Just Simply Holly

As you may or may not know, I am in my second semester of college, but my first semester at the college I am currently attending. When I decided that I was ready to go back to school, I contacted several local colleges to get as much information as I could, before making my final decision as to which school to enroll in. I consider myself an intelligent person and I also feel that I’m a pretty good judge of whether or not other people are being truthful to me, that’s why what I’m about to tell you bothers me so much!

After going over the information I had received and each schools website, I ultimately decided to enroll in a local school called Stautzenberger College. The reason(s) for my choice included the fact that it was close to home, they presented themselves as a more “personal” school, meaning that they explained to me that when or if I needed help that the help would be available to me. They also convinced me that since I could “muddle” my way around graphic design that it might be better for me to learn web design first, that way I could do web design then go back to school and “tune up” my graphic design abilities after getting my Web Design degree. The enrollment “specialist” I was working with knew from the get go that my intention was to get my Associates Degree, then move on to a 4 year college and get my Bachelors Degree, he assured me that this was possible. I wasn’t too sure they were right about the web design though, graphic design had been my passion for many years, and I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to learn web design. But in the end I listened to them and enrolled.

I took 3 classes that first semester; one was a Microsoft Applications class that I was required to take because I had no clue as to how to use Power Point. If I could have tested out of Power Point then I wouldn’t have had to have taken the class. My other 2 classes were an E-Commerce class and an HTML class, both taught by the same instructor.

From the get go I knew that I was going to have problems with the HTML class. To me, it was like Algebra, it simply wasn’t clicking. This was made even more obvious when I sat down to take my first exam and ended up leaving the class in tears shortly afterwards. I cried my eyes out the entire drive home, I felt like a total failure. I was doing the work in class just fine, things were turning out the way they were supposed to, but take away my book that I could use for reference and I was drawing a complete blank. My first thought was to simply quit, I had myself convinced that I was too old to learn what was being taught to me. But thanks to my husband and my best friend, I realized that wasn’t the answer. What I needed to do was get some help so that I could do what I knew I was capable of doing.

The next morning I put in a phone call to the IT Program Director asking for tutoring or some sort of help with my HTML class. She wasn’t available so I ended up leaving her a voice mail message. I explained that I did great with the in class work, but that I was having a difficult time remembering everything that was necessary when it came to taking the test. I followed up the voice mail by also sending her an email saying the same things I said in the voice mail. Thankfully my HTML instructor was decent enough to allow me to retake my exam, to which I passed with, I believe, a B, because I never once received a return phone call or an answer back to my email. Yes, I know, I should have hounded them, but with the fact that I did end up being able to take the exam and get a B on it, I thought my problems had passed.

I did well in my HTML class for the next several weeks, once again, I was thoroughly grasping what we were doing in class, so I didn’t think there would be any further problems. When I sat down to my second exam I found out that nothing could be further from the truth. Once again, everything that I did with ease in class was completely forgotten when I sat down to take the exam. I tried my best to clear my mind and remember what I had been taught, but it just wasn’t happening. So, once again, I walked out of an exam in tears. How could this be so difficult? Why was I not remembering what I had learning in class? Once again, I went to the Program Director for assistance, and once again, I never heard back.

From that point on, the class went down hill for me. I knew for a fact that another student in the class was cheating to pass the tests because she told me exactly how she was doing it and suggested I try the same thing. Maybe I should have, but I would honestly rather fail a class than pass it by cheating. I did everything possible in class to learn the things we were being taught. The instructor obviously knew how to do what he was trying to teach us because he showed us several examples of his own work. But for some reason I simply could not comprehend what he was teaching us and retain that when it came time to take an exam. After walking out of the second exam and going to the Dean of Academics, I was finally given a “pass” to use a note card on the exam. I was also given the chance to make up my second exam, using the note card. Unfortunately, it is impossible to put 5 chapters worth of notes onto one little card, and the stuff I did put onto the card didn’t come close to what I needed for the exam, so even with a note card, I failed the exam miserably.

