Well.

Here's the deal: I didn't actually graduate college...yet. July 23rd was the last day of classes. I passed all of my classes, fulfilling all of my degree requirements, save one, the minimum credit total of 120. I have 118 credits. Apparently, you are able to meet all of the degree requirements(where it says take this many science credits and this many english credits and so forth) without meeting the overall total credit amount. So here I am, thinking I graduated because when I spoke with the academic advising office back in February we determined that I had only 16 credits worth of classes left to take. Which I took, and passed them all. Now they have told me I can't graduate without the other 2 credits to reach the 120 total. I've had a few days to think about this, and make some contact with people at the school, and I was inclined to acquiesce; I'll just do an online class and call it good. But, as I began looking through the online classes and wasn't finding anything of interest, except an english class that is different than my intro english class I took a few years ago, but is similar enough in the system that it'd be a repeat for me and wouldn't do the job, and an art class which you have to be an art major to take; eventually, and I mean eventually - the registration system is horrific - I settled on a communications class about the media and society. It sounds like more work than I'm interested in, but I guess its about time I do some work for my college degree. Interpret that how you want. I added the comms class and then went over to the finances tab of my student home page to find out how much this was going to cost me (it would be $200 more if they didn't waive the student insurance for me, which they did and I am indeed appreciative for that), I thought maybe $300 at the most, as a full semester (12 credits) is only $1800. It is going to cost me $840 for one class. So that made me annoyed and my acquiescent attitude developed some road rage. I clicked over on the financial aid page and found that I earned a school scholarship for next semester for good grades. This might seem like good news, but I'll explain why it isn't (on the surface it isn't because the minimum credit load to fully qualify for the aid is 14, and I'm not taking 14 online classes). The school does a nice thing where if you get a certain GPA or better, depending on your accomplished credits, you can get full, half or quarter tuition paid for right off the bat from the school. Why is this frustrating to me? I took three classes at the community college a year before I decided to go to this full-time university. I was taking the three community college classes while working full-time. I hated it. I never wanted to go to college, but I thought it would help me make better money. I didn't like the college classes so I stopped going to one and failed it (I didn't think I'd ever go to school again so I didn't see any need to withdraw or whatever. I didn't see the future consequences. Frankly, I didn't care to look). Another class I continued to go to, but didn't do a single assignment after mid-term and passed with a solid C. My friend Joe, who did all of the work including the final paper (which I didn't do!) had a C- for the class. Go figure. That grading fiasco reinforced my declaration that college was a waste of time and ineffective. My third class was an online class which I did enjoy a bit, I received an A (but somehow when transferred to my university it shows up in my transcript as a B. I never argued it, probably should have). What this amounts to is that regardless of what my GPA was at the university it was never high enough for those scholastic achievement scholarships. Even though my university GPA was always well above the limit for the full scholarship, I never received it because my cumulative GPA, with the community college credits factored in, was always a point or two below the lowest limit for even the quarter tuition. Until now. The semester after I supposedly graduated I am now qualified for scholastic achievement assistance to the tune of...wait for it! $840. Well that's perfect, right? That's how much this one online class is going to cost me. Except that the assistance only comes through if I am enrolled in 14 credits. I finally am eligible for the tuition assistance and I'm not even going to school anymore. Except I am, just not enough. I think I'll send some e-mails and maybe if I bother the right person, or enough of the wrong people, we can work something out. I'm willing to accept responsibility for my oversight in this matter, but I don't think I'm the only one responsible. Perhaps I put too much trust in an institution. Mulder was right, don't trust anyone. I think I'll go do some more yard work.