I hate my school-VENT

[Cilantrophobe]

My school is one of the largest community colleges in the nation but they sure aren't impressive in the advisement department. Here is my story:

My school has a Medical Education Campus (MEC) for the students entering the allied health, EMT, dental hygiene, etc programs. And unless you are accepted into one of those programs you are not assigned an advisor. The advisors say that they are available to meet with you and answer any questions. However, they never actually go over your transcripts and schedule and make sure that you are on the right track. They pretty much leave everything up to you. Nearly everything you need is available online and is self explanatory so it's not a huge problem.

I have been planning for applying to the nursing program for over two years now. Unfortunately no matter how many times I went to the MEC to get them to advise me, and make sure I wasn't overlooking anything, they never did. Until last time...At the end of Fall semester I went to the MEC and begged an advisor to go over my stuff. She did and told me I am missing chemistry. Thank God she found this because no matter how many times I looked over my own stuff I just didn't see that.

My school has a 2-part application process. First you submit a checklist for approval. If it is approved they mail it back to you and then you mail it in with your application. If it is denied they send you the reason(s) why.

Because of the huge oversight with a missing CHM class, I want to make sure there aren't any other reason why my checklist will get denied. So I submitted my checklist, every though I know it will get denied.

Now my problem is that I am worried that I don't have enough time between the last day of the semester(May 11th) and the application deadline(May 27th). It's pretty safe to assume that the school gets a huge influx of checklists at the end of every semester. So that means that my checklist won't get approved in time for me to apply to the nursing problem.

I emailed the advisor who has been working with me but she hasn't gotten back to me yet. I don't want to be annoying and email her again. I already emailed her my question and she didn't email me back. What do I do? Email her again? I just want to know if there is anything I can do, such as submit my checklist a few days before the semester ends. Or get a letter from my teacher stating what my final grade will be before the semester ends so that I can submit my checklist early and still have time to mail in my application.

I know this is a huge vent but I am really stressed out and my school isn't very helpful, and clearly too busy to answer some simple questions.

[RNwannabe2011]

It's not just MEC, it happens at other schools to. Don't e-mail or call. Go there and make things happen, that's the only way to get things done to your satisfaction. May 11th is the final day for all classes, but I'm sure your chemistry class/final will be before that date. So once the grade is in the system, print and take your checklist up there. Do the best you can do to control what you can. Once you get your application, fill it out and take it up there. It's a stressful time but no point in stressing out over things you can't control, right? Life is too short.

[Cilantrophobe]

My final is on the 8th. I am going to try to get in touch with somebody else and just ask a "general" question about how long it takes to get your checklist approved and sent back to you. And whether or not you can hand-carry it to be approved.

[Cilantrophobe]

Here is the update: I contacted the schools administrative assistant who has answered questions for me in the past. She said that the turnaround for the checklists is very quick as time gets closer to the application deadline since they know students are waiting on them in order to apply.

YAY. I love that lady!

[sunray12]

Sounds like you've resolved your issue already and are communicating with MEC. As you said they are not the best resource if you're not already in a MEC program but you can also walk in to the the advisement center at the Annandale campus anytime. The advisers there are knowledgable about all the majors and they can answers any questions you may have. As for email communications sometimes I get a response same day and other times it takes a day or two but I've never been completely ignored so I don't have any complaints.

[TerpGal02, ASN]

Ugggg that sounds annoying. We don't have any assigned advisers at my school either until you enter the clinical program, but the Allied Health adviser is REALLY easy to get a hold of and always willing to meet with people interested in the program and making sure they know exactly what they need to get in. Thing is, the school doesnt tell you when you register as a nursing major that you SHOULD talk to him, they will normally just set you up an appt with a generic adviser when you apply to the school. THANKFULLY I didn't go that route. I was researching the program online and sent an email to the director of the program asking about it/prereqs/ etc, and she actually referred me to him, so I made the appt with him directly, and he went over my transcripts with me from my first degree and filled out a pretty extensive academic plan for me detailing what I needed to take and which semester I should take it in. Some of my friends in prereqs got some REALLY bad advice from the generic advisers and are wishing they talked to the Allied Health guy first. I'm probably going to meet with him again this semester just to make sure Im on the right track, considering I plan on applying for clinicals next fall.

[Cilantrophobe]

Well, forever I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing and that I didn't really need much help but I still tried to seek advisement several times and I just simply wasn't as aggressive as I should have been. I should have marched in there and acted totally lost and asked them based on my transcripts (including high school) exactly what I needed to take. If I had done that I would have known about the missing CHM an entire year ago and would have still been able to apply to the Hybrid nursing program like I originally intended, and graduated 9 months early. I forced myself to get over it very quickly though. I always tell myself that God has a plan for my life and that everything will work out just fine. :)