My Brain Hurts...
Maybe I'm just strange and/or wimpy, and other people just don't have the problems that I think I do. But this whole transferring-to-a-"real"-school-thing is straight-out terrifying. George Dubya-come-invade terrifying. Everyday while randomly poking around on random web pages I discover another thing that I have to do if I want to transfer that I had no clue that I had to do before I read it...
There is no way to know what I'm supposed to do. Of the thirty-plus scary requirements for going to UNCC, only three of them were actually given as instructions to me. The rest I accidentally stumbled upon. Now I know all about, "Oh poor wittle baby. Don't expect people to hold your hand in the real world." That's pretty clear, and I'm ready to do my homework on things. But this is getting ridiculous.
From the FTCC side of things:
* We know that you are hard up for cash, but we can't take your textbooks because they've been updated. For the third time this year.
* Come to find out, you can't graduate in the summer. You'll have to graduate in December, when you're not here.
* Remember when you came by two months ago and asked us to send two copies of your transcripts to UNCC? We, err, never got around to it...
* We cannot send the final transcripts until you graduate (even though they're required before August...)
From the UNCC side of things:
* Your financial aid package is not available to you until you complete "Entrance Counseling" and sign some kind of sheet no one can tell you anything about.
* To accept your financial aide package, you must access your super-secret UNCC self-banner service that no one told you about.
* To access the super-secret UNCC self-banner service, you must first log into the the email account that no one told you about.
* To access the email account you must vist the SOAR (student orientation something something) site that no one told you about.
* To access the SOAR site, you must visit the approved student page that no one told you about and that you have no link to because a good 90% of the UNCC website is broken _always_.
* To access the approved student page, you must click the Information for Accepted Freshman link, even though you are not a freshman but rather a transfer (and all of the transfer links are broken and/or useless) and your Application Status page still shows errors (like the annoying and equally disturbing " Apply Now!" link that shouldn't display if you have been accepted).
* Equally disturbing, is that the everyone else talks about their "Enroll Now!" link disappearing after they enrolled, and you realize that your "Apply Now!" link was supposed to say "Enroll Now!" before you enrolled.
* To signify that you want to attend the school, you must click the "Enroll Now!" link. You can't, because yours still shows "Apply Now!" so you send an email manually. You are promised immediate confirmation of the email receival: you never get it.
* You cannot sign up for housing until you sign up for a meal plan.
* You cannot sign up for a meal plan until you are accepted for housing.
* After signing up for housing, you have no way of knowing when/if they'll tell you what housing (if any) you'll receive (even though some dorms require the meal plan and others do not.)
* To be able to pay for either, you must have "Direct Refund" enabled in order for your financial aid to be delivered into your banking account.
* To enable "Direct Refund", you must hand deliver a sheet of paper authorizing "Direct Refund" to a third-floor office in some random building at UNCC.
* "Direct Refund" must be enabled before attending UNCC.
* Obviously, you must have a banking account. Actually, to apply for pretty much anything at UNCC, you must have a Debit/Credit card from a banking account.
* You must have Health Insurance before attending UNCC or else you will be billed for the college's version. You can be dismissed from school if you give incorrect info over the site (which is very vague and it is difficult to discern exactly what they want), but there is no way to tell if you entered it correctly, as they don't email any kind of confirmation.
* You must attend SOAR in the summer if you want to attend school in the fall; you are promised a confirmation email telling you your month and date within 3-5 days. It never comes.
* To register for classes at SOAR, you must undergo a Transfer Credit audit. The online link has been broken for six months, and UNCC says they still need another copy of your transcripts anyway (see FTCC above).
There's more, but quite frankly, I'm tired of typing this crap. Don't get me wrong- the chance to go to real college is worth every bit of the trouble to someone who actually wants to be there. My complaint is that most of the above stuff was not something I was informed about. Most of it was stuff I stumbled upon out of sheer luck and the grace of G-d, and it leaves me wondering just how much more there is that I don't know about.
