On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 21:39:08 -0400, "JoJo"
wrote:

I just need to rant to anyone who will listen. I am 37 years old and a few
years ago decided it was time to go to college and get that oh-so important
piece of paper called a degree. I start off "easy" - two year community
college, get my associates in three years (keep in mind work full time). I
took three courses a semester and had time to use facilities, breath, maybe
read a little something enjoyable.

Well "half" a degree isn't good enough, we know in order to go anywhere we
need the BS degree - the one I fondly call the bullsh*t degree. I tried
Penn State - too much for traditional students as half the courses I needed
were offered during the day - did I mention I work? Full time? So after a
semester there and some course that tells me Barbie was/is a pop icon (I'm
still scratching my head what the hell Barbie has to do w/business degree)
we move on. Ok, fine we need to find a college that will work with adults.

Enter University of Phoenix. Classes are five weeks long, no more than 10
hours of homework, built for working adults, team work as well so work is
"split". Sounds good to me, where do I sign?

Problem one - one five weeks into the next no breaks.

Problem two - I have yet to have less than 10 hours of homework, and I'm
almost finished....what happened to working adults? That does not include
time to READ - which I can't find the time to do (did I mention I work for a
living???)

Problem three - learning teams - the worst concept to ever come to life. In
theory it sounds good, in reality - oh boy. I didn't know colleges
permitted illiterate (or borderline illiterate) into school - guess I was
wrong. No writing, math or reading tests are required - should have heard
warning bells, but didn't. So here I am in a team of four - two of us
having the ability to write fairly well. Maybe punctuation or grammer is
off a bit, but for most part legible. Then there are the others. One tries
to impress by using large words, so by the time he gets thru constructing a
sentence, the meaning is gone. But his stuff is fairly understandable. The
last team member - how in the hell this woman got out of high school blows
my mind. She cannot even put a simple sentence together, I had no clue what
her point was, nothing made sense. So it is up to me to put paper together
and clean up this mess of a paper so my grade is not affected by the poor
work of others. Those two finally quit, got another one - woman of God
don't ya know. Three issues with this one - of course she can't write,
second she sends me religious emails which I find presumptious of her - I
don't send her things that would cause her hair to curl, so don't send me
religious emails. And lastly and most important, she does not like
cats!!!!!! Now I realize that most colleges probably have their share of
illiterates, but they are responsible for their own grade, in a team, their
poor work reflects on the entire team.

As time has gone on I have gotten more verbal in my complaints to employees
of UOP. Starting a new class this week, guy eats/sleeps/breaths UOP - well
boy did I get off on the wrong foot. Explained problems with first
assignment, course is waste of my time (intro to computers and info systems,
been thru this at two other colleges but they say I have to take it as it is
different - just like the algebra class at Penn State was different than the
one at my community college (same thing). He tells me I should find a
college that is willing to cater to my whims - of course that just ticks me
off even more - so I sent him a sarcastically polite email about what is
wrong w/UOP and my very valid reasons why. And do I need to point out that
I am a PAYING customer, therefore the customer is "always" right - he is my
employee, I am not some meek little high school student forced to sit there
and take whatever they dish out. I am empowered now being the "adult"
(haha) that I am.

So I'm crabby today, not only do the staff and teachers not give two hoots
about me, but I just spent FIVE hours doing the TEAM assignment - this does
NOT include the FOUR hours I spent on my own paper over the weekend. Plus I
have work, you know stuff I am paid to do, up to my eyeballs. I no longer
have time to relax let alone read. If dust were a commodity I'd be rich -
who has the time to clean?

So I am a little stressed at the moment and just needed to go on one heck of
a rant.

So my overall question(s)
1. Why in the hell am I doing this?????
2. What exactly is the degree in? I'm beginning to think insanity,
although they tell me it's bachelors in business management
3. From insanity, exactly how far away is one from blithering idiot?
(at least I'll be a blithering idiot with a degree and house full of cats).

So please, forgive my long-winded rant. I needed an outlet and decided this
was as good as any. Plus I have something else on my agenda - if anyone
even entertains the idea of going to UOP - DON'T DO IT! I don't even have a
family (real - meaning kids), I have no clue how others can do it. I would
really like to start my own newsgroup on the pitfalls of UOP.

Thank you for listening. I'm going to settle my fur back down now.

Just think! When you are finally though all this you will have a
"BS" degree (you already know what THAT means). Then you can get
an "MS" (more of the same) After that a "PHD" (piled higher and
deeper. All it takes is giving up your whole life.

I kind of like this little quote:
"Mountains viewed from a distance seem insurmountable.
But they can be climbed.
All you have to do is take the first step."

And you have done that. Good luck. MLB