Category: Academic

I am at the moment frustrated and annoyed with the advising process. I sent an email 2 weeks ago to the department chair of Psychology, and have yet to receive a response. I declared my major, and it took about a week and a half to get that approved, but once that happened, I was assigned an official advisor. I emailed my advisor as soon as I knew who it was (literally, 5 minutes after getting notice). That was last Wednesday. Apparently my advisor is only in her office on Mondays and Wednesdays from noon until 4pm. I was emailed with notification at about 4:30pm stating my advisor’s name and email address. I kept hoping my advisor would check her email at home or something and maybe get in to give me a PIN to allow me to register. I’ve been watching the registration pages as courses I want to take keep getting more students in them. So far none of them are full, but by noon when my advisor gets into her office, who knows what will/wont be left.

Yesterday I emailed my advisor, thinking that she would certainly get back to me sometime today. The day passed, and no email from my advisor. I wouldn’t be this concerned with getting in touch with my advisor, except I need for her to retrieve my record and send me an email and tell me the secret 6 digit code to unlocking my registration for Spring. I have now called her and left her a voicemail, but I am afraid she will not call me back or reply to my email in time, and I will be stuck in this process of waiting forever. There is some good news though, even if I don’t get my PIN until next Tuesday, only seniors can register before November 10th. As long as there are 15 seniors wanting into all of the classes I want, then I’m ok

I still have not heard back from a department chair (or the online programs coordinator), but today I was finally admitted to the department of psychology and assigned an official advisor.

Just in time it would seem, because I am starting to wonder if the transfer advisor that has been assisting me up to this point is dumber than a box of rocks. I asked a simple question about whether or not the articulation agreement (the NCCCS-to-UNC CAA) would cover a “speech education” requirement in the general education requirements, more specifically I asked if it was a “lower-division requirement”, to which, she replied “I assume that will be addressed, then, once you have completed the degree.” What does me not yet having my A.A. transferred have to do with that requirement being in the lower division or not?

Anyway, I have emailed my new advisor and I am eagerly awaiting a reply from her, but unfortunately I still have to deal with the transfer ditz for a little while longer until my gen-ed stuff is taken care of.

• 012636 – ART 114 – Art History 1
• 013259 – PHI 210 – History of Philosophy
• 012680 – BIO 155 – Nutrition

• 31387 – BIO 168 – Anatomy and Physiology
• 31822 – DBA 120 – Database Programming
• 32305 – FRE 111 – Elementary French
• 33237 – SGD 113 – SGD Programming

• 2389 – PSYC 310 – Theories of Personality
• 2550 – PSYC 421 – Cognitive Psychology
• 2411 – PSYC 342 – Clinical and Counseling Psychology

Department Chairs are a lot easier to stalk when you are able to physically get to the campus.

“The Office of the Registrar cannot issue alternate pins  nor will we serve as surrogate advisors. “

The office of the registrar will not serve as surrogate advisors? Why not? The registrar’s office will tell students what courses they CAN’T take (pre-reqs,  status, etc), and the registrar will tell students what courses they SHOULD HAVE taken (final degree checkout),  but the registrar will not tell students what courses they SHOULD take. Got to love the irony that is the academic cycle.

I just spent the last hour or so with the “Transfer Equivalency System” and now I’m a bit cranky, cynical and non believing in a fair transfer of credits.

• Art Appreciation (ART111) is a SURVEY of ART, but covers almost no Art history, therefore, it SHOULD ALWAYS be transferred as “Survey of Art” not as “Intro to Art History”. These courses are used interchangeably, they should not be.
• When is Visual Basic the same as FORTRAN? In my experience, never, so why from some schools do you accept VB (CSC 139) as Intro to Fortran?
• I’m sure it takes someone with great competence to pass Creative Writing II, but do you really think it has the same care for mechanics as English Composition II? I personally don’t. Your experience may vary.
• Descriptive Astronomy (AST111)? Is it Astronomy (ASTR111), Natural Science Elective (NSCI 198/199), or Free Elective (GSTU200)?
• BASIC 1 and BASIC 2… transfers as “Free Elective”, not even “Basic PC Literacy” for the effort?
• Finally, you let some yahoo take VB programming in place of FORTRAN, but you won’t let my transfer Creative Writing I and/or II as Creative Writing. WTF is with that?

Yesterday, a Saturday, the responsible parties (not sure exactly who) at Fayetteville State University, evaluated my transcripts and transferred 102 credit hours, more than I expected (expected about 87 – 89). Only 9 of my courses (27 hours) were transferred as actual courses (rest were “Free Elective”). The transfer was not conducted in accordance with the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement, nor with the most of the college’s policies. The transfers were conducted haphazardly. Some of the most notable blunders of this transfer would be the transfer of MAT161 from Gaston College as an elective course, whereas if it would have been from CPCC it would have transferred correctly as MATH123 at FSU. Both schools teach the course the same way, from the same NCCCS CCL. The course not transferring is completely arbitrary. There are about a dozen such cases involving CPCC and Gaston courses. There are a lot from UNCC that were affected as well, but I don’t have such hard core evidence as the CCL to prove that the transfers were done arbitrarily for that institution.

I am attempting to work with my interim advisor to get this corrected before I am passed to my departmental advisor, who will be assigned when my new department chair accepts me.

Here’s what did transfer:

At Fayetteville I was going to fill out a form to substitute their “Intro to Communication” requirement for the “Interpersonal Communication” that I already have and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t out of line in requesting the adaptation, so I did a Google. I came back with this blog: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2006/04/substitutions-from-space.html

What could be better than the words of an academic dean

This entry is pretty hilarious, but the blog itself has a serious side. This dean has been blogging longer than I have been, and he seems to be better at it (or maybe administration is more fun than being a student :: notes potential career path ::).

I have received an acceptance letter from Fayetteville State University, but I am now waiting for my prospective department (Psychology) to accept me and allow me to declare my program. No credits have been evaluated yet, but the advisor in the Transfer and Advisement center is attempting to put a little pressure on the admissions and registrar’s offices for me.