Why, yes, I do happen to have that information handy. Thanks for asking.)

I even have a shiny, new, powerful laptop for note-taking, legal writing, and nifty-paralegal-school-website accessing.

Now I wait with bated breath for my classes to start.

And wait.

And wait some more.

I will be attending at a satellite campus, not at Major University's mothership which is many miles from Large. The same program's "home" classes have already started. Lucky them. Our classes were to start, well, today, actually.  Just after I paid my tuition, we were told that the start date would be pushed back to an unspecified date to allow students more time to register. I became a little bit concerned. Twelve days ago, we were given a start date of September 20th. That would have made it unlikely to finish before Christmas, although an ending date before the close of 2011 would have been doable. Today, we were told that classes would begin in mid-October and end in February 2012.

Say what?

I expected to ring in 2012 with a paralegal certificate in hand, followed immediately by a thorough investigation of the local job market. Now I'm idling my engine; my enthusiasm dwindling, and my impatience rising. All I can do now is wait. And wonder if I should have asked MU for a refund, and signed up for the longer program at one of Large's slightly-less Major Universities. As it stands now, I will graduate a few weeks ahead of that group.

I really, really hope that doesn't change.

Transcript Follies update

After a pleasant phone conversation, the nice folks at my undergraduate Alma Mater were pleased to send course descriptions of my long-ago adventures in English, Speech, and Government to Advisor Two. I awaited with bated breath the waiving of those three classes. Little did I know what was in store.

Eventually, I was forwarded an email of explanation from the person who had evaluated my transcripts in the first place. The writer seemed very defensive, saying that, in their experience, anything that had "workshop" in the title wasn't a real English class. Really? Two semesters, three hours per semester, it had "Honors" in the title, but it wasn't a real English class? Okay, how's about you explain this oversight, then, Transcript Evaluator Person: I got a "B" in Legal Writing. From a real, honest-to-deity, ABA-accredited Law School. That doesn't count, either? You going to tell me it's not on a par with the "English for Mouth Breathers" class you want to force me to take?

Moving on to Government: the course was described as being "for education majors, so it couldn't possibly be a match" for Hoth's government class. Again: Really? I can't believe the content was all that different. (Unless I missed the class in which it was revealed that the half-reptilian-alien Illuminati were truly in charge.) And could someone tell me why, exactly, the Government class isn't waived for Paralegal students? How much more about the American government does, say, a Food Service major know after that class than a Paralegal student does after taking "Introduction to Law?"

The email didn't really address why the Speech class was unacceptable. I guess the fertilizer truck didn't deliver a full load that day.

Yes, I'm annoyed. Peeved. Ticked off. The University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople's School of Library Science and Dewey Decimation deemed my undergraduate record worthy of granting me admittance into a Master's Degree program. The Western California State School of Law at Swami's Point thought my five year trip through the halls of Academia was a good enough foundation to build on. But Harvard On The freakin' Highway COMMUNITY COLLEGE says, "Nope. Our classes are too special for you not to take them. We will accept no imitations."

Give. Me. A. Break.