School is for the young

WARNING!!!! Before you sit down and read this, get something to drink and maybe even a snack, this is a long one. ENJOY!!!!!!

Many of you may disagree with that statement but hear me out. Trying to start college after being out of school for 10 years and being an adult, not pretending to be an adult. But actually having to deal with life with out parents protecting you is frustrating. First I filled out an application online and on the application they give you an option to opt out of putting your social security number on the application, so I did. I don't just throw my social security number out there into cyber space on a whim. I figured if they offered that option then it wasn't a big deal. Well let me tell you......it was the worst thing I could of done, it damn near took an act of congress to get it added to my file. So then I because I opted out of that my scores for my placement test were not on the new file that they made for me so I had to somehow get my scores from one file to another. Sounds like it would be simple, well in the world of the admissions office nothing is simple. There is paperwork that has to be filled out and will take 6 weeks to process but to do that they need a copy of my social security card. I am not a organized person and so I don't have one at the moment because I know I would just lose it. So instead of following their long and drawn out process I have my very dear friend call the counseling office for me(because they are the ones who deal with the placement scores) and she proceeds to tell them that admissions messed up my file and that they said that my scores should be transferred from my old id number to my new one but that if it hadn't happened in a few days to call the counseling office and they could take care of it for me. Guess what. . . . with in 5 minutes it was all taken care of. Now it was just a waiting game to register for classes. Which by the way is the dumbest set up I have ever seen. Registration started on the 7th of July and I was able to register on the 18th. Can you guess the amount of choices I had. I ended up getting the math class that I have to take but really not looking forward to and had to wait list for the psychology class and sociology class I wanted. So now I am constantly checking to see if I have moved up on any of the wait list and after a few weeks I end up getting my Psych class, which I am stoked about but I probably won't get the sociology class so I decide to add political science. So I wait a few more weeks for the books to be posted. The list wasn't posted until the 9th of august and classes start on the 25th bu people using financial aid are not allowed to buy theirs until the 18th. For me that is cutting it kinda close. Well I decide to just buy mine at a online used bookstore because it was cheaper than buying them through the school. So i am able to buy my political science and my psychology book but I cant buy the math book anywhere but from the college because they actually write the math book. So i go online and look for it and it says it out of stock so Sara calls the school bookstore to find out when it will be in and how much it will cost. Well its only gonna cost 140 bucks, only are they crazy, 140 bucks for a book that I am dreading. They are high but anyway, then they tell her that its not due to come in until the 21st of august and they can't guarantee that it will actually get there on that day. So all I can say is " thank you San Diego Community college book store for being on top of it and making life that much easier.....NOT". So now I am just waiting to see if financial aid is gonna give me any money to help with school costs. So I call to check on my application and they tell me because I failed to mark 1 box on my application that they hadn't processed it yet. 1 box asking if I would have a diploma before I started the semester. Now they sent me reminders that I needed to bring in some form of verification of high school graduation, which I did 2 weeks prior to talking to them but never did I received anything saying I missed a box and I need to answer that one question. Its gotta be a common error because they ask like 300 questions. Irrelevant questions if you ask me like...... What is the highest level of education that my mother completed, personally I like to use this standard answer NOYDB (None Of Your Damn Business) but they for some reason didn't have that as a choice. I'm surprised they didn't ask my bra size and color of underwear. So I went online and fixed that one question and now I am back to playing the waiting game. But Sara's husband got his financial aid award letter today and they awarded him a nice piece of paper that told him that he made too much money. So in other words he made just enough not to qualify for there help because programs like this are not made to help most people and I am just gonna leave it at that because that is another rant that I could go on about and I don't want to offend anyone with my personal views. So because our family's have almost the same income I have no hope of getting financial aid unless I somehow slip through the cracks, which we can only hope for. So all in all this has been one nightmare after another and not just for me. Obviously my luck has rubbed off on Sara who made the Deans list last semester because she pulled a 4.0. But financial aid has put her on academic probation because last winter she had taken to classes and dropped them because winter term is only 4 or 6 weeks long, and a normal semester is 16 weeks long so its like taking a class in fast forward and with the husbands gone it was almost impossible for her to keep up with school work and her children. but she retook both classes and got an A in them both. So because of that she has lost her financial aid for a full year. She is attempting to appeal it but this school isn't very timely with anything. It just seems stupid that you can be put on academic probation and pull a 4.0. So now that is why I say school is for the young because the young are naive enough to put up with all this crap without putting up a fight and us older people don't put up with anyone's shit. The one thing I have learned over time is to hear someone out before you attempt to respond to them because sometimes when crabby old bitches that work in the admissions office don't take a minute to listen to what you have to say they can in turn make the problem much worse than it was. So instead of telling me that you know what you are doing because you have worked here a long time in the snottiest tone you could muster, you should just listen to a person and give them the respect that you want in return because I am 30 years old and my mama raised me to have manners and to treat people with respect and I follow that rule always............well that is until you piss me off and then only the lord can help you. So if you are a crotchety old hag that works in an admissions office for so long that you know everything including how to read peoples mind, then just maybe you should get a life and find a job that suits you better, like a grave digger or a you could work at the DMV where people expect that behavior. Ok I went off on a little rant there, I am done now. I just want to let everyone know that I kept my cool but still managed to finally get my point across to someone who would listen(not the wicked witch of the SDCCD admissions office) with the help of Sara. Thanks Sara!!!