I swear my college is a black hole...

Two terms ago, I went in and scheduled a meeting with a counselor to arrange my academic plan. I asked her to look over the transcript that I had printed out and tell me what, exactly, I needed to complete my AAOT. I told her I needed to know what classes to take at what time and what aid to apply for. She told me that I needed two science classes and one math. Okay. So I did as she said- to the letter. The only bump was the fact that I had to re-take math but because of the multitude of complaints against the professor we had last term, the dean of students granted a waver to anyone that had to re-take the course. I was one of those students.

Well he failed to communicate this with the financial aid office and so I didn’t get my check for two weeks -after- school had started. I had to march down to the financial aid office and demand an answer. I knew that checks were late this term, another brilliant ‘ism’ of the financial aid world this term, and had waited but the start of week three was too much. I needed my check. So it turned out that there was a communication error. They fixed it and that Friday I got my check.

Well last week I decided to apply for my graduation as, according to what I was told, I would meet all requirements to graduate at the end of this term if I did well on my classes. Yesterday I got a letter in the mail that said otherwise. Today I marched right back to the graduation department and demanded an answer. The lady shrugged it off and said that I needed another four credits (ie- one class) in either science or math. But it couldn’t be a biology class. This means that not only do I have to put up with yet another term here after already spending eight years of my life dealing with this sorry excuse for a community college, but I had to do another tango with FAFSA to get an extension. Another. Extension. I filled out the paper work and tossed it to the financial aid department. I spoke with the man in charge for today and he approached the entire affair with a big grin on his face.

I wanted to slap it off him. He also encouraged me to apply for FAFSA -before- I even knew what college I was attending. This, to me, is stupid. Financial aid doesn’t like you playing around with them unless you know what you are doing and thanks to Chemeketa, it looks like I’m a bumbling idiot when they look at my records. To file for FAFSA you -need- your school name, degree, and how many credits you plan on taking. I don’t know any of that yet because I don’t know if I can even GRADUATE in another five years. Not only are they throwing me into this loop but credits expire at Chemekta so if one of mine expires without my knowing, then I’ll have to re-take the course.

You know. At this point I think that in most cases, college is a con. They have me trapped in this system chasing my tail. Unless I take out a loan, I may not be able to pay for ‘higher’ education. And for what? To learn how to train and feed animals? Give me a break. If this nonsense keeps up I’m dropping out. I don’t need to make a lot of money, I never planned on it. It seems to me that God needs me right where I am. Every attempt to move on has been horribly or even comically hindered to where I’m still here.
Well there are other ways to be successful. Unless you’re in a field that requires all this fancy learning and specifics, college seems like a joke. It doesn’t make you smart, it makes you pay for a paper that says that you meet an establishment’s standards.