I'm so frustrated right now, I don't even know how to put it into words. This is going to be a long one.
Almost two years ago, I got the brilliant idea to go back to school. I did my research and found a program that I could finish in a couple of years and have a Masters and a certification in Elementary Education. I started in June of 2008 and everything seemed hunky dory.
I noticed that there seemed to be a revolving door of people who were assigned as my academic advisor, but it didn't bother me much because my program of study was already fully planned out and I didn't have much need for any academic advice.
Fast forward to the Fall of 2009 and I decided that I needed to take a break from school to focus on the move from Washington to South Carolina and settling in across the country. I was bounced from advisor to advisor, and finally found out that if I skipped one two month term I had to skip both of them because of the way the program is structured. So instead of pushing back graduation by 2 months, it was pushed back 4 months.
I wasn't happy about it, but I knew that there was no way I could work, focus on school, and organize a huge move and still maintain my 4.0 GPA, so I sighed and agreed to the 4 month leave of absence.
After we moved to South Carolina, I realized just how dire the teaching situation is here. Not only are teachers not being hired, but they're being laid off. I also realized that with my four month break, and four months of student teaching once I finished my classes, I wouldn't earn my degree until the end of 2010 at the earliest. Then the job hunt would begin, halfway through a school year. And at some point in my life, I would like to have and raise children of my own.
So, I made the decision to switch my degree from a Masters with certification to a Masters without certification, with the idea that if I ever get to the point in my life where I'm able to look for a teaching job, it will more than like be after we've moved from South Carolina I'd have to get certified in that state again anyway.
I talked to yet another new advisor, who completely supported my decision but explained that the school had overhauled their degree program and while most my classes could be transferred to the new system, one of them doesn't transfer to the non-certification degree, but I would only need one more class to finish out my program of study.
I got excited, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and powered through my second to last class, looking forward to those last eight weeks of school. Wednesday I finished my science class, and Thursday I was supposed to start my last class on classroom management. Unfortunately, I was enrolled in a different class--about math. I emailed my advisor a week ago, questioning this and got an out of office reply. I emailed the point of contact she'd directed us to twice over the next couple of days with no response. I called and left two messages with random academic advisors because mine is still out of town. No response.
Finally, I pulled out all of the paperwork my advisor sent me when we changed my degree and I broke down exactly what all of my old classes transferred to in the new system. It turns out, in the new system there is a combined science and math class, and according to my advisor I met the requirement by taking the science class, but according to the paperwork it specifically states that you must have taken both the science and math class for your class to transfer. So instead of one class, I have to take two to fill that requirement. Then, after this math class, I have to take the classroom management class. And yet, I have an educational psychology class that doesn't count towards anything.
I'm upset that my advisor didn't give me the correct information. I'm upset that I spent 8 weeks and a thousand dollars on a class that won't qualify for my degree. I'm upset that instead of having one class left, I have two. I'm upset that even though I'm expected to conform to the degree requirements of the "new system", I still have to take all of the classes from the "old system". But mostly I'm just really upset that I had to figure out all of this on my own, and no one from the school will take the time to respond to my multiple messages.
Anyway, I have a textbook to track down and two weeks worth of homework to do this weekend so that I don't have to spend my entire trip to New York writing papers about teaching math to elementary students. So, I'm going to stop bitching and start getting productive. But I'm still going to be really, really bitter about this.