After finding out that I failed the exam (not that I thought I would actually pass it), I went to the instructor and asked him what I was going to have to do in order to pass the class. He was honest and told me that the only way I could pass would be if I were to get an A on the final exam. He might as well have said to bring him in $1,000,000, because neither of the two was going to happen. It was at that point that I literally gave up on that class. I knew that no matter who I asked, no one was going to help me, and I also knew that there was no way I would come close to getting an A on the final exam. My thought was, why put myself through the stress, if there is no chance of my passing then why even go? So with only 2 weeks left in the semester, I dropped the class. I knew what this meant I would get a failing grade for the class. I also knew that failing the class would prevent me from moving on to the class that required my passing HTML as a prerequisite. But I honestly didn’t care; I was tired of the stress this one class had brought to my life. I also knew that it also meant that I was right about not wanting to learn web design, graphics were my passion, and that’s where I belonged! But if I wanted to do graphic design, it meant that I would have to go to a different school.

I ended up having to take the summer off of school because of things that was going on in my life personally, so I initially took a leave of absence from Stautzenberger College. During the summer I decided that I was going to go back to school in the fall and that I was going to follow my passion, so I enrolled at Owens Community College, taking their Commercial Art major. While I was in the enrollment office, I told my enrollment specialist about my previous semester at Stautzenberger College. Without hesitation, he looked at me and said, “Nothing from Stautzenberger is transferable, you’ll have to start from scratch”. I was totally blown away, and I was MAD! I invested hours of my time and took out over $2,200 in loans for that semester alone, for what? Not a damn thing other than to waste both my time AND my money!

I did some checking around, I called a few other schools, some local, some out of state. I asked all of them the same exact question, which was “I have taken such and such classes at Stautzenberger College, can I transfer those credits?”. EVERY time I received the same answer, “I’m sorry, those credits aren’t transferable”. So, in my eyes, I was blatantly lied to! Before I ever signed a single piece of paper, I made it clear to the enrollment “specialist” that my intention was to go on to a 4 year college. I do not remember his exact words, but he led me to believe that the credits I would earn at Stautzenberger would transfer to another school. Did I ever actually come out and say “Will these credits transfer to another school?”, no, I did not, which is my fault. But my thought is, shouldn’t communicating something THAT important be the responsibility of the school you are enrolling in? Shouldn’t they make it blatantly clear that if at any time you decide to go to school elsewhere before you complete your degree with them, all of the time AND money you are investing in their school will be for nothing?

I am NOT a wealthy person; I struggle daily to make ends meet. If I were to find $10 in my pants pocket while doing the laundry I would do the happy dance! I don’t spend money foolishly because I don’t have a dime to spare! So to find out that I literally blew over $2,200 makes me SICK and it pisses me off! I can tolerate many things in life, but I have no tolerance for people that lie to me! If you cannot be honest with me, then leave me alone!

I’m sure, for some people, what Stautzenberger College offers is what they are looking for or what they need. If I’d have known back then what I know now, I’d have ran for the hills rather than signing my name on one piece of paper! It has taken me many years to get to the point in my life where I have the time to dedicate to my education. I don’t take one moment of my education for granted; I take every bit of it very seriously! To me, going to school means investing a large amount of your time. It also means investing a large amount of money. Yes, I am fortunate enough to have part of my college expenses paid for by State and Federal Grants. But I still have to take out student loans to cover what isn’t paid, and yes, I get extra to help cover some of my cost of living expenses.

I know there is nothing I can do about the $2,200 in loans that I took out last semester other than pay then back when I am finished with my education. But I can’t help but be upset! No one that I know of is willing to spend $2,200 and not have a single thing to show for it. In my opinion, I might as well have just burned the money.

So PLEASE, if you or someone in your family are thinking about going to college, or you know someone that is, PLEASE make sure you ask, what I feel, is one of the most important questions to ask: “Will the credits I earn here transfer to another school?”