Sunday, October 23, 2011

Now this dude is PISSED (by anon)

The University is trying to screw me out of credits I should be receiving and giving me a big middle finger as their excuse. At the end of the spring semester last year, I applied for and received a graphic design internship through a design company in Madison. Before I was officially part of their team, I emailed the internship coordinator to request academic credit for completing this internship. Two weeks later, still no word from him. I figured hey, he probably is just taking some time off being as the semester just ended, no big deal, I'll just work things out when he finally gets back to me and continue on my internship in the mean time. I sent him a filled out form for my internship as well as had my boss for the internship call and leave a voicemail for my adviser; I figured this was enough to have myself covered. So I began working on my internship. I designed their website as well their iPad application to go along with it. Over the course of the two months, I put in around 120 hours into the internship. Finally, about 3 weeks later (that's 5 weeks total since I emailed the coordinator the internship form), I receive an email from  him redirecting me to a different internship coordinator. He emails me back saying that internships must be preapproved by the department; otherwise they would not be applicable. Thanks a lot jackass.

While the experience I earned was enough to keep me going to finish the internship, it was an unpaid gig; I was doing this for the credit I should have received. Fast forward a little bit to before the start of this semester. I email my adviser asking that I be allowed a chance to test out of MAGD 270 - Web Development. He told me he would look into it, that it had not been done before. Eventually he tells me since it is a core class, I would not be able to test out if it. Fine, whatever. After the first class period was over and I see that this course was designed for absolute beginners in web development and that I would be wasting my time here, I appeal to my professor to let me test out of this course. Eventually after showing him that I have quite a good deal of knowledge and experience in this subject as well as showing him examples of websites I have created both for my job as well as personal projects, he finds me a way out of the class. Great right? Well, not quite. He tells me that I can get a waiver for the class, but I would receive ZERO credits for the class and would have to take another class (in this major) to replace it. This doesn't make sense in the slightest to me. I know the material, give me a waiver for the class and I have enough credits in other subjects that it shouldn't be an issue. But the University instead says fuck you, we want your money and you need to take even more classes so we can have it.

So I decide to suck it up and I will get my job on campus (in which I am doing EXACTLY what my major is, at a pretty professional level) to apply for internship credits to replace the ones I should have received for MAGD 270; no big deal. Wrong again. I go to my internship coordinator again and request that I be allowed to use my job for internship credit. He then tells me that I have to do my internship at a job off-campus for god knows what reason. I explain to him that I ALREADY FUCKING HAVE done an internship off-campus but I wasn't allowed to get credit for that either. Still no go.

Honestly at this point, I feel as if I am being punished for trying to get ahead of my peers and I can't get credit for anything I try to do, even though everything has been directly related to my major. And this is all forgetting the fact that myself and numerous others in my program have learned absolutely nothing in the classes that are supposed to be training us for our future careers. We learn the most basic concepts that could be learned in a few hours on the internet. I honestly feel as if though I would be more prepared for my career if I would have not gone to college at all and taught myself. I would have saved myself from spending $28,000 on tuition and from the headache that these people are causing me.

My argument is this: The university's main function is to educate its students and to prepare them for their careers; and they are failing. One of their core missions is as stated: "The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is committed to the development of the individual, the growth of personal and professional integrity and respect for diversity and global perspectives. These are met by providing academic and co-curricular programs that emphasize the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and a commitment to service within a safe and secure environment." How am I supposed to be furthering my education when the university, who is supposed to be helping and encouraging me, doesn't give me worthwhile classes, doesn't give me any recognition for my attempts to gain experience outside the classroom, and doesn't seem to care? And they have the stones to mention integrity.  In conclusion, fuck this place. I wish I would have known in advance that I would learn absolutely nothing here and that all they care about is keeping me enrolled as long as possible to give them every dime they can grab.

4 comments:

  1. So sorry, but I am not surprised. This is a B level institution with incompetent people in key positions. A large number of the faculty and administrators here could not make the cut at a more selective institution. Sorry Charlie!

    If I were a high school student contemplating the choice of a college this institution would not even make my list of back up schools. I told my neighbor to not under any circumstances send her children to Whitewater. Many students like you do not know how bad it is until they get here and get fucked over, then it may be too late.

    The administration, including faculty, for example, knows that the general education and core courses suck, and yet they have not done a damn thing about it, except establishing a general education blog to chat among themselves while the Titanic continues to sink but this is a B level university.

    My advice to good students is do not come here period, and if you have to, then get your grades up and get the hell out, transfer to a more selective institution ASAP. You will thank me for this advice later.

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  2. Wow that sucks. I havent been fucked like you but I am generally disguested with this place on almost all factors. I'll be leave ASPA with my effortlessly high grades.
    Great people leave to greater places and shity people stay in shity places. Thats why shity places in the world generally stay shity and great places generally get greater.
    That was not an arguement just a rule of thumb.

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  3. 8:22 - that has to be one of the most thoughtless comments I've ever seen on this blog. I'm really scared if you're actually getting high grades at UWW because you obviously can't spell the word "shitty", nor have you developed any skills whatsoever when it comes to writing sentences that are grammatically correct.
    What's wrong with you? I really hope that your comment was not genuine/real, otherwise UWW really IS in deep shit.
    Anyway, if you really think it is just a "rule of thumb" about shitty places staying shitty and all that nonsense, well, you're an idiot..
    You make ridiculous generalizations and you think you somehow "know" the world. Why do you not seem to think that great people can be part of "shitty" places, and thus play a role in making those places better? And how do you define "great" and "shitty" anyway when it comes to people or places? Are you God or something?

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  4. I've found that a lot of people at this university seem to have a problem responding to emails in a timely matter, or even at all. My advisor last year ignored a question I sent him 5 times over the coarse of 3 months. I emailed a professor 3 weeks ago asking about an assignment and they got back to me yesterday, a full two weeks after the paper was due. I think they should have given you credit for your internship, because you did your part, and just because someone else failed to do their job in a timely matter doesn't mean you should be held accountable.

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