“You don’t graduate – you get out”
Almost 6 years ago, I arrived at Georgia Tech to begin my first year in college. I spent the first year in the “Towers House of Love”, making great memories with great friends. I moved off-campus at the start of my sophomore year, and trudged through a couple years of classes at Tech, switching majors from Electrical Engineering (EE) to Industrial Engineering (IE) in the process. Not long after, I decided to pursue an Economics degree as well. I spent six months in Argentina in the summer and fall of ’06, came back for classes in spring of 2007, then left for five months in Australia in the summer of 2007. I came back from Australia and took Senior Design in Spring of 2008, which turned out to be the hardest yet most rewarding class I have ever taken at Tech. I learned more in that class than in all my other classes combined, and I got to work with a great group making it an excellent experience in spite of the endless hours of work. I took my last two math and physics courses over the summer of 2008 and finished most of my IE classes in the fall. Looking back on those first 5 years, I thought that all the frustrations of repeated classes and dealings with the school bureaucracy were in the past. I was way off. Tech – never content to shaft just once or twice – struck again in 2009.
At the start of the spring semester, it looked like I was going to graduate with both degrees – IE and Econ – in May. One week before registering, I was informed by the School of Economics that I needed one more Social Science credit for that degree. I figured I would take 18 hours and give it my all, knowing I’d be done in a few months. I registered for the required classes and 2 days after registration closed, my adviser informed me that I cannot receive credit for the social science class I had signed up for, because I had previously taken a course that was too similar. I withdrew from the class, taking a W in a class I had only attended once, and arranged to take an “advanced standing test” with another professor to fulfill my social science credit. This involved me going to every school on campus and informing them of my plight and hoping someone would help me graduate on time. I found a willing professor who was out of the country and we agreed to set up the test at a later date in the semester.
At the beginning of March, Tech had approved both of my degree petitions, confirming that I was indeed on the path to graduating with both degrees in May. Sometime after spring break, I received an email from my ISYE adviser, telling me that the registrar had balked and I in fact needed 6 more hours to satisfy my Econ degree requirements due to a school rule – the “36 hour rule” – mandating the minimum number of hours for dual-major students. This was infuriating for several reasons: no one had ever mentioned this rule to me at any point, the registrar had previously approved my degree petition before rescinding it, I had already invited family to May graduation based on that approval, and, most infuriating of all, the registrar’s office never told me themselves about the change in degree status. I would never have known about it had my ISYE major adviser not forwarded me the email. As a result of this incident, my ISYE degree was not in jeopardy, but my Econ degree would need to wait another semester. Despite meeting all the requirements for each degree seperately, having two degrees required an extra six hours of credit. Six hours of what, you ask? Six hours of anything. Read: Tech doesn’t think it has taken enough of my money and wants the cost of 6 more credits of out-of-state tuition from me. I got through the spring semester otherwise without incident and graduated with my ISYE degree on Saturday, May2nd.
Heading into the summer semester, I found two professors sympathetic to my plight and they agreed to let me take “independent study” classes wherein I do some light research and write a couple of papers. I met with my adviser, who created the classes and emailed me the registration numbers for registration. The week after May graduation – and the week before Summer classes start -I began the process for taking the previously mentioned Advanced Standing Test. The formal process for creating this test – which gives credit for a class without taking the class – is essentially a campus wide scavenger hunt. I filled out a form detailing my reasons for taking the test and my qualifications to do so. I took the form to the professor who signed it and then informed me that I had to walk across campus to get the signature of the dean of his school. I got the dean’s signature and went to the bursar’s office to pay the $50 fee but was told they only accept cash. I returned the next day after having visited an ATM. I paid the bursar, who signed a form and a receipt then had to take all of this paperwork to the registrar’s office. After several weeks of e-mailing professors to allow me to take the test,several days of filling out forms and getting the run-around all over campus, and several hours of walking, I was signed up for the test. I then received my reading list for the test and see that it’s 8 novels that are each about 500 pages long. How I will read 4,000 pages in 6 weeks, I do not know.
As I was not notified that I would need to take summer classes until springtime registration (Phase 1 registration) had ended, I was not registered for summer classes. My registration time ticket opened on the Saturday before classes started. I wouldn’t be taking any actual classes so I wasn’t too concerned about the timing, but I went online on Thursday to verify my registration status. I found that my time ticket was slotted for Saturday morning and I had no holds on my registration. Saturday rolled around, and I went to enroll in the courses my econ adviser had created for me but found that a hold on my registration had been placed on the previous day – one day after I had checked. The hold said “Degree Awarded”, meaning that because Tech had already awarded me one degree, they weren’t allowing me to take any more classes.
I went to the registrar’s office on Monday to try to remove the hold and was informed that they never received anything saying I was a double-major student. They gave me a form to add a major, and the form required the signatures of both my ISYE and Econ advisers, whose offices are on opposite sides of campus. I fill out the form, get the signatures, and bring the form back to the registrar to remove the hold. They do, and I go to a computer to register. It turns out the registration codes my Econ adviser gave me were not correct, so I made an appointment to see him the following day to get new ones and reactivate my degree petition from the previous semester. That same day I received a notice that my financial aid had been canceled because I had exceeded the maximum number of allowable hours. I wrote an appeal and took it to the financial aid office. They responded on Tuesday morning, saying they had no evidence that I was working on an econ degree because a) I wasn’t registered for summer classes due to the incorrect codes, b) the registrar hadn’t yet updated my majors to ISYE and Economics, and c) my degree petition had not been reactivated.
On Tuesday, I met with my Econ adviser and fixed the course registration problems as well updated my degree petition. The registrar’s office helped me out by expediting my degree petition and updating my major status after I explained my situation to them. On Thursday morning, the financial aid office responded back with the good news and awarded my financial aid. I got my assignments from my two independent study professors and I am now trying to figure out how I can read and understand 8 books on the American Revolution in 6 weeks. I am further trying to understand how I’ll be able to do that while researching the use of mathematical models in Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and writing about the economic conditions surrounding the American revolution, also within 6 weeks. I’m taking solace in the fact that there is a huge amount of overlap in the 3 classes. This post is coming up on 1,500 words, and I left out all of the headaches I’ve dealt with in past semesters re-taking classes, appealing lost financial aid, changing majors, and getting Co-OP and study abroad course approval. It took me 1,500 words to describe about 2 weeks of dealing with Georgia Tech outside of classes. The old saying at Tech goes: “You don’t graduate – you get out”. Tech grads are the only people who don’t find this funny – they know better.
I came across your website/blog through the Evolutionary Fitness group on Facebook. This post got my attention (and I rarely comment even on my friends’ blogs!) but couldn’t resist because I can completely relate to this situation. I have attended 3 colleges – and finally graduated in May last year. I had to deal with transfer credits at two schools, financial aid offices, the people at the registrar’s office, deans, not very helpful advisers, etc.. It was frustrating… I don’t regret the transfers / going to college, but definitely glad I got out!
Btw, very informative website on the EF stuff. I showed one of my friends your before/after page to try and get them to convert
Shweta,
Glad you “got out” as well. Sometimes dealing with the bureaucracy of college can be more challenging than the classes themselves.
Also glad you’ve enjoyed the EF stuff. I’ve always thought that the point of being healthy and fit is to be better able to live and enjoy your life — even when you have to deal with bureaucratic stupidity.