Well, it was pretty rough…they didn’t waste any time in doling out the homework. I had 6 papers plus about 250 pages of reading due for the second week of classes! Most of the papers were only a couple of pages…but no more double space! It’s all single spaced, or at best one and a half.
Other than that, classes were great…if I can stay awake in them. Several of my classes are 3 hour blocks…so by the third hour (even with breaks) I’m getting kinda rummy.
Sorry to hear about your transfer fiasco…it’s so like a school to wait until it’s too late to do anything about it to tell you the bad news. Sounds like a racket to me!
I wanted to get into the theatre program of a certain school. The process is weird and convoluted, but the oversimplified version is that they would not let me know whether I got into the theatre program until AFTER the date by which I had to commit myself to attending that school. Naturally, they didn’t let me into the theatre program (their reason, while valid, had little to do with my suitability - but that is another discussion). However, while I committed myself to the school, I had not paid any tuition or enrolled in any classes. There is another school with a very reputable theatre program which carries out its admissions process late in the game. They do this so they can collect the students who got rejected by other theatre programs - which is smart, because there are a lot of talented theatre students who get rejected by the major theatre departments for various reasons unrelated to their ability, so they get a very talented pool. So I was able to apply to that school, audition, and get in, and that’s where I attend now. As for the other school … well, they must have figured out by now that I’m not their student since I haven’t enrolled or paid any money. It is quite possible that the theatre program at my current school is even better than the one I applied to earlier, and it is cheaper (1,500$/yr versus … oh, I don’t remember the other school’s tuition, but it is much higher).
I think the best way to counter the incompetence of university bureaucracies is to do research so you are well-informed, and get things done early so as to allow the maximum amount of time for mistakes. Of course, four months is plenty of time, and I don’t know if you could have gotten the ball rolling any sooner.
Still, if it’s only the beginning, there might be a lot of leeway for schedule changes. I would seriously want to petition somebody over this.
(I haven’t started school yet. I’m trying to squeeze what I can out of my remaining summer vacation).
In many instances, these rules are thought out by people who have nothing to do with students, and nothing to do with teaching staff. They tend to make rules to simplify their own work, not taking into account the effect on student life, which they know nothing about. they probably have never met a single student…
Am I excited about school starting? I guess so…I’m out of seminary now, so I have all the time I want to study classics. After my graduation from seminary last fall, I went back to college to study epic literature and Latin. I’m done with first year Latin and now doubling up to finish second year Latin in just one semester. I’m actually doing Latin via independent study, and I find this a nice arrangement so I can go at my own pace and study whatever I want to do, which, by the way, I’m reading Gildersleeve, Allan & Greenough, Tacitus, Cicero, Vergil and Ovid.