Normandale Admissions-- Frustrated, of course!

[shorn1]

So, here's the story (it's long, please bear with me):

I attended the University of Maine 10 years ago and received a handful of credits over the two years of attendance that I then transferred over to Normandale Community College in Minnesota about 8 years ago. I was young and unsure of my path so I completed an AA degree and then left school to care for an Aunt who was paralyzed. Over the time taking care of her, I decided I wanted to go into nursing. I made the decision 2 years ago to go back to school, Normandale again, and am sorely regretting my choice!

Because I have credits from a previous institution and all of my credits towards my AA, they see this as having too many for the amount of time I have attended, for me to still be seeking more credits, and slapped a "Maximum time frame suspension" on me. This means I cannot get financial aide for any credits that are not absolutely required for my degree program. Typically this would be ok, however my gpa is NOT stellar due to goofing around and not taking college seriously at 16/17 years of age when I began. Now a 3.2 is ok, but it is not nursing school acceptable, and even if I wanted to boost it up with silly nonsense classes, I'm not allowed. I'm stuck. I've taken all the pre reqs for the program, there's nothing left to do. I emailed the head of the program several times for counseling on this matter as many of my peers had done and been successful, with no response.

So, I applied and hoped. My pre req GPA was a 3.3, so a smidge better. My NLN exam score was a 136 which is decent. My friend had the exact same profile, save for an NLN exam score of 110. She received her acceptance letter. I received a rejection. Upon inquiring as to why, the answer I received was that I had never taken English Comp. However, I HAD, it was simply called something different and without sitting down and discussing it with the head of the program I never knew to fill out a course over ride form. I honestly thought the words "English comp" and "Freshman Comp" were similar enough to be accepted as equals. Apparently not!

I don't know what to do. My scores were exactly the same, even a little better, than a girl who got in and I'm being kept out due to a silly matter such as a course equivalency form. The program head did email me back and admit that she failed to respond to me on several occasions and apologized. She asked to meet with me tomorrow.

I just am so lost. Do I even want to go somewhere as disorganized as this? Well, yes, if it means getting my degree I suppose. This is just so extremely frustrating!!

Preaching to the choir, I'm sure

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Actually the time frame requirement comes from financial aid not the school. You only have a set period of time when you get financial aid to get your degree. This happens especially with nursing students. My school has emphasized this over and over again to us because people don't read paperwork that they sign. To me it is up to you to know the requirements of your school when applying. I would not ever assume anything. So I would redo the paperwork and reapply next semester. I know at my school you can't take fluff classes to boost up your GPA, they look at specific classes to get into the program. And English Comp is a big one.