Adventures in Higher Learning
I fired my enrollment advisor today, and it felt good.
I have been toying with the idea for a long time of going back to school. I graduated from my Associate of Applied Science nursing program in 1987 and have not been back since.
It seems that several of my "real life" and LJ friends (most notably griffen who has been hurtling through his Masters program at a terrific clip, trailing clouds of awesomeness and favorably impressed professors in his wake) have taken to hitting the books again in a non-traditional student role.
Due to the inspiration of these people, as well as the fact that I have now joined the ranks of nursing administration, I decided to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing degree. Because I dislike too much routine in my life, tend to keep strange hours, and want to have the option of taking only one or two classes at a time, I found the idea of an "online" university appealing. A longtime colleague of mine, with whom I worked for 15 years on an inpatient floor, told me she was enrolled in a Master's program at Walden University. She seemed happy with it, so I decided to check it out.
Fast forward a few more months, which I spent doing yet more "thinking about it" which may or may not have been blatant procrastination-- and then about six weeks ago I seriously decided to apply to the program.
When I say "apply," perhaps I am relating this story with excess fanfare. I suspect that "applying" to Walden Online (Shut The Fuck Up, We're Fully Accredited) University is like "applying" to receive a toy along with your Happy Meal. It's a gimme. You pay the money, you fill out the papers, you get in.
What kept me from getting in-- well, right away, anyway, is that I am still missing 12 credits of prereqs. Which, astoundingly enough, I can also take right there at WO(STFUWFA)U! So, yeah.. I'm going to do that.
I would have been starting today, except for the fact that my thankfully now former enrollment advisor was so thoroughly incompetent that I had to call the place today, speak with another enrollment advisor, and regale him with tales of her awfulness for a full 40 minutes after he had already told me it was OK for me to switch advisors and that he would personally take my case.
There is a certain inertia involved in ranting-- once you build up that full head of steam and start spewing it's hard to stop, especially when dealing with the magnitude of suck this woman represented. Luckily my new enrollment advisor was patient enough to listen, and even to laugh at all the right places (especially when I said, about 25 times in the course of our conversation, "Oh yeah... I just thought of ANOTHER question I asked her in multiple emails that she never answered..."
So I am hoping my new advisor will be better. That he'll answer my questions in a timely fashion, supply me with the URL's and phone numbers I need, *not* randomly disappear for days at a time when I have unanswered questions and a deadline fast approaching, and... just generally help me navigate this strange uncharted territory.
The next thing I have to do is write a "letter of intent" and email it to him-- he already gave me the outline for it.
My new start date is 1/12/09. Wish me luck :)
I have been toying with the idea for a long time of going back to school. I graduated from my Associate of Applied Science nursing program in 1987 and have not been back since.
It seems that several of my "real life" and LJ friends (most notably griffen who has been hurtling through his Masters program at a terrific clip, trailing clouds of awesomeness and favorably impressed professors in his wake) have taken to hitting the books again in a non-traditional student role.
Due to the inspiration of these people, as well as the fact that I have now joined the ranks of nursing administration, I decided to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing degree. Because I dislike too much routine in my life, tend to keep strange hours, and want to have the option of taking only one or two classes at a time, I found the idea of an "online" university appealing. A longtime colleague of mine, with whom I worked for 15 years on an inpatient floor, told me she was enrolled in a Master's program at Walden University. She seemed happy with it, so I decided to check it out.
Fast forward a few more months, which I spent doing yet more "thinking about it" which may or may not have been blatant procrastination-- and then about six weeks ago I seriously decided to apply to the program.
When I say "apply," perhaps I am relating this story with excess fanfare. I suspect that "applying" to Walden Online (Shut The Fuck Up, We're Fully Accredited) University is like "applying" to receive a toy along with your Happy Meal. It's a gimme. You pay the money, you fill out the papers, you get in.
What kept me from getting in-- well, right away, anyway, is that I am still missing 12 credits of prereqs. Which, astoundingly enough, I can also take right there at WO(STFUWFA)U! So, yeah.. I'm going to do that.
I would have been starting today, except for the fact that my thankfully now former enrollment advisor was so thoroughly incompetent that I had to call the place today, speak with another enrollment advisor, and regale him with tales of her awfulness for a full 40 minutes after he had already told me it was OK for me to switch advisors and that he would personally take my case.
There is a certain inertia involved in ranting-- once you build up that full head of steam and start spewing it's hard to stop, especially when dealing with the magnitude of suck this woman represented. Luckily my new enrollment advisor was patient enough to listen, and even to laugh at all the right places (especially when I said, about 25 times in the course of our conversation, "Oh yeah... I just thought of ANOTHER question I asked her in multiple emails that she never answered..."
So I am hoping my new advisor will be better. That he'll answer my questions in a timely fashion, supply me with the URL's and phone numbers I need, *not* randomly disappear for days at a time when I have unanswered questions and a deadline fast approaching, and... just generally help me navigate this strange uncharted territory.
The next thing I have to do is write a "letter of intent" and email it to him-- he already gave me the outline for it.
My new start date is 1/12/09. Wish me luck :)