Is this normal at Excelsior?

[bawaybaway]

Dear All.
Below is an excerpt from a letter I sent to Excelsior that explains a recent situation I had with an advisor there. I advise you NOT to rely on their word for anything! Check and double check credits, course approvals, what they think you major is (really! a week after this situation they had me owing them like 20 credits for a journalism degree.) on your own. I am happy to report that after completing another Dantes exam and another ECE that I am once again expecting a diploma...but I won't start celebrating til it's in hand.

Truly hoping that I was the exception, Baway

To the Liberal Arts Dean on April 26, 2007:

"...I’m writing because I received some devastating news yesterday. Liberal Arts Advisor, Brenda Hardy, informed me that though I’d been cleared for graduation on April 2, 2007, though I’d paid my $495 fee, and though I’d been given a degree conferral date of April 20, 2007, I had been denied graduation. The Liberal Arts Team made a mistake on my initial evaluation and she was sorry to tell me that because of this error, I am still 3.67 credits short of my B.S. in Communications. Apparently my transfer hours from U.C. Santa Barbara had been tallied as semester hours instead of trimester hours and none of the six different advisors who’ve evaluated my transcript throughout the year noticed. Brenda was very apologetic, telling me that it is “incredibly rare” that the college makes this mistake and that Kathy Moran has arranged to waive the SSAF I now owe since I need to remain enrolled and to forgive half of my graduation fee when “the time comes” for me to graduate.

Gosh, I hope this situation is “incredibly rare” because nobody should have the rug jerked out from under them like this…I am reeling. My plans for starting grad school in the fall are likely dashed. My celebration this weekend is definitely ruined. I just took a second job and am completely overwhelmed at the thought of having to fit studying into my new schedule. Frankly, half off my future graduation fee doesn’t begin to compensate for the distress and disruption this error brings to my life...."

[mjno]

Hey, auminer49r

I will be taking three tests on the same day,

MIS (dsst)
Intro to Computers (dsst)
Computer Appl (clep)

The only reason is that a lot of the information seems to overlap based on what I have read from past forum replies (thanks snazz) and it would will get me nine credits closer.

Thanks,
Mike

[Matymus]

Originally Posted by bawaybaway

Dear All.
Below is an excerpt from a letter I sent to Excelsior that explains a recent situation I had with an advisor there. I advise you NOT to rely on their word for anything! Check and double check credits, course approvals, what they think you major is (really! a week after this situation they had me owing them like 20 credits for a journalism degree.) on your own. I am happy to report that after completing another Dantes exam and another ECE that I am once again expecting a diploma...but I won't start celebrating til it's in hand.

Truly hoping that I was the exception, Baway

To the Liberal Arts Dean on April 26, 2007:

"...I’m writing because I received some devastating news yesterday. Liberal Arts Advisor, Brenda Hardy, informed me that though I’d been cleared for graduation on April 2, 2007, though I’d paid my $495 fee, and though I’d been given a degree conferral date of April 20, 2007, I had been denied graduation. The Liberal Arts Team made a mistake on my initial evaluation and she was sorry to tell me that because of this error, I am still 3.67 credits short of my B.S. in Communications. Apparently my transfer hours from U.C. Santa Barbara had been tallied as semester hours instead of trimester hours and none of the six different advisors who’ve evaluated my transcript throughout the year noticed. Brenda was very apologetic, telling me that it is “incredibly rare” that the college makes this mistake and that Kathy Moran has arranged to waive the SSAF I now owe since I need to remain enrolled and to forgive half of my graduation fee when “the time comes” for me to graduate.

Gosh, I hope this situation is “incredibly rare” because nobody should have the rug jerked out from under them like this…I am reeling. My plans for starting grad school in the fall are likely dashed. My celebration this weekend is definitely ruined. I just took a second job and am completely overwhelmed at the thought of having to fit studying into my new schedule. Frankly, half off my future graduation fee doesn’t begin to compensate for the distress and disruption this error brings to my life...."

Oh my gosh!! What a horrible experience. Yeah...talk about a serious change in plans. Did they offer you any type of compensation for this 'mistake'?? You already paid your graduation fee, correct?

[mjno]

Hello bawaybaway,

Sorry to read what happened to you. My question is did you have everything in writing and if you did would it mean anything to help your situation?

Hoping the best for you!

Mike

[Sindaena]

Bawaybaway,

I am sorry that that happened to you. It's terrible when it happens, but I don't think it's common. It is always a good idea to keep track of your own credits and check how the academic advisers apply things. I do not believe that they review past decisions when adding new credits, so a mistake by one adviser will not be picked up until final graduation review if you do not catch it yourself. I have always checked over all additions to my transcripts and corrected a few minor errors over the time I have been at Excelsior, from initial miscalculation of quarter credits to mislabeling a lower level course as upper level that came from a school with a strange numbering system. I really like Excelsior, but it is not a good idea to assume that mistakes won't be made in the additions to one's status report. I regard this kind of degree as involving a great deal of "do it yourself!" Then again, many kids in traditional B&M's who are not diligent about reading the catalog themselves are surprised to graduate late because they are missing some requirement or other that "noone told" them about, so perhaps that isn't unique to this process.

[auminer49r]

Originally Posted by mjno

Hey, auminer49r

I will be taking three tests on the same day,

MIS (dsst)
Intro to Computers (dsst)
Computer Appl (clep)

The only reason is that a lot of the information seems to overlap based on what I have read from past forum replies (thanks snazz) and it would will get me nine credits closer.

Thanks,
Mike

mjno, Good luck with those 3 tests. That's great that you are taking three in one day! That's what I call fast-tracking!!

Keep us posted!

[bawaybaway]

To answer some questions:

-MJNO - Yes I had it in writing. They cashed my check for graduation and I recieved my "Congratulations" letter telling me that my diploma would be on its way April 20th. But I wouldn't want a degree that I didn't really earn.

-They refunded my entire graduation fee and I won't have to pay it again to graduate. I did, however, have to pay for 2 more exams to earn the missing credits, so actually they didn't lose any money and I wasn't financially compensated.

-And Sindaena...I was diligent about checking and rechecking transcripts with every addition. I actually made a special trip to Albany last year to meet in person with an advisor. We sat together for over an hour reviewing my transcripts with a calculator and making an exact plan of how I'd finish my degree. It was complicated...I couldn't have figured it out on my own, and apparently we even messed up working together! You are lucky to have caught the mistakes in your situation...

Going to be letting my instacert membership go for awhile. Best to all. Onward and Upward! Inspite of everything, it is a great feeling to have finished college after so many years.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by mjno

but I would like to be enrolled before September before the changes that were coming in the Business degree program, (by the way thanks JoAnne), and she said its not a problem.

What changes? Never mind...duh. All I had to do was read...hee hee