At 10/16/09 12:51 PM, fli wrote:
And, oi, the class I need to graduate for my theater and dramatic writing majors... won't be offered next semester. This is due to the budget cuts.
the nbc nightly news had a story last week about California budget cuts doing that, but also how it's happening all over the country.
Schools have all of these "required" courses for majors and then they would cut the course from their schedule, or in the middle of a school year decide they are only going to offer it in the Fall/Spring or every other Fall/Spring, while at the same time cutting the number of available seats in each class, making it near impossible for seniors and juniors to graduate in 4 years.
In fact, the news had an interesting statistic that the average time spent to get an undergraduate degree is 5 and a half years! for a for a 4 year degree!
I know you're a non-traditional student, fli, but I get where you're coming from.
Sometimes I get the feeling that universities totally miss the point that they are supposed to be a business.
I could rant on about how difficult it is to graduate on time, especially when schools set "full time" status as 12 credits when in reality to achieve the 120 or so required for graduation, a student would need to take 15 credits, or they do like my school and require 122 credits, and set "overload" at 17 credits, neither of which are divisible by the typical 3 credits a college course is good for. I'm 1 credit in overload this semester, because they set their requirement at 17, how retarded is that? I'm out an extra $900 for a class that would otherwise be 2/3 covered by what I already paid.
Other things like graduation fees, and 90 credit requirements by the fall semester to even ask to walk in the spring commencement.
And god help you if you change your major or transfer.
And they make it a pain in the ass for part-time students. You aren't eligible for almost anything as far as scholarships, grants, housing, and parking. You are charged per credit, which could wind up being as much as full-time tuition, all because you have a full time job, and to top it off, you're in school for 6 or 7 years instead of 4 or 5.
NYS is probably the most concerning system at the moment. Not only did they raise tuition, but they cut programs and funding and those tuition increases? went to the general fund in the state budget. You are supposed to be paying for your education with that money, that's the point of paying a tuition to the school.
Schools charge upwards of twice their tuition to any student from out of the state (average of $21,000 a year), and have residency requirements well beyond reasonable to change status, which means you could move to the state, declare a primary domicile, pay state taxes, car registration, PO box, vote, etc... and for 4 years will not be considered "in-state" because you were arrogant enough to start school that same year as a full-time student to finish your degree in a timely manner.
