Tuesday, August 14, 2012

(the rant of) graduate school

So I'm sure you all saw my post from last Monday about just graduating and were like what the heck? (Or you just ignored it). Anyway, now that the dust has settled a little, I can explain without tearing up out of frustration. Now, where to begin?
I knew when I graduated from Mississippi State that I didn't want to attend grad school there. I needed to be closer to Justin and be able to work at Horne during the experience. So that left me with two options: Mississippi College or Millsaps. Though Dad used to work at Millsaps, it was just too expensive and, frankly, it looked too difficult. So MC it was. And I was excited. A new school, a good Christian university, this has to be a good experience, right? Wrong.
It all started when they put me in the wrong major. Well, that should have been a flag there. But I understand that paperwork gets messed up. It happens. But then when they lost my tuition payment, I started to get a little worried. Maybe these people don't have it all together... But the lady who found it (thank goodness) was super helpful and apologetic, so no worries. Made a B+ in the summer class, and looked forward to next semester. The only hurdle was the GMAT, and I made just high enough a score to not worry about it. Then came registration for fall. The MBA program at MC is geared towards full time working professionals, and so the entire process should be no-nonsense easy. Well shoot, it's not. First off, I couldn't get my PIN because of my adviser was on vacation. Seriously? During registration? Anyway, I got over that and eventually got it from his secretary. Then when I tried to sign up for my required courses, two were already full (awe hell) and the other two I needed stated I couldn't sign up because of a prerequisite. So I called. The women told me I should have gotten a letter stating that I needed such and such classes to continue. No such letter ever dawned my doorstep. By now, it's Tuesday in Clarksdale, and my stress level is taking on physical manifestations. So deep breathes. I email my adviser on the off chance he'll answer. And to my amazement, he does. And proceeds to explain to me that I need to take 6 undergraduate courses in order to get into the classes I need. And what's funny is they are the same courses that I took my senior year at MSU. The evil side of me wanted to email him back, and ask him how the heck I graduated from MSU with an accounting degree without taking these courses, but something held me back (thankfully). Eventually I got to where I signed up for (some of) my needed classes. Okay, good, classes are finished and now I can focus on financial aid. 
Well they took it to a whole other level there... So during the Spring, while I was preparing for the marvelous adventure of Graduate School, I applied for a scholarship through Broadmoor to help with the costs. I absolutely REFUSE to take out student loans, so figuring out how to pay for tuition became an obsession. Anyway, I received the scholarship of $500 a semseter from the church which is then supposedly going to be matched by MC. Little did I (we, as in Broadmoor) know that MC won't match graduate scholarships. That was the final answer I got. The first answer was that graduate students aren't allowed scholarships. Excuse me? I know very well that there is an MBA scholarship given to students by the school. When I brought this fact up to the lady on the phone, she proceeded to apologize and hang up. Seriously? Anyway. Needless to say, I am not getting my other half of the scholarship (even though there is NO WHERE on the website where that is written).  And even my MPACT money didn't go as far as it did at MSU. So we paid more than we thought they had to. And to be honest, we still never got a straight answer about the whole matching scholarship ordeal. I understand that this is a new school and things were going to be difficult at first, but MC is not really meeting my expectations as a friendly, Christian university. Oh well. I just paid tuition Sunday, and am hoping that they do not lose this amount of money like they did last time (especially since it's three times the amount), but I'm not holding my breathe. 
But anyway, classes start next week I think. I'm enrolled in three, and ordered my books Sunday. I'm going to try to go into this with a clear head and open mind. We'll see... (prayers are requested). 

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