My friend Ro told me something last night that made me really take a step back and think about what I’m doing right now. “What you are experiencing,” She said, “is not the reputation of the college, but the culture of the college.”
Let me go back.
You may remember my teacher who said, “don’t bother Googling it, you won’t find any real information…the right wing think tanks spend all their time putting skewed information online.”
You might also have heard this same teacher said, “but we all know the problem of giving government money to the poor – you have to control the breeding.”
It’s also impossible to work ahead or be prepared in almost any of my classes because most of my teachers have tossed the syllabus out the window. In one class we have only referenced the almost $200 book one time. Everything else is based on in-class information.
Or there is always the registration process where no one told me that to remain in the honors program I had to take an honors class every semester. I found that out online. Then I tried to talk to the pre-law advisor and it was a difficult and unrewarding process that led to me getting referred – via email – to the student pre-law association. I was okay with this because I had an appointment scheduled with my academic advisor – the head of the Economics department – and felt great about it. She chose the time and day, I talked to my teacher and missed a class to go and wait…and wait…in front of her office…I called the office and heard the phone ring…I emailed… Finally, I just left to catch the train.
I received an email an hour later with a quick apology and explanation that she couldn’t meet me because her Dean needed to have a meeting with her about summer school. Of course, my cell phone number is at the bottom of every one of my emails. She could have called me instead of leaving me waiting. I rescheduled and told her it would have to be a different time because I’m not missing another class. She responds back I should never have missed a class for a meeting.
Because that was the problem, obviously.
I’m going to give her another try on Thursday. I’m not pleased with the reschedule because I’ll have to be on an even more crowded train than usual on the day of my girls’ open house.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some great and useful information during the meeting. Otherwise, I will be attending an advising appointment on Friday at another college both closer to home and much, much less expensive.
Paying for filet and getting hamburger is not my idea of a smart financial decision. I’d rather just get a hamburger and pay for a hamburger and make sure I get as much as I can out of my hamburger experience.
What do you think shows the culture of a college?
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