Is this normal? Ryan, Lunar, any of my other 4 year college people out there? If so, they should really warn people about this stuff ahead of time...
There is no way to know what I'm supposed to do. Of the thirty-plus scary requirements for going to UNCC, only three of them were actually given as instructions to me. The rest I accidentally stumbled upon. Now I know all about, "Oh poor wittle baby. Don't expect people to hold your hand in the real world." That's pretty clear, and I'm ready to do my homework on things. But this is getting ridiculous.
From the FTCC side of things:
* We know that you are hard up for cash, but we can't take your textbooks because they've been updated. For the third time this year.
* Come to find out, you can't graduate in the summer. You'll have to graduate in December, when you're not here.
* Remember when you came by two months ago and asked us to send two copies of your transcripts to UNCC? We, err, never got around to it...
* We cannot send the final transcripts until you graduate (even though they're required before August...)
From the UNCC side of things:
* Your financial aid package is not available to you until you complete "Entrance Counseling" and sign some kind of sheet no one can tell you anything about.
* To accept your financial aide package, you must access your super-secret UNCC self-banner service that no one told you about.
* To access the super-secret UNCC self-banner service, you must first log into the the email account that no one told you about.
* To access the email account you must vist the SOAR (student orientation something something) site that no one told you about.
* To access the SOAR site, you must visit the approved student page that no one told you about and that you have no link to because a good 90% of the UNCC website is broken _always_.
* To access the approved student page, you must click the Information for Accepted Freshman link, even though you are not a freshman but rather a transfer (and all of the transfer links are broken and/or useless) and your Application Status page still shows errors (like the annoying and equally disturbing " Apply Now!" link that shouldn't display if you have been accepted).
* Equally disturbing, is that the everyone else talks about their "Enroll Now!" link disappearing after they enrolled, and you realize that your "Apply Now!" link was supposed to say "Enroll Now!" before you enrolled.
* To signify that you want to attend the school, you must click the "Enroll Now!" link. You can't, because yours still shows "Apply Now!" so you send an email manually. You are promised immediate confirmation of the email receival: you never get it.
* You cannot sign up for housing until you sign up for a meal plan.
* You cannot sign up for a meal plan until you are accepted for housing.
* After signing up for housing, you have no way of knowing when/if they'll tell you what housing (if any) you'll receive (even though some dorms require the meal plan and others do not.)
* To be able to pay for either, you must have "Direct Refund" enabled in order for your financial aid to be delivered into your banking account.
* To enable "Direct Refund", you must hand deliver a sheet of paper authorizing "Direct Refund" to a third-floor office in some random building at UNCC.
* "Direct Refund" must be enabled before attending UNCC.
* Obviously, you must have a banking account. Actually, to apply for pretty much anything at UNCC, you must have a Debit/Credit card from a banking account.
* You must have Health Insurance before attending UNCC or else you will be billed for the college's version. You can be dismissed from school if you give incorrect info over the site (which is very vague and it is difficult to discern exactly what they want), but there is no way to tell if you entered it correctly, as they don't email any kind of confirmation.
* You must attend SOAR in the summer if you want to attend school in the fall; you are promised a confirmation email telling you your month and date within 3-5 days. It never comes.
* To register for classes at SOAR, you must undergo a Transfer Credit audit. The online link has been broken for six months, and UNCC says they still need another copy of your transcripts anyway (see FTCC above).
There's more, but quite frankly, I'm tired of typing this crap. Don't get me wrong- the chance to go to real college is worth every bit of the trouble to someone who actually wants to be there. My complaint is that most of the above stuff was not something I was informed about. Most of it was stuff I stumbled upon out of sheer luck and the grace of G-d, and it leaves me wondering just how much more there is that I don't know about.
Is this normal? Ryan, Lunar, any of my other 4 year college people out there? If so, they should really warn people about this stuff ahead of time...