OK, so time for the most therapeutic thing I can think of doing, right now: bloggin'. I'm gonna blog and blog until I'm blue in the face! I need to blow off some steam about thebureaucracy of CU Boulder. I need to really just go over the events that transpired today.
My first meet and greet was at noon. I prepared all my notes. I showered and shaved. I wore a suit. My family came and picked me up to go over the meeting with CM. We went to the first battle of the day. It wasn't much of a battle.
The lady was kinda scared by how well prepared we were. My father and I both in suits, and my mom had done her reasearch too. If you are not aware of the back story, basically, I am trying to find out who to talk to get my diploma.
Stop number one, the only advisor I had known my entire time as a math major, CM. She was kinda shaking when we walked in. She didn't get up to greet my parents. She just kept her seat. Well, we all found seats. My mom was sitting on a pile of papers behind the only other chairs in the room, which were occupied by myself and my father.
It was ok though. She didn't mind. So we talked for about 25 mintues. My parents learned a lot from her faintly panicked demenure. My parents were enlighted to why I needed to take an a full extra semester in the first place. One problem was this: My first semester freshman year, I took a calculus class. I got an A in it. I in fact had such a great professor that I still keep in contact with him. (Mental Note....scratch that....Blog Note...I need to do a blog about John, the professor to which I am referring.)
So I took the class Math 1300. The next semester I took at class called INFINITY and the MIND. Hands down the best class taught at the university. It is a course that made my decision to choose math as a major. It is a class where I learned something so mind-boggling that I can never ever forget it. How many other classes can say that?... Just one. Sexual Construction of Society. ...they taught me to take off your socks before sex....ha...
It's a shame that only Farrand students have access to such a wonderful teacher. But that class was marked as a QRMS 1000 class -- a lower number than 1300. So by regulations, these credits did not count as QUAL credit hours. That class did not count towards my degree. Thought they were taught in sequential order, by the same professor. Oh well. Silly advisor prolly shoulda warned me about that before i took it. But I'll forigive her for that. It was just that great of a class.
So the next mess up it this one. I took econ 1000. It was the inro econ class and i wanted to try it out...it turns out i liked it. So the following semester i took econ 2020. ...Macroeconomics. Since i did not take Microeconomics (econ2010) i did not receive credit for econ 2020. Only the credits for econ 1000 count. Because, of course, intro to econ teaches both macro and micro economics, and i had already become familar with the material. That was a 4 credit class. So we have a 3 and a 4 credit class that both dont count towards my major.
Halfway with college now, and my advisor still has not advised me that I am now 7! credits behind what I think i am. For the time being , i beleive logically, that any class I take that i get an A in, will count towards my major. Thinking this because of course I was a FULL TIME student at the time. Taking classes for no reason.....ok...but i got over it..deep down... in a really sick way....i wanted another semeser at school. $hit. its fun there!. So since i am 7 credits behind, i figure i may as well slack enough to get one more easy semester at school instead of working my butt off and taking tons of summer classes.. 7 credits is half a normal semseter. So i sent the next year taking really tough classes, but taking a one less class than in the past. It actually helped quit a bit in the long run, since i got to spread out the load of a numerous analytical crazy a$$ math classes. you know the kind. the ones that dont have numers...only letters....and hebrew letters.
I am of course fully aware at the time that in order to reserve a well rounded education. 75 nonmajor credits and 45 major credits are required for graduation. (AND I SHALL SAY NOW AND FOREVER...I AM AND ALWAYS WAS PERFECTLY AWARE THAT WALKING IN GRADUATION DOES NOT MEAN ONE HAS GRADUATED( how about if you walk twice tho?...i walked twice))
So i know there are lots of confusions with this whole graduation thing. Thats why we have advisors. Councilors to to provide us with good council. To talk about upper division vs lower division...major vs non majors credits. Also to sign off that all major requirements and CORE requirements are met. The only thing CM didnt check off on on the graduation packet...was the fact that I deficiant in ANYTHING AT ALL. So i wwnt to graduation in DEC 2006. I was in the cap and gown and everything. I was never notified by any means that i had not graduated. I was living a LIE. I was pretending to be a college alum. I thought i was soooo cool. 21 and already has his degree...in math...."Whoa" they would all say. But it was false.
I was a college dropout. nobody knew it...not even me...(hahahaha...you gotta imagine that last line read in that Action Movie Preview Guy Accent). I had not idea i was a college drop...I went about trying to figure out how those guys would let me back into college. I took the LSAT, the GRE, and the GMAT. I wanted to see which i did best on, then take that route of study. Like spinning a prize wheel in Vegas. Well, my top score came up at CU Denver. It came up BIG. Like, with my GPA what is is in math, and my scores, i was a shoe-in for admittance, and perhaps scholaship money. (Note. before this i also tried to get into LAW by studying at kaplan, taking the LSAT...setting up and LSDAS file, and applying to 4 different laws schools... via internet. i was also rejected by 4 law school. via snail mail. ...so i decide that the 11 month...intensive...CU denver MBA program ..that will take me to China halfway through...which my parents are offering to pay for!...seems to be the best alternative. Here we get to the good part. I didnt get in because i didnt have my degree on my transcript. ...That God i found out from the MBA school. I never would have figured it out. Eventually i woulda been like, "Durrrrrrr...uuuuum shouldn;t my that there uuuum diplomer be here by now?" Thankfully I found out now. Coulda a been a lil while more. Since no efforts were under way to contact me about this "heart-attack-waiting-to-happen." I was told last friday , that a letter was supposed to be sent out to people that this happens to. Not an email. and snail mail. Thank goodness i have my adress up to date in the school file. But i never got any letter....so now its he said she said , right? i say i never got...they will say they sent. well...it was supposed to be sent...but that have no file on record of it being sent. one supposed to be sent in october. one in january. firstly. why would one be sent out after the grad date? why would they not work in there best efforts to avoid phoney graduations. Wouldnt it be a lil too late then?
So after we talk to CM for a while...basically just going over this whole story. She has no answers. It mostly her fault.(i think)..but this is out of her hands now. She is lowest level in the beuracracy we have to deal with. So the next step was the assitant to the dean. She needs to make sure that my story is worth going to the dean over. ....shes the only one who can schedual an appointment with the dean. ...long story short...our meeting with the dean is tommorow morning. 930 sharp....and im getting tired...gotta wake up fresh to do battle again tommorow. Cant wait to win this thing soon....to parapharse The Dude Lebowski...this injustice will not stand, man.